How do tower shields work?

[Bhaal]

We had an interesting use of tower shields performed by a PC a while back.

He had a sorcerer who picked up the still spell feat and a tower shield. He then used the tower shield in combat and cast behind it (he usually tried for area spells so the cover wouldn't matter) using all his spells stilled. The drawback is obviously the fact that he doesn't use his highest level spells that often, but it actually worked pretty well. He would be a wrecking crew since foes basically had to land area effects or else close on him (usually giving plenty AoO's) in order to deal with him effectively. Also the idea of a little sorcerer poking his head from behind a giant portable wall to launch a spell is somewhat humorous.

 

[Tewligan]

Ugh. I found tower shields to be an enormous pain in the ass when I was running my campaign. True, we didn't have the FAQ at the time, which probably would have made it easier. However, I say that a shield that requires both a FAQ and a diagram to explain its use is too unwieldy. Boo to the tower shield!

 

[dcollins]

Ugh. I found tower shields to be an enormous pain in the ass when I was running my campaign. True, we didn't have the FAQ at the time, which probably would have made it easier. However, I say that a shield that requires both a FAQ and a diagram to explain its use is too unwieldy. Boo to the tower shield!

Actually, I'm in total agreement with that analysis.