Giving Shields Some Oomph

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2012 17:52:15 GMT -6 DH said:

A standard criticism of D&D's combat system is how little benefit shields offer PCs.

You're stating a shield doesn't protect enough. I'm just spit-ballin' here but if you feel that way why don't you just increase the protection a shield grants? For instance +3 for a kite shield, +2 for a shield, and a mere +1 for a buckler.

[waysoftheearth]

In my games I use the shields shall be splintered option, and also have all "small" weapons (daggers etc.) and missiles attack at -2 versus shields.

This seems to be just about the "right" balance for me

[Mushgnome]

Rules-as-written, encasing yourself in steel (going from chain to plate) improves AC by 2. If you think holding a shield in one hand should provide equal-or-greater benefit, go for it!

[cooper]

Once per turn, if you charge with a shield, in aditition to doing normal damage, your target is stuned and loses his next action.

This is (to me) perhaps a nice trade off of the character who uses a 2 handed weapon who gets to attack first on a charge and does 2x dmg.

Also, perhaps using a shield gives +1 to saves vs. breath weapons and spells.

[aldarron]

Okay, want to really model shields rules on the real things? Let them simultaneaously act as a defensive bonus to AC (+1, +2 whatever) and an offensive 2nd hand weapon using your favorite two weapon rule. If you are having trouble thinking of shields as offensive weapons picture someone standing in front of you and bashing you repetedly with a 3 foot piece of plywood. It wouldn't exactly tickle.

[Deleted]

In the final reflection . . . is there any real problem with using the RAW for shields? When all HD and damage rolls are d6 it seems to me that +1 (5%) to AC is a pretty reasonable amount.

Okay, so in your mind it isn't terribly accurate (I have no idea on that point). That begs the question: so what? It may not be accurate but it is consistent.

Food for thought, I hope.

[talysman]

Active Block: skip attack to get an additional point of defense.

Cover: Anything bigger than a buckler can be used to block missile fire from one direction (minimum AC 3, otherwise as Active Block.)

Those two plus shield bash and Shields Shall Be Splintered are enough for me.

[Aplus]

You can throw it at people and it returns like Captain America!

[Mushgnome]

Shields have another important benefit nobody's mentioned yet, which is that they can be enchanted. If you want to make them a more appealing choice for PCs, then stock plenty of +1 shields in your dungeons, and house-rule that this bonus "stacks" with magic armor.

[Mike]

I've started granting Fighting-Men the following bonus where they forego their attack and focus on defending for the entire round:

-2 to be hit, -3 if using a shield (if DEX 15+ double those modifiers).

Of course not many players want to forego their attack but it does allow for some implementation of the cinematic "holding" action whilst other characters activate the trap, open the door or whatever.

Clerics don't get this option.

[norse]

On the DR mentioned earlier: Have you considered doing it the other way around? A shield is a more important factor on whether you get hit or not than armour. So have different kinds of shield and character skill affecting armour class, and have different types of armour giving DR's of 1, 2 or 3 points. Probably changes things too much for you, but it works well for us.

[Deleted]

I've noticed that throughout history, as the armor got better, the shields got smaller. So here's what I do:

Small Shield provides +2 AC if no armor is worn, +1 otherwise.
Large Shields provide +3 AC if no armor is worn, +2 AC to chainmail and +1 to platemail

[talysman]

That actually sounds pretty good. I'd probably rearrange it as "any shield improves AC by 1; small shield provides minimum AC 7, large shield minimum AC 3".

I think I'll merge that into the rules I mentioned earlier.

[warrioroffrobozz]

Sometimes Bucklers were spiked, so maybe you could give them an offensive bonus (maybe 1 Extra Damage), while kite shields and the like boost +1 AC?

[capheind]

How about, should the enemy roll a fumble (if you use a fumble rule) they lose their weapon, as its become lodged in the shield.

[bobjester]

It requires an extra die roll, but an attack on anyone bearing a shield must roll a d6: on a roll of 6, the attack is deflected by the shield. If a 1 - 5 is rolled, roll a normal d20 attack roll.

For Fighting Men bearing shields (and certain humanoid monsters that could be equivalent to Fighting Men) the deflection could be raised to a "5 or 6" result.

[zargon]

I completely see where your coming from on improving shields, but I'll give my own two c.p by saying that a Fighting Man in full plate with a shield has an AC of 2 (Rather Potent!). So giving them yet ANOTHER defensive benefit might be a little much.

You could space things out a little more by making armor less important and then giving the shield some cool additional benefit. Its really up to you I suppose.

[waysoftheearth]

May 29, 2012 17:44:10 GMT -6 DH said:

I'm leaning toward just changing the math, viz. shields are +3 to AC and armor ranks light to heavy +1 - +3. This roughly approximates the original values while boosting shields considerably.

I'm also considering giving low DR to armor, but still weighing that. That's a whole nother topic anyway.

Hey DH, it would be great to hear how it turns out for you

FWIW -- I trialled a system almost identical to what you describe here. With a couple of minor changes, I'm still using it two years on.

One thing I noted right away was that degrading leather armour from +2 AC to +1 really hurts the thief/ranger types who don't employ shields. I quickly reverted to +2 for leather armour, so chain and plate became +3 and +4, respectively.

My method for shields is more fiddly than a straight +3, but it works out (more-or-less) to +3 versus missiles, +2 versus basic weaponry, and +1 versus "good" weaponry (i.e., the fighter only weapons).

This seems to be working out pretty well in my games.


I also experimented with damage reduction for a while, but in the end I dropped it. Not because it was unsatisfactory per se, but because it took longer at the table. Introducing DR means you need to add a DR stat to every character/monster, record it, and remember to apply it to every hit. That turned out to be a pretty significant overhead that honestly didn't add much to the game.

That was my experience anyway... yours may well be different