Let's say I have a Spiked Heavy Shield that I want to use to impale faces onto it and make it a nice decorative piece. However, I also want it to be good at its job, which is to impale faces onto it. But it falls into its own problem; it's a shield. It is both a defensive item and a weapon item.
So let's say I managed to amass enough money to put up to a +10 Base Price Bonus worth of Enhancement Bonus/Special Abilities of any kind onto it. I have the Shield Master feat, so I'll want to put on a +5 AC, which would allow me to apply that Enhancement Bonus to AC to any attack and weapon damage rolls I make with it. Pretty cool, right? (And of course, the Bashing property.) However, I looked at some of the Weapon properties, and they are pretty cool.
But I already spent a +6 bonus total on the Shield (which is worth it), and there are a couple of things that are murky. So here is my question: With the Bashing Property and/or Shield Master feat usable on my character, do I still have to put a +1 Hit/Damage Enhancement on my shield, leaving me with +3 Base Price Bonus worth of special abilities I can throw on my shield, or can I go into it from the get-go and use the remaining +4 Base Price Bonus worth of special abilities?
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With shield master and bashing you have +10 (well, +8 after making it a +1 bashing shield) worth of shield enhancements to play with. You then make it a +1 weapon and have +9 bonuses worth of weapon enhancements to play with.
You still need to buy that +1 enhancement as a weapon before making it say a Flaming Holy Bane shield. Its redundant as you use the sheild enhancements as the attack and damage bonuses but you can't enchant as a weapon with out it being a +1 weapon.
At least this is how I understand it.
Umm...so you could essentially have a +10 armor piece AND a +10 weapon from the same item? I always thought that if you enchanted it as armor, you couldn't also enchant it as a weapon...
With shield master and bashing you have +10 (well, +8 after making it a +1 bashing shield) worth of shield enhancements to play with. You then make it a +1 weapon and have +9 bonuses worth of weapon enhancements to play with.
You still need to buy that +1 enhancement as a weapon before making it say a Flaming Holy Bane shield. Its redundant as you use the sheild enhancements as the attack and damage bonuses but you can't enchant as a weapon with out it being a +1 weapon.
At least this is how I understand it.
I think Shimesen has the right of it. Regardless of its strength, a magic armor or weapon cannot have higher than +10 Base Price Bonuses worth of effects. Though, I don't think he's right in that you can only enchant a shield in one fashion.
Here are the 2 relevant entries:
You do not suffer any penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon. Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.
A shield with this special ability is designed to perform a shield bash. A bashing shield deals damage as if it were a bashing weapon of two size categories larger (a Medium light shield thus deals 1d6 points of damage and a Medium heavy shield deals 1d8 points of damage). The shield acts as a +1 weapon when used to bash. Only light and heavy shields can have this ability.
The bolded parts above seem to catch my eye the most on this matter. In the case of Shield Master, it says that our shield enhancement bonuses are added to attacks and damage rolls made with said shields, and to treat it as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus. In the case of the Bashing property, it says the shield acts as a +1 weapon when used to bash. Although not a too compelling case, it still seems to function as a +1 weapon for all intents and purposes, since a +1(AC) Bashing Shield would have the effects of a +1 weapon in terms of hit points and hardness increase, as well as the enhancement bonuses to hit and damage.
Shield Master especially has me convinced that once you take that feat, it counts as both a magic weapon and a magic shield (though its effects, such as hit points and hardness, would not stack), if not the Bashing property alone, which basically treats it as a +1 shield and +1 weapon for all intents and purposes.
But for some odd reason, it just doesn't seem right...(And before it's said, no, it's not because I feel it's overpowered. I just feel that there's something I'm missing from making it legal.)
The spikes are enchanted as weapons, the shield is enchanted as a shield.
