Magic Shield's "Bashing" Ability [Vetoed]

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Let's pretend I have a shield-bashing character. We'll call him "Shnasereit". Shnazh for short. Shnazh has Improved Shield Bash, so he can bash with a shield without losing his bonus to AC.

Shnazh has just come into a large sum of money, and he wants to buy a magical shield he can use to attack and defend. He could buy a +1 Light Spiked Shield of Bashing for 4000gp, which would do 1d8+1 damage and grant a +2 shield bonus to AC.

If Bashing was made into a weapon ability (lets call it Smashing, it just increases the damage die type), he could buy a +1 (weapon) +1 (armor) Light Spiked Shield of Smashing for 9000gp, which would do 1d8+1 damage and grant a +2 shield bonus to AC, just like the first shield. More than twice the price for the same product? That's dumb, Shnazh will definitely buy the first shield. But what if he wants to upgrade?

Let's say later Shnazh comes into a larger sum of money. He wants to upgrade his shield by increasing the attack bonus. To upgrade the first shield, he needs to spend 8000gp to add a +2 weapon bonus (up from +0). It's now a +2 (weapon) +1 (armor) Light Spiked Shield of Bashing valued at 12,000gp, that does 1d8+2 damage, grants a +2 enhancement bonus to attack rolls, and grants a +2 shield bonus to AC.

Had Shnazh purchased the second shield, he would need to spend 10,000gp to increase the weapon bonus to +3. It's now a +2 (weapon) +1 (armor) Light Spiked Shield of Smashing, valued at 19,000gp. It does the exact same thing as the upgraded first shield. The discrepancy is the same, 5000gp. Upping the armor bonus is cheaper on the Smashing Shield (+3000gp < +4000gp), but even then the total value of the Bashing Shield is still 4000gp cheaper.

Why would Shnazh ever get a Shield of Smashing? It's much more expensive, and money doesn't come often in LEW. If Smashing increased the damage die and gave a magical weapon enhancement bonus, then the +1 (weapon) +1 (armor) Light Spiked Shield of Smashing would do 1d8+2 damage and cost 9000gp. According to my proposed rule change, a +1 (weapon) +1 (armor) Shield of Bashing which did 1d8+2 damage would cost 10,000gp.

So what kind of weapon ability did you have in mind, Rystil?

 

[Rystil Arden]

So what kind of weapon ability did you have in mind, Rystil?

No, nothing fancy, just that one. I know exactly what you just said--did it all in my head. It is always worse, and that's what I had in mind.

Let me put it more bluntly--The Bashing Ability is underpriced for its value, particularly because the way weapon enhancements and armour enhancements work, things that enhance the attack capacity should be a weapon enhancement but even then it would be underpriced (two size increases + a +1 for the price of...a +1). I'm willing to accept this because it is RAW, but there's no way I'm going to make it even easier on the buyer like in your proposal

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Fair enough.

 

[Patlin]

I tend to have a lot of faith in RA's judgment on balance issues, and I won't go over the same ground again except to say I accept his points here as accurate.

Moreover, while I understand it changes the damage type from bludgeoning to piercing, I tend to believe adding and enchanting a shield spike is a lot cleaner than adding the bashing ability.

Finally, and most important to me, I'm concerned that modifying existing rules is potentially more confusing to Dms than adding supplemental rules. As much as I don't like the Bashing quality in the SRD, I'd rather a DM who missed reading this thread and who assumes he knows what "Bashing" does be correct.

I vote NO.