Tower Shield Wackiness (and Q)

[Malin Genie]

It seems like the fact that a Tower Shield provides cover rather than a shield AC bonus leads to some interesting situations (or should I say abuses...)

Use Tower Shield to give yourself 50% cover. Grapple the opponent. Sure, your attack roll is at -4, but it's a touch attack, and far more importantly they don't get an AoO against you.

Use Toewr Shield to give yourself 50% cover, then Bull Rush opponent. Same as above (no AoO) - but you don't even make an attack roll to Bull Rush.

Walk right past an opponent without taking an AoO, then hit his buddy with no attack penalty!

OOOOBO
OOOTOO
OOATOO
OOOTOO
OOOTOO

(in the diagram above, A and B are opponents, and T is the path taken by the character with the tower shield. A towe shield only covers half the battlefield at any time, so in the above example the shield is oriented 'left', providing up to total cover against A but none against B - which is to the attacking character's advantage.)

Can anyone tell me - what does a +1 tower shield do? Does it provide a +1 AC bonus and its regular cover bonus? DOes it provide the character with 1 pt more cover than the opponent? Or other?

 

[Magus_Jerel]

yep - cover and tower shields are quite abuseable.

The one drawback is that you can't put any sort of "enhancement bonus" on a tower shield. You can't use them while mounted either. Worse still - they also grant your opponent the same AC bonus they give you. They are quite heavy - and in this respet can be a major hindrance.

But - the AoO prevention they indirectly provide by provinding cover can be quite nice.


Now... if you wanted to make the tower shield a bashing weapon... different matter.

 

[Vaxalon]

I don't think tower shields are "abusable" or "broken", mainly because I've never heard of anyone actually equipping their character with one.

 

[Darklone]

I don't think tower shields are "abusable" or "broken", mainly because I've never heard of anyone actually equipping their character with one.

I heard of them. And several chars here used them. But I houseruled them.

Btw, tower shields do NOT protect you from half of the battlefield. They protect ONE field next to you with full or 3quarter cover and the adjacent fields with half cover. That's a big difference to a shield spell.

On the WotC page are some piccies that illustrate this.

As for tower shields and grappling... I want my guys with one free hand for grappling. And if he's got a tower shield in the other hand, his enemy is going to skewer him with a short sword.

Btw: No shield bashes allowed per PHB with tower shields.

 

[dcollins]

Can anyone tell me - what does a +1 tower shield do? Does it provide a +1 AC bonus and its regular cover bonus? DOes it provide the character with 1 pt more cover than the opponent? Or other?

I asked the Sage about this some time ago.
The answer is that you get a +1 armor bonus in addition to the cover.

Let's say someone has a +4 Tower Shield (as is possible via the magic item tables in the DMG, or perhaps through the "magic vestment" spell). Does the enhancement on this shield supply: (A) no AC improvement whatsoever, or (B) a +4 "armor" bonus, or (C) a +4 "cover" bonus beyond whatever's chosen naturally by the bearer (and if so, do opponents get the same enhanced protection)?

A +4 armor bonus for the user. It coes not apply to any cover bonus the shield grants.

The one drawback is that you can't put any sort of "enhancement bonus" on a tower shield.

That's incorrect.
(a) See Sage response above.
(b) See Tower Shields listed under random enchanted shields on DMG p. 180.