How Would You Change This Feat: Agile Shield Defence

[FireLance]

Agile Shield Defence (General)

Prerequisite: Dex 13, Shield Proficiency

Benefit: If you are using a shield, on your turn, before taking any other actions for the round, you may choose to increase your shield bonus to AC by your Dexterity bonus instead of applying your Dexterity bonus to your AC. The increase to your shield bonus is not limited by the maximum Dexterity bonus for your armor, but it is limited by the maximum Dexterity bonus for your shield (if any). The changes to your AC last until your next action.

Special: A fighter may select Agile Shield Defence as one of his fighter bonus feats.​

Essentially, this feat allows a high-Dexterity character to get the full benefit of his Dexterity bonus even when wearing heavy armor, but he will have to sacrifice some touch AC to do so.

Would you allow this feat as is? If not, how would you change this feat?

 

[Darklone]

Looks good to me... but pretty strong for a char with Dex 20 and full plate mail. Elven fighters would love it. Limit the bonus somehow.

 

[starwed]

I can't say from looking at it how I feel. But it lets you get a pretty big boost in AC for not that huge a penalty.

Now, one thing to consider is that it does tie you to using a shield, and therefore a 1-handed weapon.

Hmmm...

on your turn, before taking any other actions for the round...
...The changes to your AC last until your next action.

Which would be the first action of your current turn? As the feat is currently worded, the AC bonus lasts no time at all.
[/nitpick]

 

[BRP2]

Give Prerequisite Dodge and have it take its place(and work the same way) I'd say.

 

[FireLance]

Looks good to me... but pretty strong for a char with Dex 20 and full plate mail. Elven fighters would love it. Limit the bonus somehow.

One possibility I just thought of is to cap it at the shield's shield bonus. This limits it to +2 at low levels for a heavy shield, but allows it to go all the way to +7 for a +5 heavy shield.

 

[FireLance]

Which would be the first action of your current turn? As the feat is currently worded, the AC bonus lasts no time at all.
[/nitpick]

Good catch. It was probably a cut and paste from Combat Expertise or Power Attack. Until the start of your next turn, then.

 

[Nifft]

I like BRP2's Dodge limitation.

Expert Shield Defense
Prereqs: Shield proficiency, Dodge, BAB 6+
Benefit: Against your designated Dodge opponent, you may elect to add your Dex modifier to your Shield bonus. In exchange, you do not gain a Shield bonus against any other foes. You make this decision when you designate your Dodge opponent.


A guy with this would be BRUTAL in a tourney.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nifft]

Agile Shield Defence (General)

Prerequisite: Dex 13, Shield Proficiency

Benefit: If you are using a shield, on your turn, before taking any other actions for the round, you may choose to increase your shield bonus to AC by your Dexterity bonus instead of applying your Dexterity bonus to your AC. The increase to your shield bonus is not limited by the maximum Dexterity bonus for your armor, but it is limited by the maximum Dexterity bonus for your shield (if any). The changes to your AC last until your next action.

Special: A fighter may select Agile Shield Defence as one of his fighter bonus feats.​

Would you allow this feat as is? If not, how would you change this feat?

Actually, I like your feat as-is. It makes Half-Plate far less stupid.

You might allow a PC to split up his Dex bonus so he can keep the +1 that Fullplate allows, because Dex bonus is typically better than Shield bonus, and he is paying a feat.

With a feat like this in the game, one might see people using more armor when they didn't expect to be fighting Wizards (though spellcasters become that much more frightening).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

You might allow a PC to split up his Dex bonus so he can keep the +1 that Fullplate allows, because Dex bonus is typically better than Shield bonus, and he is paying a feat.

I like this addition. Overall this is a feat that restores some of the balance between shields and 2-handed weapons with power attack. Flavor-wise, I can see Elves wearing full plate now (like the LotR movie) but Half-Orcs and Dwarves will still prefer power attacking with 2-handed weapons.

From a combat simulation perspective, I would call this an active shield defence instead of the default passive shield defence. An active shield defence involves intercepting your opponent's weapons with your shield—which is how a buckler works. A passive shield defence involves rotating the shield up and down and side to side keeping the shield parallel to the body. Active shield defence gets tiring very fast as the weight of the shield goes up. For the game, I would require a Str of 12 for light shields, Str 14 for heavy shields, and Str 18 for for tower shields. This also addresses the game balance issue of allowing tower shields with this feat.

 

[Griffith Dragonlake]

Non-feat alternative

There is also a non-feat alternative to this:

Active Shields
An active shield is a shield which has a large metal boss (Latin umbo) in the centre. This shield boss allows the wielder to actively engage an opponent with the shield rather than passively reacting to an attack. Historical active shields include the buckler, the Viking/Saxon Large Round shield, and the Roman Scutum. Buckler requires a Str of 10, Light active shields Str 12, Heavy active shields Str 14, Heavy Scutum Str 16, and an Active tower shield requires a Str of 18. The benefit of using an active shield is that the remaining dex bonus after accounting for armour becomes a shield bonus. The drawback is that using an Active shield counts as a secondary weapon and the normal 2-weapon fighting rules apply. Active shields which have been sundered are treated as bucklers. Wooden active shields which have been wood warped are treated as bucklers.

Scutum, heavy
Provides a +3 shield bonus, Max dex bonus +3, Armour check penalty -6, Arcane spell failure 30%, Weight 30 lbs. A heavy scutum may be used as an active shield.