Alzrius
The EN World kitten
I'm kind of cheating on this one, because I purchased Fat Goblin Games' Sidebar #1 - Shields as Cover (affiliate link) for PF1 a while ago, when they were having a huge sale on almost their entire inventory. However, I only got around to downloading and reading it now, so I'm saying it counts.
This is a fairly short one-page supplement, notwithstanding the cover and OGL, and what it does is basically on the tin, presenting an alternate rule that shields should be treated as cover rather than offering a "shield bonus" to AC.
Now, I suspect that the layout person for this wanted everything to fit onto a single page, because there's an awful lot of text there, with the font size being (just slightly) smaller than you'd see in a lot of products like this. Which is something, since this has surprisingly robust discourse on how odd it seems that a breastplate will grant you a +6 armor bonus for protecting only your chest, but a heavy steel shield only grants a +2 bonus, particularly given how well shields work in the real world (e.g. riot police still use them today, even if the physical materials in their construction have changed).
The answer to this, we're told, is to discard the usual shield bonus and instead use shields as cover. But it doesn't stop there, noting that the type of cover (i.e. partial, standard, or improved) depends on what kind of shield you're using (i.e. buckler, light, heavy, or tower) and what kind of action you're using (i.e. equipped normally, fighting defensively, or taking a total defense action). A table breaks down what kind of shield grants what kind of cover for what kind of action.
The remainder of the text answers questions as to how this change interacts with the rest of the PF1 rules, such as questions of proficiency, magical enhancement bonuses, if you can gain cover from a shield while flat-footed, etc.
Overall, I liked what was here. This is the sort of optional rule that's quick and easy to implement, reminding me of what you'd find in sidebars throughout the PHBs and DMGs of various editions. The overall effect here is to raise the efficacy of shields, making them grant more of an AC bonus than they normally do; while I can see some people being concerned about balance issues, I think the more salient effect will be that it makes shields much more useful to characters, which strikes me as a net positive compared to the bonuses you get for wielding a weapon two-handed or fighting with two weapons.
This is a fairly short one-page supplement, notwithstanding the cover and OGL, and what it does is basically on the tin, presenting an alternate rule that shields should be treated as cover rather than offering a "shield bonus" to AC.
Now, I suspect that the layout person for this wanted everything to fit onto a single page, because there's an awful lot of text there, with the font size being (just slightly) smaller than you'd see in a lot of products like this. Which is something, since this has surprisingly robust discourse on how odd it seems that a breastplate will grant you a +6 armor bonus for protecting only your chest, but a heavy steel shield only grants a +2 bonus, particularly given how well shields work in the real world (e.g. riot police still use them today, even if the physical materials in their construction have changed).
The answer to this, we're told, is to discard the usual shield bonus and instead use shields as cover. But it doesn't stop there, noting that the type of cover (i.e. partial, standard, or improved) depends on what kind of shield you're using (i.e. buckler, light, heavy, or tower) and what kind of action you're using (i.e. equipped normally, fighting defensively, or taking a total defense action). A table breaks down what kind of shield grants what kind of cover for what kind of action.
The remainder of the text answers questions as to how this change interacts with the rest of the PF1 rules, such as questions of proficiency, magical enhancement bonuses, if you can gain cover from a shield while flat-footed, etc.
Overall, I liked what was here. This is the sort of optional rule that's quick and easy to implement, reminding me of what you'd find in sidebars throughout the PHBs and DMGs of various editions. The overall effect here is to raise the efficacy of shields, making them grant more of an AC bonus than they normally do; while I can see some people being concerned about balance issues, I think the more salient effect will be that it makes shields much more useful to characters, which strikes me as a net positive compared to the bonuses you get for wielding a weapon two-handed or fighting with two weapons.
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