Animated Bashing Shields

[Castlin]

How, exactly, does an animated bashing shield work? I guess it's pretty simple if the wielder is only using the shield and a one handed weapon. That would basically be two-weapon fighting, right? How would it work with a two-handed weapon, like a longspear? Or if the wielder was two-weapon fighting (two short swords and an animated bashing shield)? What about an intelligent animated bashing shield; could it attack on its own? I'm a little unclear on how many attacks the wielder would get in each of these situations and at what penalties. Any ideas?

Speaking of bashing shields, do spiked bashing shields do damage as if they were three size categories larger (two for bashing + one for spikes)?

 

[kreynolds]

How, exactly, does an animated bashing shield work?

For the sake of simplicity, you could just supress the bashing function while the shield is animated. If you don't wanna do that, then I would suggest requiring the use of a "hand" just like normal.