Monks with Shields?

[Arnix]

I have been thinking on an idea, and I don't recall seeing a rule on this.

Can a monk who has a shield proficiency (i.e. 1 level of another class first) still use his monk abilities?

I know that Armor is prohibited but it makes no mention of shield, which is specifically a seperate proficiency.

In the class it mentions monks have no armor or shield proficiencies, but later says a monk can use only a few of their abilities when wearing armor.

I may be rambling...

 

[Mordeth]

Hmmm

Thats a pretty good question. The shield gives an armor bonus that stacks with Armor, but isnt armor specificly.

Not sure how flurry of blows would work with 1 hand tied up, not really sure... maybe others will have some more specifics....

 

[Alejandro]

It depends on whether you acknowledge the existence of a shield bonus. If so, you may consider shields as being distinct from armors, and lend plausibility to the idea of monks who can use shields without penalties.

By the intent of the rules, shields and armors both use "armor bonus", are stackable, and cannot be used by monks without penalty.

 

[Mordeth]

Unfortunatly

The intent doesnt matter in games we play, its the "black and white" rules.

 

[Arnix]

Ah but a monk can use bracers of armor and inertial armor. Both of which provide an armor bonus.

Honestly, I could care less about flurry as I am a psychic warrior looking for a secondary class. I will be using the weapon that I have specialized. Monk would be for AC, saves, and evasion.

 

[Alejandro]

I agree: it's kludgy. It would have been much easier to say monks can only use their special abilities when not suffering Arcane Spell Failure. This would eliminate most armors and most shields (making mithral bucklers very desirable).

Dan Collins has pages of this stuff, giving both sides of the argument. It may be easiest to have your DM consider this and possibily make a house rule, regardless of what's unwritten in the rules.

 

[Arnix]

Do you have a link?


Thanks

 

[dcollins]

Howdy! You can find my D&D site here: www.superdan.net/dnd3.html

If you scroll down that page, under "FAQs", you'll see a page for "Interaction of Armor, Spells, and Items" which, at the end, deals with this question.

However, what you really want is the link to Guy Fullerton's page, where he documents that he asked the Sage this question (specifically, about bucklers) and the answer was "no". You can see that here: http://homepage.mac.com/guyf/DnD/Sage/MonkShield.html

 

[Arnix]

Assuming that the response is still valid and hasn't been changed by another sage response (as with haste and 5 ft moves), then monks can NOT use a shield and still get their wis modifier to ac.

Thanks.