Shields and Off-Hand Weapons

[The Fiendish Dr. Samsara]

Just a thought:

I'm liking using the Weapon vs. AC chart in Spellcraft & Swordplay. But using it makes shields somewhat problematic. They really shouldn't function as modifiers to AC. Simple solution: they give a penalty to incoming attacks instead.

But thinking of that made me think of something else. Shields often seem a little underwhelming, considering their great utility in the real world. And the temptation to use two weapons has grown over the years, even though it really wasn't used to any great degree.

So to encourage those thoughts, what is a shield grants a -2 to incoming attacks? Using an off-hand weapon instead grants a -1 and, if a critical hit is scored, you get to make another immediate attempt with the off-hand weapon?

[tavis]

I'm thinking about making a shield a -2 penalty to incoming attacks if you choose to use it (before the dice are cast), but the consequence of that choice is that on a 6 the shield breaks and on a 5 it stops the blow but degrades one class, so that next time it breaks on a 5-6 and degrades on a 4, and so on until the shield is worthless or broken.

I arrived at this idea because I was thinking about asking people "The troll swings at you! How do you defend?" as a purely role-playing thing that'd involve the players during the monster's turn and guide my narration of the action, but then decided that giving an actual meaningful choice was better.

Parrying could give a -1 to hit, with a chance of breaking the weapon (maybe dependent on the relative size of the attacking vs. parrying weapon, and always a greater chance of breaking since a shield is hardier). You could parry monster attacks by sticking your spear into their mouth, slashing at the attacking tentacle, etc.

I also gave some thought to letting magic-users and clerics burn prepared spells to deflect incoming attacks.

[jcstephens]

I use a modified version of Chainmail Man-to-Man, with shields taken out of the combat matrix. Instead, shields do three things:

1. A shield has a 2 in 6 chance of blocking any missle attack outright
2. If a parry is possible, the shield is used with no chance to break
3. SHIELDS SHALL BE SPLINTERED!

[kenmeister]

Personally, I like to have shields do 1 block per round against a melee attack in addition to the -1 ac benefit. A block is simply an opposed attack roll. The defender rolls to hit, counting any magic shield bonuses as a bonus to hit, and if he hits the same or better armor class than the attacker, the attack is blocked. This gives shields the proper role they should have.

[coffee]

Aug 22, 2009 18:17:18 GMT -6 kenmeister said:

Personally, I like to have shields do 1 block per round against a melee attack in addition to the -1 ac benefit. A block is simply an opposed attack roll. The defender rolls to hit, counting any magic shield bonuses as a bonus to hit, and if he hits the same or better armor class than the attacker, the attack is blocked. This gives shields the proper role they should have.

Ooh, now that I like! Have an exalt for that one.

[Deleted]

I tried something similar years ago. Similar but not the same. I like this better.

[snorri]

In Epées & sorcellerie :

* Shields may be used to deflect a killing blow 'ie. a blow which would send the shield owner under 0 hp.) once per fight.

* As fight is simultaneous, it may be used to parry a range weapon (if the shiled owner makes a better attack roll than the thrower).

* Hand-off weapons can be used as shield (+1 to AC) OR as Secondary weapon (+1 to damage).

[thorswulf]

Several skirmish wargames rules I have seen use a similar mechanic to this as well. Essentially each figure rolls an attack die and a defense die/save die to see if the attack is successful and whether or not the defender managed to avoid it or avoid taking damage from it.

One thing OD&D and Chainmail does not take into consideration are the sizes of shields, and the ammount of attacks they can be used against in a round of combat. AD&D stated how many attacks a shield could defend against: 1 for a small, 2 for a medium, and 3 for a large. Well whatever size or description is really up to ones interpretation of things, but most shields on figs are a medium unless they obviously are armed with a buckler. Large shields would be more like a scutum, tower shield, a pavise, or a bronze age hoplon. These suckers are BIG! Knight shields, viking rounds, and kite shields really only strike me as being medium because they cover one half of the user. Besides you only pay 10gp for a shield, so it probably would be a medium.

So what you get is a combat round where the active melee person could roll one d20 to hit, and up to 3 d20 to defend, and the defense can apply to either missles or melee weapons. The attack still has to beat the to hit number based on opponent's AC, and the defense score based on the attacker's to hit number as this is an active defense. Rear attacks are against the targets AC -1 for being unshielded, and a gain any bonus for a rear attack.