D&D 5E (no more) boring shields

[Szatany]

For the newest iteration of this idea, see the bottom of this post.

VERSION 1
Shields as they are now are extremly boring. There's no variety, they seem almost like an afterthought. Here I present an alternative take on them. Didn't want to just make pricier shields with better AC (mostly to avoid AC inflation), so I had to think of something else. Under this module shields don't improve AC but are used for parrying, similar to fighter's parry ability.

Rules for using a shield:
- Only attacks that target AC can be parried with a shield.
- Each shield has a pool of extra Hit Points which the wielder can spend to lessen the force of an attack.
- When an attack is parried (no check necessary), shield absorbs half of the damage that attack caused, but no more than its remaining HP. When a shield absorbs damage, reduce its HP accordingly.
- Once a shield has 0 HP, it is destroyed and useless.

Rules for repairing shields:
- Shields don't regain their HP automatically (obviously), but can be repaired.
- Repairing a shield takes 1 hour, requires materials worth 1/10th of shield's original value and requires a Strength check. If performed by someone without a artisan (blacksmith) background, it suffers disadvantege.
- If check beats DC 15, the shield is repaired and regains all of its HP.Then, regardless of if the check was a success or not, the shield loses permamenty 10% of its total original HP. Each act of repairing the shield lowers its overall durability.

The Shields

Name                      Cost     Weight   HP
Wooden shield             1 gp     5 lb.    10
Reinforced wooden shield  5 gp     7 lb.    20
Metal shield              20 gp    10 lb.   40
Reinforced metal shield   50 gp    15 lb.   80
Adamantine laced shield   300 gp   15 lb.   200
Obdurium laced shield     1000 gp  15 lb.   400
Large*                    x2       x2       +25%

* Large is a quality that can be applied to any other shield. Doing so doubles the cost, weight, improves HP by 25%, but also grants disadvantage on stealth checks and imposes a -5 penalty to speed. Large shields can't be wielded by small characters.

VERSION 2
Take two on shields. I read all your ideas and I decided to drop the original idea of bonus HP completly. Instead, shields provide simpler benefits as proposed in this thread.

The Shields

Name                 Cost     Weight   AC  Parry  Abilities
Bucklers
 Metal               2 gp     4 lb.    +0  +1d4   free hand
 Adamantine laced    30 gp    5 lb.    +0  +1d6   free hand
 Obdurium laced      100 gp   5 lb.    +0  +1d8   free hand
Shields
 Wood                1 gp     5 lb.    +1  +1d3
 Reinforced wood     5 gp     7 lb.    +1  +1d4
 Metal               10 gp    10 lb.   +1  +1d6
 Adamantine laced    300 gp   15 lb.   +1  +1d8
 Obdurium laced      1000 gp  15 lb.   +1  +1d10
Large shields
 Reinforced wood     15 gp    15 lb.   +2  +1d6   cover, unwieldly
 Metal               20 gp    20 lb.   +2  +1d8   cover, unwieldly
 Adamantine laced    400 gp   30 lb.   +2  +1d10  cover, unwieldly
 Obdurium laced      1200 gp  30 lb.   +2  +1d12  cover, unwieldly

Parry - If you have fighter's Parry ability, you add this number to damage parried when you use it.
If you don't have the Parry ability but you're proficient with the shield you're using, you now can use Parry ability as if you were a fighter, but the parry dice you get from the shield is lowered by one step (from 1d4 to 1d3, from 1d12 to 1d10, etc.)
Free Hand - Bucklers are strapped onto your arm and therefore leave your hand free to hold a weapon in combat. A buckler can be strapped only onto a medium or heavy armor.
Cover - Large shields essentially provide cover. The +2 AC they grant is not cumulative with the benefits of having cover, but other benefits of cover apply (like +2 bonus to Dexterity saving throws).
Unwieldly - Carrying around a large shield anywhere outside battlefield is not a good idea. With large shield in your hand, your speed other than walk speed is zero (unless it's granted by magic, such as fly speed - then it's unaffected). Your walk speed is reduced by 5 ft. You also get disadvantage on Stealth checks.

