making shields better?
- Thread starter mhensley
- Start date
Jeff Wilder
First Post
The turtled-up defense-minded artificer in my campaign has gotten good use from Shield Specialization and Shield Ward. (Shield Ward allows you to apply your shield bonus to touch attacks.)
Herzog
Adventurer
Check out crystalkeep:
http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20
They have an entire pdf containing feats from various sources, and a whole section dedicated to Shield Feats.
More precise: the PH2 and Complete Warrior contain several shield feats.
http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20
They have an entire pdf containing feats from various sources, and a whole section dedicated to Shield Feats.
More precise: the PH2 and Complete Warrior contain several shield feats.
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
All good advice so far, especially checking out crystalkeep. Also look at this pdf for the Wall of Steel teamwork benefit, it's pretty nice to protect an ally. Granted, my last shield fighter dual wielded them, so I could regularly afford to lose the benefit of one of them.
http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Skills_Actions.pdf
Another good source is the Devoted Spirit discipline from Tome of Battle, available with feats or the Crusader class. There are two maneuvers of note, both immediate action counters. At level 2 (available to a level 3 Crusader or at level 6+ as a feat) is Shield Block, which lets you give your ally an AC bonus of (your shield's AC bonus) +4. It's quite a big help. Shield Counter is at level 7 (available at Crusader level 13) and lets you make an attack against the attacker. I think if you hit, you negate the attack, I need to check later.
http://www.crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Skills_Actions.pdf
Another good source is the Devoted Spirit discipline from Tome of Battle, available with feats or the Crusader class. There are two maneuvers of note, both immediate action counters. At level 2 (available to a level 3 Crusader or at level 6+ as a feat) is Shield Block, which lets you give your ally an AC bonus of (your shield's AC bonus) +4. It's quite a big help. Shield Counter is at level 7 (available at Crusader level 13) and lets you make an attack against the attacker. I think if you hit, you negate the attack, I need to check later.
mhensley
First Post
Very neat site, thanks!
After a little reading there, I think I would automatically grant this to all shield users-
Add your Shield bonus to AC to the following:
a) Touch AC; and
b) resisting Bull Rush, Disarm, Grapple, Overrun, & Trip attempts.
Last edited:
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Player: Awesome! I'll make a 2H weapon Fighter with the Improved Buckler Defense feat! Thanks for the help!
Instead of more power-inflation, the other option is to power-down two-handed weapons.
If you're using the 3.5 version of Power Attack (x2 for two-handed weapons), I would recommend ditching that (3.0 PA has no x2 rule).
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Fighters need the PA benefits to keep up with mages for damage. It also helps out some monsters (I allow it to give x2 on a natural weapon that adds 1.5x str).
I balanced Power Attack by making a normal use of it without the feat, much as you can Fight Defensively without taking CE. I allowed anyone to take a penalty equal to their BAB or less, max of -5, on attacks for the same bonus on damage. No benefit on light or off hand weapons and no extra bonus for using two hands. The PA feat then improves this, allowing no limit other than BAB on how much you can subtract, granting two-handed weapons the 2x bonus, and giving light/off hand weapons half the bonus (so a -4 attack penalty would give a +2 damage). If you further take Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting and use a one-handed weapon in the offhand, it gets a 1-for-1 rate, just like the main hand. This way, only people with TWF or fighting 2-handed bother with the feat, and one-handers (often with shields) can havethe option to trade accuracy for damage w/o spending a feat.
/threadjack
I balanced Power Attack by making a normal use of it without the feat, much as you can Fight Defensively without taking CE. I allowed anyone to take a penalty equal to their BAB or less, max of -5, on attacks for the same bonus on damage. No benefit on light or off hand weapons and no extra bonus for using two hands. The PA feat then improves this, allowing no limit other than BAB on how much you can subtract, granting two-handed weapons the 2x bonus, and giving light/off hand weapons half the bonus (so a -4 attack penalty would give a +2 damage). If you further take Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting and use a one-handed weapon in the offhand, it gets a 1-for-1 rate, just like the main hand. This way, only people with TWF or fighting 2-handed bother with the feat, and one-handers (often with shields) can havethe option to trade accuracy for damage w/o spending a feat.
/threadjack
VanRichten
First Post
You all seem to be forgetting 1 problem - animated shiels.
So however good you houserule shields to be, the fighter can just apply them to his floating shield, and continue wielding 2-handed weapons with no drawback whatsoever.
I think you missed the part where it states under Animated Shield that you still suffer all penalties as if you were wielding the shield. Though you can still use a 2-handed weapon, it means when swinging said weapon you would still have any penalties to attack.
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