Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="takasi" data-source="post: 3739751" data-attributes="member: 20194">I wanted to see how effective the tower shield is for someone who is not proficient with it.  I still get the full shield bonus, the only penalty I see is "A character who wears armor and/or uses a shield with which he or she is not proficient takes the armor’s (and/or shield’s) armor check penalty on attack rolls and on all Strength-based and Dexterity-based ability and skill checks."  Is this the only penalty?  I also had a question about using the tower shield's total cover ability.  It says "You can ... use [a tower shield] as total cover, though you must give up your attacks to do so. The shield does not, however, provide cover against targeted spells; a spellcaster can cast a spell on you by targeting the shield you are holding."  My first question is what is the action required to switch from AC to total cover?  A free action?  My second question is related to total cover.  "If you don’t have line of effect to your target he is considered to have total cover from you. You can’t make an attack against a target that has total cover. "So if I am in total cover mode, am I correct in assuming I cannot be attacked (with the exception of targeted spells)? Under spell descriptions, area effects are broken down into bursts, emanations or spreads.  Here is the description of burst (fireball is the classic example of a burst spell):"A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, even including creatures that you can’t see. It can’t affect creatures with total cover."Is this limited to bursts, or doe sit also apply to emanations?  I'm trying to find the exact text to show this, as emanations say they function like bursts (which assumes they can't affect creatures with total cover).  Spreads specifically say they act like a burst but can turn corners, so I'm assuming they negate total cover.Also:"[A line-shaped spell] starts from any corner of your square and extends to the limit of its range or until it strikes a barrier that blocks line of effect."Would a creature using a tower shield for total cover stop all spells with line effect once they hit the creature's square?And what type of area effect is a breath weapon? They are usually either line or cone, and the definition for a cone says:"Most cones are either bursts or emanations (see above), and thus won’t go around corners."So does a tower shield used for total cover prevent most dragon breath weapons from affecting the wielder?I'm also thinking of enchanting armor spikes with the defending property.  "A defending weapon allows the wielder to transfer some or all of the sword’s enhancement bonus to his AC as a bonus that stacks with all others. As a free action, the wielder chooses how to allocate the weapon’s enhancement bonus at the start of his turn before using the weapon, and the effect to AC lasts until his next turn."What consitutes "using a weapon"?  If it requires an attack, then here's a dilemma:  What if a user activates the weapon at the start of his turn and provokes an AoO during movement before getting a chance to attack?  Does the user get the AC bonus?  What happens if he chooses not to attack after the AoO is already resolved?  I would assume you get the AC bonus regardless of whether you make an attack or not.</blockquote>

Verification