How to price a masterwork banjo buckler?

[Quidam]

So I'm going over Monte's bard from S&SOP, converting an NPC from the old bard to this one and I'm digging the proficiencies- glad he can still use his whip, when I get to the bit I hadn't noticed before. The bit where it says that as long as the armor check penalty did not exceed three, there was no chance of arcane spell failure for the bard. My eyebrows shot up and a crafty grin spread across my face.

So I've now got him decked out in mithril full plate- +8AC, +3Dex, -3ACk Penalty, 0% Arcane failure! Of course I want to add a shield- masterwork, of course so as not to add to the armor check penalty, and I'm thinking, but how can he play with his hands full like that?

Sure he can be reciting or something he doesn't need his hands for, but then it hit me- what about a shield that had strings in the back of it, allowing it to serve as both instrument and shield?

Now you're not adding a magical armor bonus, but using the item itself as a shield, but there's got to be some extra cost in creating such an item. If you want to go magical, though, you could add a +10 to perform checks for 2k, masterwork for 300, then an extra hundred or so for the unusual nature?

Banjo Buckler
+10 to perform, acts as masterwork buckler in addition to being an instrument.

2,400gp

That gets his AC up to 22. Of course, being a bard he's got a high charisma and I've maxed out his ranks in use magic device, so he'll be getting a wand of shield sometime soon.

q

 

[Speaks With Stone]

While I do admire creative solutions, I really can't stop grinning about this one. I just have images of bards from lots of different books, comics etc using a guitar as a club or shield and seeing it shatter as it cracks skulls or blocks an axe. It seems that such an item would either be a really cruddy instrument or a really cruddy shield. At the very least, give it a magical property to survive damage. This should cost something over and above the magic for the +10 to perform (or else use the same cost but provides no bonus to perform).

Have you considered a cymbal buckler?

 

[Pielorinho]

I agree -- while clever, this isn't real viable. A stringed instrument generally needs a resonating body to make any sound worth hearing. Your buckler is gonna be deflecting blows all the time. It's gonna get beat to hell and back, and after the first hit, it'll be making some mighty sour notes.

Have you considered makings some Boots of Tapping?

Daniel
now with a lovely mental image

 

[The Souljourner]

Here's what I would do - make it a medium shield +1 (has to be at least +1 enhancement - stupid rule, but it's there). Give it a special ability that it may be played as a stringed instrument of a given type and gives +10 check to perform when playing it. So call that another +1, for a total of +2. No big deal. It's a shield. It's an instrument. It's an instrument *and* a shield.

It's magic, it doesn't have to follow physics.

-The Souljourner

 

[Pielorinho]

Doing it magically sounds more acceptable. Still, I like the image of a full-plated bard tapping and singing his way through battle.

Daniel

 

[Quidam]

Ok, ok, I thought of that, too

I was picturing it being designed with that taken into consideration- extra hardness was what I was picturing. Mayhap make it mithril? (say it repeatedly quickly) I think making it magical- aside from the bonus to the perform check- makes sense, though I was hoping to keep the cost down. And an extra +1 to AC's not to be sneered at, though.

You can also get pretty creative with the type of instrument- you've seen those finger pianos with the metal strips you pluck?

 

[Speaks With Stone]

"Still, I like the image of a full-plated bard tapping and singing his way through battle."

Stop it. That image is going to cause me to chuckle at inappropriate times throughout the day. Next time we do a one off adventure, I am so making that bard. The rest of the party will be happy I'm there for the bonus, but will all be secretly planning my demise.