"pop-up clown" Tower Shield? please rate

[rkanodia]

Hey guys, a side-track on another thread about Unseen Servants carrying tower shields has given me some ideas.

However, the problem is that an Unseen Servant can only carry 20 pounds, or push/drag 100 pounds. Thus, a regular tower shield (45 pounds) would require THREE Unseen Servants to haul it around, and a darkwood tower shield (22.5 pounds) would still need TWO, and would represent an implausible about of expenditure for the villains: 630 gp per shield. So, rate the following items I'm thinking about introducing:

Half-tower shield. As a tower shield, but narrower. A half-tower shield weighs 20 pounds and provides up to 50% cover, depending on how far out from behind it you are willing to go. Two half-tower shields can be held side-by-side to provide full cover.

"Pop-up" tower shield: This tower shield has a large, hemispherical iron weight attached to the bottom (curved side down), increasing its weight to 75 pounds, but making it automatically stand up when no other forces are exerted upon it.

How does the half-tower sound? I know it is less than half the weight of the tower, but not by much, and I think the fact that two of them provide the same benefit as a full tower for less weight is easily counterbalanced by the fact that they would need two hands instead of one. Anyway, the plan would be to have a couple of Unseen Servants running around with these things, blocking hits for the low-level BBEGs. The pop-up tower would be pushed by the Servant, and then, once in place, the Servant would just let go, allowing it to orient itself upright.

However I end up doing it, I just hope I can con the PCs into thinking that the shields themselves are animated, and thus get them to waste attacks on breaking down their 20 HP with 5 Hardness (probably a good 2-4 attacks per shield!)

Please comment (with rationale) if you think I should change either of these items, or if you have any other sneaky ideas!

 

[Frostmarrow]

Since you are the DM I say you should go for it. It looks balanced enough and the idea behind it is really fun. Don't be surprised if your players start using the same tactic, though.

 

[seasong]

Personally, I would rule that the unseen servant doesn't have the strength or speed to wield a shield well enough for cover. They can lift and move things, but at best, they can try to hold the shield in place; since that is inferior to normal shield use (even tower shield), I might halve the cover effects.

For the popup shield... I'm not sure how useful a shield that can be knocked over to hit me in the head (before popping back up) would be for cover. At best, I might give 25% cover, but I would be more likely to nix it.

Instead of a popup, you might try a shield that has a bracing stand behind it. The unseen servant will still be pushing it along the ground whether it is vertical or horizontal, after all.

 

[rkanodia]

The problem is that the spell description isn't terribly clear. The Unseen Servant has a Strength of 2, and it's dextrous enough to 'clean and mend'. If I were a PC with Strength 2, perhaps due to a poison or psionic combat or whatever, and I had nothing but a shield, but the DM ruled I couldn't use it for defense, because I'm not strong/agile enough, I would be rather upset.

On the other hand, I do see that you have some very good points. Perhaps what I will do is have any attack deflected by the half-tower automatically count as a Disarm attempt against the Unseen Servant, which suceeds because the US is "never allowed an attack roll" according to the PHB. That is to say, any time a shield blocks a hit, it will drop to the ground, and the US will need one round to pick it up and another to manuver into position before it is useful again.

With the pop-up tower, if I were to use it, I'd rule that the facing of it is not exact (those things rotate as they wobble), so the cover is one-half or three quarters. If it gets pushed down (either by being hit or by a clever player taking a free action on their turn), the cover bonus is reduced to one-quarter until it rights itself on the following round.

That being said, I think the 'braced tower shield' idea is much less fuzzy and will require less rules adjudication than the pop-up (if being slightly less stylish; somehow, I think the shield sliding along the ground and then standing up would be more likely to fool players), so I will probably end up using some combination of the half-tower and the braced tower shields in the game. Thanks much for the (better) idea!

 

[Angcuru]

Orc walks up to human paladin who's using one of these things, hits the top of it into the paladin.

"Why you hittin' yourself? HUH! Sop hittin yourself! WHATCHA GONNA DO ABOUT IT YA PANZY!?!?!"