Buckler shields - need feedback

[Pehu]

Hello All,

Buckler shields have been quite abundant in all my campaings (I guess players dont want to buy them a lot but last night I happened to roll a random treasure and tadaa... there was a +3 buckler shield.

We ran into a band of orcs, whom happened to use bows in their primary attack form. The player who had the buckler +3 stated, that the sield would grant +4 AC against missile attacks (when 6 orcs were targeting him with with their bows).

Now, to me there is a problem. The rules in PHB don't say anything about bucklers except that they give +1 AC bonus. If I recall from AD&D 2nd edition, the bucler was not that effective against all attacks.

So I am asking what do other people rule in their games for bucklers?

I contemplated the issue a bit and came into this conclusion:

- Bucklers are +1AC in melee only
- Bucklers provide no protection against missile attacks

All feedback is appreciated.

Yours,

Pekka
Finland

 

[shilsen]

Your conclusions are house rules. I use bucklers as written in 3e, i.e. they provide the same AC bonus against melee and ranged attacks.

 

[Eternalknight]

Buckers - need feedback

Well, Dragon 304 had some good rules on mounted com... oh, you meant bucklers, not buckers

 

[Gort]

Under 3rd ed rules, bucklers are just more expensive small shields that you can use a weapon on the same arm with a -1 penalty with.

Here's a question: How do they work with 2 handed weapons?

-1 penalty, or not allowed, or what?

 

[Destil]

Under 3rd ed rules, bucklers are just more expensive small shields that you can use a weapon on the same arm with a -1 penalty with.

Here's a question: How do they work with 2 handed weapons?

-1 penalty, or not allowed, or what?

No penelity, no AC bonus when you use the 2-handed weapon, though.

 

[Felix]

Destil
No penelity, no AC bonus when you use the 2-handed weapon, though.

The feat Off Hand Parry in Masters of the Wild allows you to gain a +2 dodge bonus when using a light off hand weapon. All attacks are modified as if you were attacking with two weapons. The bonus from a buckler stacks with this.

So:
Rogue with longsword and shortsword, Masterwork buckler on off hand. He can attack with both weapons (and not have any bonus to AC from the buckler) with all of his attacks at -2 (assume TWF & Amb).

He can attack with only longsword at his full attack bonus and gain the buckler bonus to AC.

He can attack with only longsword at -2 to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC as well as the AC bonus from the buckler.



While this feat isn't terribly powerful, it does add some versatility in your choices for TWF. I'm writing up a pirate captain (using Song and Silence Dread Pirate PrC) with this combat style in mind. Going for the Main Gauche pinache.