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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4969329" data-attributes="member: 82106">The problem is that 4e's shields are wonky, so there is no such thing as a buckler. You have light shield which allows you to do some stuff with the shield hand, but not attack with it, and heavy shield which takes the hand entirely. Spiked shield is just a light shield that you can attack with as a weapon. Bucklers just don't exist, though they certainly could be added to the game (would be like a weapon and not use arm slot, but I guess it would give some defensive benefit, basically pretty similar to a parrying dagger). Realistic shields would always fully involve your hand but that doesn't really leave much advantage to using a light shield mechanically. The realistic advantage would be its less encumbering, but encumbrance is not really mechanically very significant. Maybe a light shield should be easier to drop. Anyway, it is how it is, so spiked shield is really sort of an oddity.In terms of drawing a shield, quickdraw won't help because you still need to take a standard action to strap it on. Dropping it MIGHT be a free action vs stowing it being a standard, but I think the intent was you can't just drop a shield. Basically the type of tactic the OP is talking about is not supposed to work since it would avoid the bad side of shields but let you have the good part.In the case of swordmages, the DM should just not allow 2 grip shifts in the same turn. Free actions aren't gifts to the players to skirt around the rules and that's why the DM is allowed to limit them.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 4969329, member: 82106"] The problem is that 4e's shields are wonky, so there is no such thing as a buckler. You have light shield which allows you to do some stuff with the shield hand, but not attack with it, and heavy shield which takes the hand entirely. Spiked shield is just a light shield that you can attack with as a weapon. Bucklers just don't exist, though they certainly could be added to the game (would be like a weapon and not use arm slot, but I guess it would give some defensive benefit, basically pretty similar to a parrying dagger). Realistic shields would always fully involve your hand but that doesn't really leave much advantage to using a light shield mechanically. The realistic advantage would be its less encumbering, but encumbrance is not really mechanically very significant. Maybe a light shield should be easier to drop. Anyway, it is how it is, so spiked shield is really sort of an oddity. In terms of drawing a shield, quickdraw won't help because you still need to take a standard action to strap it on. Dropping it MIGHT be a free action vs stowing it being a standard, but I think the intent was you can't just drop a shield. Basically the type of tactic the OP is talking about is not supposed to work since it would avoid the bad side of shields but let you have the good part. In the case of swordmages, the DM should just not allow 2 grip shifts in the same turn. Free actions aren't gifts to the players to skirt around the rules and that's why the DM is allowed to limit them. [/QUOTE]

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