Tower Shields are not useless!


Advice

Lantern Lodge

I got excited. I found a good, if not awesome use of a tower shield:

Step 1: Get a Familiar that can hold a shield.
Step 2: Get the Shield Wall teamwork feat.
Step 3: Make your familiar wear a Ring of Tactical Precision
Step 4: Make your familiar ready an action to use the Tower Shield for total cover when either you or the familiar is attacked, with the facing of the shield towards the attacked.

Wahla! Cover (maybe even total cover) against an attacker. Not even a 5 foot step will completely negate the cover.


"Wahla"

I'm sorry what


So a magic ring for 11000 gp and a familiar that spend his actions on giving you cover? I think it still sucks.
A normal Tower shield May be worth it if used to close in on some archers or somthing but not to have on the arm all Day.

Lantern Lodge

Asking for total cover from a tiny familiar may be a little cheesy...

But, later on in levels when you have gold to spare, it's certainly worth looking at.


FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:

Asking for total cover from a tiny familiar may be a little cheesy...

But, later on in levels when you have gold to spare, it's certainly worth looking at.

Exept that the little guy will be very vulnerabel out there.

Lantern Lodge

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Eh, thats why he's got the shield :)


FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:

Asking for total cover from a tiny familiar may be a little cheesy...

But, later on in levels when you have gold to spare, it's certainly worth looking at.

I thought this was a joke post. The shield taking up that many resources to help you avoid one hit still makes it subpar, and its status has not really improved.

The tower shield like many things is not completely "useless", but it is not worth picking up if you are looking at things from a purely mechanical view point.

The Exchange

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My tower shield is useful! In the wintertime. For sledding.

Wheeee!


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Much like Assassins, tower shields are indeed not completely useless... Just really freaking awful and strictly inferior to similar options.

Grand Lodge

My blackened oracle really likes it so much armor bonus :)


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Rynjin wrote:

"Wahla"

I'm sorry what

One assumes he meant "Voilà". And thus, voilà! I elucidate.

In general, while this trick is amusing, and arguably works - that is a huge investment for some cover.
That said, yes, tower shields aren't useless if you have a desperate need for cover. Should probably drop them the moment you're up close to (presumably) the people shooting you though.

FrodoOf9Fingers wrote:
But, later on in levels when you have gold to spare, it's certainly worth looking at.

At later levels, surely one wants to use their familiar as some UMD abuser? At least, I thought that was the general consensus (Even if this image is amusing, and I'm doing it instead anyway).

Lantern Lodge

I was thinking along the lines of both an UMD abuser / Tower Shield protector, the imagery seemed nice.

I thought of this from a Skirnir's (Magus shield archetype) perspective. The extra +2 shield bonus is nice. While melee types can easily 5-foot step diagonally around it after their first attack, that option isn't available to ranged characters. Breath weapons would be evaded, and spells cast at you would either A. not work because you have total cover, meaning no line of effect, or B. get redirected at your familiar, who is holding the shield.

But, as has been said, probably not worth it on it's own.

Voila!:
As to "Wahla" versus Voila, Voila is more correct, but I read in a book somewhere (I think it was "Write Smarter, Not Harder") that using a more phonic spelling would better understood, since it's not natural to connect the word to it's pronunciation (darn French words have either too many or too few letters). Perhaps, however, Paizo forums is not one of those places where we should only use 5th grade spellings and words O.o.

Sovereign Court

I liked the 3.5 Tower Shield for giving cover to allies (could shut down dragon breath weapons) - leaving it in cover 'mode' while moving up narrow passages etc - but Pathfinder nerfed them by removing all of their cool secondary abilities. (Can't remain in cover mode from round to round and it only gives you cover.)

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