 

[Stormonu]

Of late, I too had been considering getting away from a flat AC bonus and going to an "active parry" sort of system. Different size shields can add a varying bonus to the parry. A buckler might add +0, a large shield might add +2. The big question is, how many times per round can the shield be used? Personally, I'd probably go with each use costing a CS die, possibly with a max per round based on shield size.

However, I think I'd ditch the HP part. With the looks of how damage may scale in 5E, after a level or two, shields wouldn't survive a single hit. If you are going to track "durability" (which I wouldn't, unless you want to track armor HP as well), at worse I'd go with X hits before the shield is "broken" - maybe add a random roll to the base # for some variance and keep the shieldbearer guessing.

However, with rules for disarm/sunder, I don't think you really need to track shield hp.

<Edit:> This would probably be best done as a module/feat. Basic shield works as it does now, but you can pick up an ability that let you turn it into an active defense that should be better than a normal weapon or off-hand weapon parry.

 

[Klaus]

IMHO (and I've written as much in my feedback), shields should be one-handed weapons that give an AC bonus. This is their basic stats.

Now, when using maneuvers like Parry or Protect, or when using the Dodge action, shields should give additional benefits. Including advantage on Dexterity saving throws, as you huddle behind your shield.

 

[B.T.]

Too complicated. I'd say that shields can be used to deflect incoming blows but there's a chance they're going to break with each hit. A small wooden shield might have a 50% chance of getting smashed with every hit taken, whereas a metal tower shield might be able to take up to two "free" hits in an encounter and only then have a 20% chance of breaking.

 

[MortalPlague]

I'd like to see one simple thing added to make shields more interesting.

"A fighter with a shield can use parry on ranged attacks."

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I'd like shields to be more interesting, but nonetheless simpler than you describe. I would make shields simply provide damage reduction against certain kinds of attack:

Buckler - DR against melee attacks that target AC, does not work against 2H weapons or natural weapons of larger creatures.
Small shield - DR against all attacks that target AC
Large shield - DR against all attacks that target AC or force a reflex save

Now the value of the DR could be 1, increased by magical enchantment, or it could be based on your attack bonus. The Fighter would be apply to apply this DR to allies who are also in melee with them, attacking as a teamwork defender.

 

[dkyle]

One problem with ablative/breakable shields like those is that it now becomes very useful to carry a bunch of shields, which means that encumbrance becomes an important balance consideration, instead of something that can be ignored with little consequence.

I'd like to see one simple thing added to make shields more interesting.

"A fighter with a shield can use parry on ranged attacks."

Good idea. I'd want this to include ray spells, if it doesn't already.

Also, especially large shields could be applicable to area damage effects, like Fireball and dragon breath. Maybe also apply the damage reduction to allies behind you relative to the source of the damage.

 

[MortalPlague]

Good idea. I'd want this to include ray spells, if it doesn't already.

Good point. It currently does not, but ray and bolt spells (like melf's acid arrow) should be parry-able. Basically any spell with an attack roll.

Also, especially large shields could be applicable to area damage effects, like Fireball and dragon breath. Maybe also apply the damage reduction to allies behind you relative to the source of the damage.

They have to be careful to find a balance between what's cool and useful versus what's mechanically complicated. I could see damage reduction on area effects falling into the latter category.

 

[Stormonu]

Agreed on ranged, ray and AoE spells. As well as side effects on carried gear.

Tracking Armor/Shield/Weapon damage ala Diablo is fine on the computer because it can easily handle the math. Likewise, PCs only have to track their own gear. But it becomes cumbersome for the DM, and can become unbalanced for NPCs who only have to worry about one scene - and thus may be less prone to see breakage.

I'd rather tracking whether the shield breaks be an optional module that can be added on top of the shield parry, if you want to track it. Not as part and parcel of the primary rule. "Free parry with shield" is a simple enough rule to implement; the rest is gravy/baggage.

 

[Unwise]

I'm perfectly fine with shields just being a bonus to AC. I just can't see any way in which my gameplay experience would be enhanced by adding a level of complexity to this, when it already works mechanically.

I mean I like complexity, I played Rolemaster for most of my life. I just find weapon/shield breakage rules to be onerous during the beginning of a campaign and redundant after that, when everybody has magical items that don't break. I find that active defences tend to slow down combat a fair bit, so I only really like them when really necessary from a mechanical/mathematics persepctive.