Stalwart Defender with a broken tower shield.

[ashern]

So I was looking at stalwart defender and something jumped out at me. A defender with the Bulwark defensive power can add his Armor check penalty to the DC of acrobatics checks and bluff checks. The armor check penalty of a tower shield is -10, and according to the broken status effect

"If the item is a suit of armor or a shield, the bonus it grants to AC is halved, rounding down. Broken armor doubles its armor check penalty on skills."

Is there any way to use this? I've never played a stalwart defender but there has to be something you could do with it.

[Alexander Kilcoyne]

"On skills".

[Imbicatus]

PRD Armor Check Penalty wrote:

Armor Check Penalty: Any armor heavier than leather, as well as any shield, hurts a character's ability to use Dexterity- and Strength-based skills. An armor check penalty applies to all Dexterity- and Strength-based skill checks. A character's encumbrance may also incur an armor check penalty.

Shields: If a character is wearing armor and using a shield, both armor check penalties apply.

ANY armor check penalty is a penalty on skills. RAW it should work.

[Alexander Kilcoyne]

The armor penalty itself is not doubling. Its just doubled for the purpose of skills.

[SiuoL]

I agree with Alexander. It said the armor check penalty on skills gets double. Not the penalty itself. The penalty apply to the skill checks, and that is when it gets doubled. If you want to max the DC for others to bluff and acrobatics pass you, you just have to max out your CMD, I think there is no other way around it.

[Derwalt]

I agree with Imbicatus - an Armor Check Penalty is always a penalty to skills. That makes the last part of the sentence "Broken armor doubles its armor check penalty on skills", redudant. RAW it should work.

[Kalridian]

If non-proficient, ACP is also added to Attack rolls. Therefore ACP does NOT always only apply to Skills.