Shield cover bonus

[DanMcS]

Should a shield be considered a cover bonus? My thought is that if so, they'd provide something of a bonus to a reflex save as well, and I can envision someone trying to dodge a fireball putting up their shield as they duck and cover.

It would also mean that your shield doesn't add to your AC at the same time as you're standing behind a low wall, which I sort of don't like. Hmm.

 

[Kyramus]

See Tower Shield.

The rest are just too small to provide cover.... according to the present rules.

 

[AGGEMAM]

But that would also mean more graduations of cover, which makes it more complex, so it's a trade off.

But go ahead and write something up, I like the general idea ...

 

[DanMcS]

Heh, write something up? I was just going to use the table from the book/SRD.

[color=white]
Degree of Cover  AC Bonus      Reflex Save Bonus
-----------------       ------------     ---------------------
1/10                      +1               +0 (buckler or small shield)
1/4                        +2               +1 (large shield)
1/2                        +4               +2
3/4                        +7               +3
9/10                      +10             +4*
Total                      -                  -[/color]

So a large shield would provide 1/4 cover (since it's +2 to AC) and give a +1 to reflex saves. The others would be considered a cover bonus, but since they're only +1, they're apparently too small to grant a reflex save. That's all.

If you used Shield Focus (from another thread in this forum) to get a +1 to all your shield modifiers, I'd say that would include granting reflex save bonuses if the new shield bonus was high enough.

"Write something up." Everybody is a game publisher these days.

 

[Crothian]

Would this open Shield up to getting damaged and destroyed per hitting the cover rules?

 

[DanMcS]

Would this open Shield up to getting damaged and destroyed per hitting the cover rules?

If I felt like tracking it that day. It'd be like that scene in the 13th warrior, where the two big guys are going at it with swords and wooden shields, and the shields keep getting crushed. That could be pretty fun actually.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Yeah, but you just forgot to add something new

Just add a 1/10th cover line that does what you say it should and you're good to go ..

I like it, and I actually think I'll test it sooner than you think ...

 

[Crothian]

If I felt like tracking it that day. It'd be like that scene in the 13th warrior, where the two big guys are going at it with swords and wooden shields, and the shields keep getting crushed. That could be pretty fun actually.

I think it's one of those things that would need to be tracked all or none for consistency. I do like that example though.

 

[DanMcS]

I think it's one of those things that would need to be tracked all or none for consistency. I do like that example though.

Well, not all the time. Fighting goblins who do a d8 damage versus a shield that has hardness 10 or 15 (I can never remember hardness), you wouldn't have to bother, until you got to the goblin chief who was stronger or had magic to help him do more damage.

 

[Spatzimaus]

This is exactly what we did in my campaign; all shields provide a Cover bonus when you're not denied your DEX bonus. In general this means it wouldn't stack with cover from other sources (a Shield spell, hiding behind a tree, etc.) although we allow a full-round action to position your shield in a way that adds to your cover. Prop the shield next to the tree to make a "duck blind", for example.

No more wondering about which armor bonuses stack and which don't. Bracers of Armor plus a shield? No problem! It has one HUGE side-effect: since it's not an Armor bonus, Touch spells don't ignore cover.

Want to keep people from landing Harm?
Want to stop those pesky Melf's Arrows, Flame Arrows, Orb spells, and such?
Tired of all those incorporeal hits?

Get a shield!

(Well, actually we changed "incorporeal touch" to be simply "incorporeal attack". It's like a touch attack in that it ignores armor and natural armor, but it also bypasses Cover as well IMC; they're still stopped by Force effects, though, so it's balanced)

Notice I mentioned a negative: "only when not denied your DEX bonus". If you're not expecting an attack, your shield won't be in position to block. If you're flanked, you won't be able to use the shield to block all the attacks. If you're Held, your shield is just plain useless.
Suddenly, that Uncanny Dodging Barbarian seems a lot better as a choice for a shield user. One nice side effect is that you start seeing more sword-n-board fighters again. It was annoying that every fighter I saw was either a 2-hander or 2-weapon style.

Oh, and like the table DanMcS used, we added a 1/10th Cover line for bucklers. It corresponds to "minor obstructions", like if there's a chair between me and the enemy. Nothing we can't fight around, but it interferes a bit.

In general, it's worked beautifully.