Shields

[Mark]

How often have shields in your games played a larger role than just being a modifier to armor class?


Do characters (NPCs and PCs) in your games use shields for identification?


Do shields in your games ever have additional powers?


Do shields in your games ever get used in unusual or nonstandard ways?

 

[prospero63]

How often have shields in your games played a larger role than just being a modifier to armor class?


Do characters (NPCs and PCs) in your games use shields for identification?


Do shields in your games ever have additional powers?


Do shields in your games ever get used in unusual or nonstandard ways?

The munchkins in my games (me included) have used them to augment armour special abilities. I.e. put one ability on the armour and the other on the shield.

[Any of my players, stop reading now]

In the game I am DMing, they picked up a shield from a baddie and when they met another NPC it was a factor in that NPC not attacking them as he thought "for him to have that shield, he must have taken it from the guy, we might be able to partner up". Similarly, there stands the potential for that to cut the other way... hasn't happened yet though.

 

[kenobi65]

My Living Greyhawk paladin of Heironeous uses his shield for identification -- it carries the symbol of Heironeous, as well as the symbol of the dwarven clan that gifted him with the shield.

 

[Quartz]

Just wait until your sword-and-boarder gets a +5 Shield of Full Fortification, +5 Bashing Holy Avenger.

 

[Evilhalfling]

The PCs found a couple of shields with a rampart pegus standard. One was used by PC, others were abandoned/sold.
They eventually found out the design belonged to the extict order of Knight Phantoms(ebberon). Then they found the spirits of the order - now cursed to be spectral riders (MMV) The curse was due to the orders massacre of innocents, as part of their comanders bid for lichdom.

The PCs took on the task to redeem the order by collecting the shields and casting an atonement on them. The redemed shields absorbed the ghosts, and could negate the first negative energy attack made each day. In a final battle with the army the lich recruited from Orcus, the spirits were called forth from the shields for one last ride, turning the tide in a crucial battle.

Hey the game is mostly tolkien based anyway right?

 

[Herobizkit]

In one campaign, one of the quotes that was used most frequently was "Shields are for sissies." All the PCs and supporting NPCs either had TWF or chose to use a two-handed weapon. Of course, when our female paladin and female priestess opted for shields...

... the quote still applied.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

By RAW shields aren't very optimal so mostly they don't get used. With the exception of paladins and clerics, more clerics than the first.

On the other hand right now my planescape campaign has a very unusual cleric who just acquired a tower shield from a Hextorite blackguard and the first thing he did was perform a joint ceremony with the dwarven cleric to consecrate it and remove the "taint of evil" before carting it over to the nearest artist in Tradegate and get it covered in holy iconography. I think the player decided not to sell it just for the imagery of a cleric in armor and shield wielding a Thompson. Course he's going to be even more surprised when he realized the reason he and the dwarf get along so well is they actually worship the same god just under different guises.

 

[Darklone]

Some of our most important chars have been sword&boarders ... for style. E.g. Aladar (shameless advertisement for my sigged story) inherited a shield crafted from a red dragon scale from a dead comrade who just happened to find it... he didn't know about it's magic till it saved him in that fight.

So yes, I do have shields... usually with a story and some nice goodies like every better item in my campaigns.

 

[moritheil]

Shields are pretty stylish. A sword-and-board fighter is saying (in most cases) that he's willing to give up the hefty 2h power attack bonus.

 

[Tetsubo]

Its always bothered me that shields are so sub-optimal in D&D. Historically a shield would often be the *only* form of armour an average trooper might ever have. And it could mean the difference between life and death. But in D&D it's a minor AC boost that is often ignored for some huge, whopping two-handed weapon. I know that formation fighting doesn't fit the adventuring party meme, but shields really are useful. They should be so more often in D&D.

I remember a "weightless" shield back in 1E. If you let it go it would just float in the air. A PC used it as a decoy once and out flanked a baddie with that tactic.

I had a hooked shield in an old campaign as well. It had hooks set around the rim that faced the enemy. It granted a disarm bonus as it could "grab" an incoming weapon.