Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The Buckler
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Alex319" data-source="post: 4402355" data-attributes="member: 45678"><p>These feats are interesting ideas but some of them definitely seem overpowered. The only feats in the PHB that even offer additional powers are the Channel Divinity feats, and even those don't increase the number of power uses per encounter (because you can only use one Channel Divinity power once per encounter). Your feats provide extra encounter powers, some of which are minor actions - essentially providing free attacks. Another potential problem is that a player could use all his encounter powers with the buckler and then switch to a regular shield for the rest of the battle.</p><p></p><p>For example, suppose a player decides to wield a Versatile weapon in two hands with a buckler. When he is hit by an attack that beats his AC/REF by less than 2, he activates Superior Deflection to block the attack, and then switches to a normal large shield on his next turn. Note that the +2 from Superior Deflection is the same as the value for a large shield. Now for the cost of a single feat, he has essentially gained the benefits of a 2-handed weapon from the beginning of an encounter until he is forced to activate the power (which will be 10 rounds on average, assuming he is attacked once per round).</p><p></p><p>Some changes I would suggest:</p><p></p><p>1. Specify whether or not a player is allowed to wield a two-handed weapon and a buckler at the same time.</p><p></p><p>2. Specify whether bucklers can have enhancement bonuses to their attacks, and if so how the level/cost is calculated. (Shields normally do not have enhancement bonuses in 4e, but your "Shield and a weapon" feat's text implies that bucklers can have enhancement bonuses.)</p><p></p><p>2. Change "Deflect the Blow" to be used when the enemy declares an attack, before he makes his attack roll.</p><p></p><p>3. Reduce the power of "Iron Fist." At the paragon tier, for example, players are likely to have lots of static modifiers to their rolls, and could easily do 15-20 damage or so on a basic attack with the right powers, so essentially providing two free basic attacks per encounter for the cost of only two feats is too powerful.</p><p></p><p>4. "Shield and a Weapon" might be overpowered but I am not sure. A good point of comparison is Combat Reflexes: it gives you +1 to attack with OAs while this gives +1d6 (or 1d8) to damage, so this is more powerful. On the other hand Combat Reflexes itself is a relatively weak feat, so this might be balanced; I'm not sure.</p><p></p><p>5. "Buckler Weapon Concealment" and "Hidden Behind the Shield" seem like interesting options for stealthy characters. I would recommend switching the roles of the heroic and paragon feats though - as written now, despite the "hiding" idea for both feats, the hiding itself doesn't come into play until you get the paragon feat - the heroic feat is just a plain vanilla +1. </p><p></p><p>It would also make more sense for it to be only one attack - once you attack with it then the enemies see what you did and will not be fooled by it again. This also prevents the cheese that will inevitably result when a player figures out a way to boost his saves to the point where he can sustain the power for the entire encounter.</p><p></p><p>It also makes more sense for the power only to work with light blades, because you're not going to hide a longsword or two handed sword behind that little buckler.</p><p></p><p>A (close to guaranteed) CA for one attack per encounter is plenty of power for one feat. As for the paragon feat, +1 to one attack per encounter is probably not powerful enough, so you could raise it to +2 or +3 or give an improved critical effect (like crit on 19-20 or something like that).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alex319, post: 4402355, member: 45678"] These feats are interesting ideas but some of them definitely seem overpowered. The only feats in the PHB that even offer additional powers are the Channel Divinity feats, and even those don't increase the number of power uses per encounter (because you can only use one Channel Divinity power once per encounter). Your feats provide extra encounter powers, some of which are minor actions - essentially providing free attacks. Another potential problem is that a player could use all his encounter powers with the buckler and then switch to a regular shield for the rest of the battle. For example, suppose a player decides to wield a Versatile weapon in two hands with a buckler. When he is hit by an attack that beats his AC/REF by less than 2, he activates Superior Deflection to block the attack, and then switches to a normal large shield on his next turn. Note that the +2 from Superior Deflection is the same as the value for a large shield. Now for the cost of a single feat, he has essentially gained the benefits of a 2-handed weapon from the beginning of an encounter until he is forced to activate the power (which will be 10 rounds on average, assuming he is attacked once per round). Some changes I would suggest: 1. Specify whether or not a player is allowed to wield a two-handed weapon and a buckler at the same time. 2. Specify whether bucklers can have enhancement bonuses to their attacks, and if so how the level/cost is calculated. (Shields normally do not have enhancement bonuses in 4e, but your "Shield and a weapon" feat's text implies that bucklers can have enhancement bonuses.) 2. Change "Deflect the Blow" to be used when the enemy declares an attack, before he makes his attack roll. 3. Reduce the power of "Iron Fist." At the paragon tier, for example, players are likely to have lots of static modifiers to their rolls, and could easily do 15-20 damage or so on a basic attack with the right powers, so essentially providing two free basic attacks per encounter for the cost of only two feats is too powerful. 4. "Shield and a Weapon" might be overpowered but I am not sure. A good point of comparison is Combat Reflexes: it gives you +1 to attack with OAs while this gives +1d6 (or 1d8) to damage, so this is more powerful. On the other hand Combat Reflexes itself is a relatively weak feat, so this might be balanced; I'm not sure. 5. "Buckler Weapon Concealment" and "Hidden Behind the Shield" seem like interesting options for stealthy characters. I would recommend switching the roles of the heroic and paragon feats though - as written now, despite the "hiding" idea for both feats, the hiding itself doesn't come into play until you get the paragon feat - the heroic feat is just a plain vanilla +1. It would also make more sense for it to be only one attack - once you attack with it then the enemies see what you did and will not be fooled by it again. This also prevents the cheese that will inevitably result when a player figures out a way to boost his saves to the point where he can sustain the power for the entire encounter. It also makes more sense for the power only to work with light blades, because you're not going to hide a longsword or two handed sword behind that little buckler. A (close to guaranteed) CA for one attack per encounter is plenty of power for one feat. As for the paragon feat, +1 to one attack per encounter is probably not powerful enough, so you could raise it to +2 or +3 or give an improved critical effect (like crit on 19-20 or something like that). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The Buckler
Top