Can I Draw a Shield with Two-Weapon Fighting?


Rules Questions


I'm making a PFS-CORE Ranger/Druid wielding a Sword/Axe and a Heavy Wooden Shield, but I have very little interest in focusing on Shield Bashing. My shield is there to defend me.
If I take the Two-Weapon Fighting Combat Style to get TWF, can I draw my shield in the same move action I use to draw my sword/axe? If so, can I combine this with Quick Draw to get them both as a free action? Or do I still have to don it as a move action after I draw it?


If it is a quickdraw shield then yes.


Quickdraw is not CORE


Oddly, the strict answer would seem to be that you can draw the shield as a weapon, but it isn't giving you an AC bonus until you spend a move action to actually ready it.


A shield is a weapon (you can shield bash without penalty as long as you're proficient with shields, after all) so as I GM I'd allow a shield to be drawn as a weapon (interacting with feats like Quick Draw and TWF like any other weapon). However, that might not be all that useful as you'd definitely need to strap it onto your arm with a move action before you gained a benefit, either offensive (shield bash) or defensive (AC bonus).You'd also need your other hand free to strap on the shield, so TWF would have limited usefulness.

When held in your hand, attacking with the shield would be using it as an improvised weapon rather than a shield bash since you'd be using it in a way different to the intended manner.

If you gained the benefits of using a shield simply by holding it in your hand, why would you ever bother taking the time to strap it on? Why would they include shields, and the action required to don them, in the Donning Armour chart?


No, you cannot draw shields with TWF in core.


A shield is both a weapon and a shield so you need to be able to satisfy both requirements in order to use it. Just because you can draw a weapon as a free action doesn't mean you can wear a shield as a free action because a shield happens to, in addition, count as a weapon. By that logic, you could wear your plate armor as a free action if you put armor spikes on it.

Scarab Sages

You are a ranger and thus have endurance. Never take the shield off your arm, even when you sleep.


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Imbicatus wrote:
You are a ranger and thus have endurance. Never take the shield off your arm, even when you sleep.

"You know, you're in the middle of a fortified castle with no chance that anyone could reach your room. Why do you have your shield on?"

"I MUST ALWAYS BE READY!"

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

But . . . how do you wipe?

I'm assuming you also never take off your spiked gauntlet either, just in case.


Ventnor wrote:
Imbicatus wrote:
You are a ranger and thus have endurance. Never take the shield off your arm, even when you sleep.

"You know, you're in the middle of a fortified castle with no chance that anyone could reach your room. Why do you have your shield on?"

"I MUST ALWAYS BE READY!"

You, sir/ma'am, have made me smile right before I lay down for bed.


runslikeawelshman wrote:
A shield is a weapon (you can shield bash without penalty as long as you're proficient with shields, after all)

Just to clarify this, just because you are proficient with using a shield for defense, doesn't mean you can bash without penalty. Shield is considered a martial weapon, so a Druid for example, can't shield bash without penalties. Here's the FAQ


Stockvillain wrote:

But . . . how do you wipe?

I'm assuming you also never take off your spiked gauntlet either, just in case.

Magic.


Kchaka wrote:
Stockvillain wrote:

But . . . how do you wipe?

I'm assuming you also never take off your spiked gauntlet either, just in case.

Magic.

Let's just say that Prestidigitation is very useful for a wide variety of life's problems.


Kazaan wrote:
A shield is both a weapon and a shield so you need to be able to satisfy both requirements in order to use it. Just because you can draw a weapon as a free action doesn't mean you can wear a shield as a free action because a shield happens to, in addition, count as a weapon. By that logic, you could wear your plate armor as a free action if you put armor spikes on it.

I was going to respond with "If that were the case, then drawing weapons like the Scizore wouldn't work with Quickdraw"...

But then I realized that a Scizore shouldn't work with Quickdraw because it takes a full round action to don it... you can still pull it out of whatever storage device was securing it to your person as a free action... but that doesn't mean you are necessarily holding it properly.

So basically... yeah, what Kazaan said

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