Can a Large creature weild a Tower shield?

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Isn't this easy to answer?

If a Large creature uses a tower shield made for a medium creature, they get less cover.

Think of it this way: if a human shelters behind a rock, how much cover do they get? Now if a hill giant were to shelter behind a rock, how much cover do they get?

The large creature could, of course, get a tower sheild scaled up for a large creature.

 

[Macbrea]

As to the fact that a Giants tower shield wieghs more. The answer to that is that they can carry far more then the normal people.


Quote to SRD
The figures on Table: Carrying Capacity are for Medium-size creatures. Larger creatures can carry more weight depending on size category: Large (X2), Huge (X4), Gargantuan (X8), and Colossal (X16). Smaller creatures can carry less weight depending on size category: Small (3/4), Tiny (1/2), Diminutive (1/4), and Fine (1/8).

So, doubling the wieght of their shield, which covers their entire body isn't that big of deal. If they choose to use an item which doesn't cover their full body then they get whatever cover would be provided by the item.


A 12ft giant behind a 6ft tall tower shield gains 1/2 cover. Why? Because it only covers half their body.

The giant 20ft giant standing behind a 10ft wall receives half cover but would end up immune to someone with a 5ft reach. Why? Because the person cannot reach the 10ft to get past the cover. This is a fact of reach. The giant can reach the person on the ground because he can reach the ground. The guy on the ground is going to need a polearm to fight back.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

If your opponent has to move more than 5' around the Tower Shield, he can't get iterative attacks, right?

You only need a 5'step to get around that tower shield.

 

[IanB]

You only need a 5'step to get around that tower shield.

Unless you're dealing with a creature with a 15' or greater Face, which is the situation we're discussing right now.

 

[Immortius]

A giant can't attack over a tower shield - in order to be a tower shield it has to be too tall.

When a human with a tower shield attacks, they have to move it to the side with the off-hand so they can strike with their weapon, giving themselves at most 9/10ths cover. A giant would have to do the same. This means a human could always 5' step around the shield unless the giant has gone defensive.

To be frank, If I was a giant and I had a tower shield I'ld just drop it over any silly humans who would try to kill me.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Unless you're dealing with a creature with a 15' or greater Face, which is the situation we're discussing right now.

Even a Titan, the biggest Giant in MM (afaik) stands only 25 feet tall, and has a Face of 10' by 10'.


You'll need a 40 feet tall Mountain Giant (MM2) for this one. And they're to stupid to conceive such a tactic. ;-)

 

[reapersaurus]

umm.. no.

As I detailed earlier, it wouldn't take a awkwardly-wide shield at all for a huge creature to weild a 15' wide shield.
It equates to less than a 4' wide shield for a human to carry, when factoring it up to Huge size, that would make a 16' wide shield.

It only makes sense that a bigger creature would get more bonuses to using shields, as it suggests in page 105 in the PHB's sidebar.

Otherwise, where's the game balance for Larger creatures? (It's also more realistic)
They would always just use 2-handed weapons and utilize their strength bonus.

 

[Someone]

One moment.

Suppose a Huge giant fights another Huge giant and uses a tower shield. Or just any type shield. He´s in the same situation as a human fighting another human, so the bonus should be the same.

But the same shield provides a higher bonus when the giant fights a human.

So the AC bonus is based on the size of the attacker?

Should a pixie wield a 10 feet-wide tower shield when fighting a storm giant?