What's up with Tower Shield? And is there a better way.

[Tiew]

I'm trying to figure out the best way for a group of goblins to defensively hold a hallway. I wanted to give the front two tower shields and have the back ranks sling stones over their heads. Looking at the description for tower shield though it says that they could simply chose to take full cover. Wouldn't that make them invulnerable to anything besides a targeted spell? It would seem kind of cheap.

Is there a better way to slow the PCs down without doing this?

 

[hong]

What level are the PCs? If they're high enough, they could just Tumble through the shield wall (DC 25 check).

 

[Shane_Leahy]

Its not that hard to get around a tower shield wall if there is no melee threatening you. Bullrush them...push them up against a wall. Disarm works also. Also can you not still hit them with AOE spells, they just get a bonus to the reflex save and evasion.

 

[Tiew]

They will be 4th level, but there will only be two of them.

The scenario I'm imagining is this. There is a 50' long and 10' wide tunnel leading into the goblins lair. 6 goblins will attempt to block the hall and harass the PCs as they move up. The real danger is the hall is filled with pits that are covered by a floor strong enough to hold a goblin but not strong enough to hold a medium sized creature. So I imagine the goblins harassing and falling back often to force the PCs to deal with the pits. I just want them to stay alive long enough to matter.

 

[javcs]

Check out some of the formation feats - particularly in Heroes of Battle. I believe that there are several feats that would help with this, I don't remember what they're called though.

Give the Goblins say, 2 levels of fighter, that way they have better HD and feats.

 

[JRR_Talking]

I think 6 goblin fighter twos could easily fight in valiant open melee and beat up two level 4 character.

will be interested how this discussion develop as my next Liv Gre character may use a tower shield.

john

 

[Gerion of Mercadia]

Just make sure the PC can sunder that tower shield

Total cover = no AoO to PC's...

 

[SlagMortar]

Also keep in mind that the goblins in the back with slings only have soft cover (+4 AC) from the PCs and that the PCs also have soft cover from the goblins in the back. The PCs can probably just pull out their normal ranged attacks and easily take down all the goblins behind, unless both PCs are completely melee focused.

 

[Corsair]

This is a chance for fighters to shine! Sunder! Bull rush! rar! Go fighter go!

 

[daemonslye]

Yeah bullrush is a no brainer: The gobbies have a Str of 11 and -4 on their check vs. a medium attacker. The attacker charges for +2 on the check and no AOO for the goblin hiding behind the shield.

A good chance the little guy will get pushed back a bit for the next PC in line to run up and whack the other goblin hiding behind the other shield.

So - unless they are twinked out for this type of manuever or have some type of special equipment (perhaps they rigged a "locking" mechanism in the hallway to "plug" their shields into), they could be run down rather quickly.

Another tactic to look into if your PCs are archers is the "mirror hallway" done in Module A2; The hallway turns but a steel mirror has been set up to make it look straight. When the PCs fire on the goblins, it looks like they are protected by some "wall of force". Otherwise charging PCs could have a bit of a surprise. Spot checks etc. to notice something useful. Cool stuff.

~D