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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6071409" data-attributes="member: 7006">When the whole discussion about D&amp;DN's two-weapon fighting rules were occurring, I thought that it'dve been interesting to treat off-hand weapons and shields as basically the same item-- each gets a single damage die / parry die a la the Fighter's expertise dice, instead of the shield's bonus to AC and the off-hand weapon's regular damage die expression.The Shield's die is 1d6 when used to block and 1d4 when used to damage (shield bash).The Off-hand Weapon is 1d6 when used to damage and 1d4 when used to parry.The varying die helps indicate that the shield is primarily for defense with a small offensive component, and vice versa for the off-hand weapon.&nbsp; And both of these dice could get bigger either via feats or Fighter Maneuvers.&nbsp; You could also theoretically allow the Shield to grant additional plusses to AC too if you wanted shields to be better than just straight DR.Die refreshes at the end of the round and can get spent like the Fighter's die can.&nbsp; If attacked and hit, the PC can spend his Shield/Off-Hand Weapon to reduce damage.&nbsp; Otherwise when it becomes the PCs turn, if he attacks with his main weapon and hits... he can spend the die on either additional damage to the target OR on a second target adjacent to the first target and the PC (basically recreating the 4E Cleave exploit).So this helps the Shield by granting DR to the PC, and it cleans up the two-weapon fighting rules by not requiring a second attack roll while also not giving the second attack all the ridiculous bonuses to damage you got traditionally (and which makes TWF balancing so darned messy).&nbsp; But in return... you get to have the &quot;minion killer&quot; ability out of it, when you attack one monster and then pop off the one next to him too (when you are facing many, many low-powered monsters.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 6071409, member: 7006"] When the whole discussion about D&DN's two-weapon fighting rules were occurring, I thought that it'dve been interesting to treat off-hand weapons and shields as basically the same item-- each gets a single damage die / parry die a la the Fighter's expertise dice, instead of the shield's bonus to AC and the off-hand weapon's regular damage die expression. The Shield's die is 1d6 when used to block and 1d4 when used to damage (shield bash). The Off-hand Weapon is 1d6 when used to damage and 1d4 when used to parry. The varying die helps indicate that the shield is primarily for defense with a small offensive component, and vice versa for the off-hand weapon. And both of these dice could get bigger either via feats or Fighter Maneuvers. You could also theoretically allow the Shield to grant additional plusses to AC too if you wanted shields to be better than just straight DR. Die refreshes at the end of the round and can get spent like the Fighter's die can. If attacked and hit, the PC can spend his Shield/Off-Hand Weapon to reduce damage. Otherwise when it becomes the PCs turn, if he attacks with his main weapon [I]and hits[/I]... he can spend the die on either additional damage to the target OR on a second target adjacent to the first target and the PC (basically recreating the 4E Cleave exploit). So this helps the Shield by granting DR to the PC, and it cleans up the two-weapon fighting rules by not requiring a second attack roll while also not giving the second attack all the ridiculous bonuses to damage you got traditionally (and which makes TWF balancing so darned messy). But in return... you get to have the "minion killer" ability out of it, when you attack one monster and then pop off the one next to him too (when you are facing many, many low-powered monsters.) [/QUOTE]

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