Tower Shield questions...

[Lord Ravinous]

Ok, lets assume that I take full cover behind my Tower Shield...can opponents instead attack my shield and destroy it? I think I remember reading in the PHB that a character can't Sunder armor or shields while they're being worn. Now, does the Tower take damage while your taking Full Cover? For example, your in a rocky valley with a Hill Giant, he rears back to throw a boulder, you inturn take cover, the cover rules say that you can't be attacked while under Full cover, so he instead targets your tower shield, can he do this? It makes total sense to me, but I'm just not sure if its a solid concept within the rules.

This leads to my other question, why is there no price modifier for Adamantine Shields? With as easy as it is to have your shield destroyed, often in a single sunder, why is there no listing for this? And have you houseruled any prices for this? I don't expect that an Adamantine shield would confer the DR as armor would, but the extra durability would sure be nice.

What do ya'll think about that?

 

[shilsen]

Sundering a shield is acceptable under the rules (pg.158, 3.5e PHB). The weapon used must be slashing or bludgeoning, so the hill giant's boulder in your example would do just fine.

As for an adamantine shield, using the same price increase as for light armor would probably be appropriate (that's what the 3e rules used).

 

[CCamfield]

This leads to my other question, why is there no price modifier for Adamantine Shields? With as easy as it is to have your shield destroyed, often in a single sunder, why is there no listing for this? And have you houseruled any prices for this? I don't expect that an Adamantine shield would confer the DR as armor would, but the extra durability would sure be nice.

This looks like errata to me. The table on p283 doesn't list shields, but the text does. "Only weapons, armor, and shields normally made of metal can be fashioned from adamantine."

The table for mithral items does mention shields: +1000gp. That's the same as light armor. So maybe adamatine shields should have the same cost as light armor as well? (+5000?) Or perhaps less, since they don't convey any DR.

 

[0-hr]

You can only sunder with melee attacks, so the boulders bounce harmlessly off the impervious shield.

Those things must be made out of the same thing as wizard's robes (which make the toads in their pockets completely immune to all damage).

 

[Lord Ravinous]

You can only sunder with melee attacks, so the boulders bounce harmlessly off the impervious shield.

Those things must be made out of the same thing as wizard's robes (which make the toads in their pockets completely immune to all damage).

lol, it IS awful funny how that whole familiar thing works out. Thanks for clearin that up

 

[AuraSeer]

In 3.5, the Sunder rules apply to both weapons and shields. So if someone is attacking you in melee with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon, they can target your tower shield just fine.

The Sunder action can't be used with ranged weapons. But under the 3.0 cover rules, when an attack would hit your normal AC but missed due to a cover bonus, it hit the cover instead of you. I think that language was removed when cover was simplified in 3.5, but most DMs I know still apply the rule to tower shields.

 

[shilsen]

You can only sunder with melee attacks...

Whoops! Forgot about that.

 

[Hypersmurf]

But under the 3.0 cover rules, when an attack would hit your normal AC but missed due to a cover bonus, it hit the cover instead of you. I think that language was removed when cover was simplified in 3.5, but most DMs I know still apply the rule to tower shields.

It's included in 3.5 as a variant rule, but it's not Core default.

-Hyp.