Animated Shield and Bows.

[Jhulae]

If my character has an animated shield, does it add its shield bonus to her AC while she's firing a bow?

Thanks.

 

[Kat']

Sure. Why wouldn't it?

 

[Jhulae]

I assumed it would, but people here find so many obscure and crazy rules in the books, I wanted to make sure.

 

[moritheil]

I assumed it would, but people here find so many obscure and crazy rules in the books, I wanted to make sure.

You make it sound like there's something wrong with that! I find the best way to think about it is the world has different rules, so there's no reason what makes sense there should make sense here (and vice versa.)

 

[Jhulae]

Hehe.. Well, there's nothing wrong with finding all the obscure rules and such.

I was just making up a new PC archer and just wanted to make sure there wasn't going to be any surprise that my DM might pull out about animated shields after I went through all the work of making her.

 

[Rath the Brown]

Just remember, your character will still take any Armor Check, nonproficiency, or other penalties of using a shield, just as if you were using it normally.

 

[Kat']

Yup. Though it's completely illogical. I mean, what's the logic in suffering the Armor Check Penalty of a shield that's FREAKIN' FLYING A YARD AWAY FROM ME???

BTW, I think you're better off taking the Improved Buckler Defense feat and using a buckler. Better cost/benefit ratio. +1 Animated Tower Shield: +5 AC, -2 attack rolls, -9 ACP, Dex limit; compare to +4 buckler: +5 AC, no penalty, no ACP, no dex limit.

 

[Ferrum]

Yup. Though it's completely illogical. I mean, what's the logic in suffering the Armor Check Penalty of a shield that's FREAKIN' FLYING A YARD AWAY FROM ME???

BTW, I think you're better off taking the Improved Buckler Defense feat and using a buckler. Better cost/benefit ratio. +1 Animated Tower Shield: +5 AC, -2 attack rolls, -9 ACP, Dex limit; compare to +4 buckler: +5 AC, no penalty, no ACP, no dex limit.

Who would animate a tower shield? I'm smelling a ranger or maybe a scout here, and they're not even proficient in tower shields.

A +1 animated heavy wood/steel shield would give +3 ac, -2 ACP, no dex limit, and doesn't eat up a feat. The player could then take dodge, and have the same AC (slightly better in many cases) as a +3 buckler with imp buckler defense.

 

[Kat']

A +1 animated shield is a +4 item. For the same price (give or take the few GP difference in the base item's price), he'd get a +4 buckler. Not +3. And there's still the ACP.

 

[Ferrum]

A +1 animated shield is a +4 item. For the same price (give or take the few GP difference in the base item's price), he'd get a +4 buckler. Not +3. And there's still the ACP.

Actually, no, a +1 animated shield is a +3 item. Animated is a +2 price modifier.

Also, Looking at Improved Buckler Defense, it says:

When you attack with a weapon in your offhand, you may still apply your buckler's shield bonus to your Armor Class.

Some DMs might not count attacking with a two handed weapon as attacking with a weapon in your off hand.

The player could take Shield Specialization with the animated shield and get the same AC bonus, and I don't see any semantic hang-ups there. That, and Shield Ward is an awesome follow-up to the Shield Specialization feat.

Besides, animated shields are just cool.