Aiken Frost's page

I, like many others, disagree hardly with the way shields are currently being mechanically portrayed in the Playtest. They make no sense compared to history, simulate no popular fiction about them and is simply no worth it in game.

I thought about my greatest grievances with shield mechanics and came to the following solutions. They weren't tested yet, I just came up with them and decided to submit them to evaluation.

Having said all that, here are my points:

1st- Eliminate completely the Reaction expenditure to block with a shield. Make it an automatic result of having spent an action to Raise your shield on your turn. You Raise you shield, you get its bonus to AC and block any attacks directed at you until you next turn, reducing their damage by the shield's Hardness;

2nd- Allow any character to Raise a shield as a Reaction. Simple as that. No "ifs", "buts" or conditions, no Feat tax, just allow it as base function of shields themselves;

3rd- Eliminate completely the possibility of shields being damaged by Blocking attacks. One exception to this: if the attack the shield blocks is a Critical Hit, then it takes the normal damage of the attack, possibly being damaged or even broken in the process;

4th- Make that any attack that causes damage above a certain threshold to a blocking opponent, makes the shield "un-Raised" until the opponent have the opportunity to Raise it again. This threshold could be Hardness + Strength or Hardness + Constitution (or both, more likely).

These suggestions allows shield users to feel a lot more empowered, making shields actually worth using instead of being a chore coupled with a money sink.

I'm creating this character for a Warcraft campaign of a friend. We are using Pathfinder with 3.5 things allowed on a case by case basis (I'm actually not very interested in using 3.5 stuff, but if there is anything too irresistible to pass...).

My character is a Orc Paladin 3/Cavalier of the Blue Rose 2. I will probably go Cavalier 4 and Paladin the rest of the way. He is focused in using a big hammer-thing from the Warcraft book as a weapon, but I am willing to change if anyone get a better idea.

My stats are: Str 16, Dex 12, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 8, Car 18.

Since Warcraft's orcs get Rage as a racial ability and there is at least one other orc in the party, I took Amplified Rage as the Cavalier Teamwork Feat for the Tactician Ability.

My objective with this character is to represent a wise and older orc, who became sick of a life of bloodshed and is trying to make his race become respected and change their ways. He do this by smacking people's faces with a big hammer causing non-lethal damage. =)

Any ideas, guys? Especially for feats?