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Fulmir wrote:

A Buckler specifically says that you can't get the shield bonus in the same round that you fire a bow with the shield. A Ring of Force Shield creates a Heavy Shield of force which can be turned on and off as a free action. Can you gain the benefits of a Ring of Force Shield by turning it off, firing your bow, and then turning it back on again at the end of the round?

I liked the clarification on Blink from... about 100 pages ago but I still have a question. The wording in Blink talks about incorporeal AND Ethereal, so does it drop you straight into the Ethereal plane or does it just blink you Incorporeal and would a Ghost Touch weapon work (something that's never been stated to be a Force Effect and in fact uses Plane Shift in its creation).

A ring of force shield is the best kind of shield for an archer or the like, because yes, you CAN turn it on and off that fast.

Blink is still a kind of complicated spell. In earlier editions of the game, there WAS no "incorporeal" status, really—such effects were considered instead to be "ethereal" or "partially ethereal." With 3rd edition, they added incorporeal as a status, but did a pretty poor job separating it from being on the ethereal plane, and in a couple of cases, that poor wording crept into Pathifnder.

When you blink, in any event, you are not ethereal. Ghost touch weapons don't help.

Sorry this kind of confused things again. Blink says, in 3.5 at least, that you become Ethereal, meaning a Force Effect would hit you but a Ghost Touch weapon would not.

"Ghost Touch: A ghost touch weapon deals damage normally against incorporeal creatures, regardless of its bonus. An incorporeal creature's 50% reduction in damage from corporeal sources does not apply to attacks made against it with ghost touch weapons. The weapon can be picked up and moved by an incorporeal creature at any time. A manifesting ghost can wield the weapon against corporeal foes. Essentially, a ghost touch weapon counts as both corporeal or incorporeal."

If you're becoming incorporeal then a ghost touch weapon would negate part of the miss chance (per the rules for Blink) and a Blinking character could weild a Ghost Touch weapon to ignore his own 20% miss chance for suddenly being (ethereal, incorporeal, or something).

Sorry to keep taking up your time with this one, it's one of my favorite tricks and then a friend of mine pointed out it shouldn't work and I want to know what Pathfinder's intent is. (I'd repost the wording for Blink but it's HUGE, it is however here -> http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/blink.html and oh wow did you guys fix the wording, guess that answers my question...)

Hey, huge fan of your content (especially Savage Tides, <3 that entire adventure path)

So, couple of really odd rules questions that have cropped up in my group:

A Buckler specifically says that you can't get the shield bonus in the same round that you fire a bow with the shield. A Ring of Force Shield creates a Heavy Shield of force which can be turned on and off as a free action. Can you gain the benefits of a Ring of Force Shield by turning it off, firing your bow, and then turning it back on again at the end of the round?

I liked the clarification on Blink from... about 100 pages ago but I still have a question. The wording in Blink talks about incorporeal AND Ethereal, so does it drop you straight into the Ethereal plane or does it just blink you Incorporeal and would a Ghost Touch weapon work (something that's never been stated to be a Force Effect and in fact uses Plane Shift in its creation).

I look at it like this. You gain the penalties because you have another weapon in your hand. Let's say you have a full attack action and you only attack with your primary hand, you still take the penalties. You don't take away the penalties just because you don't attack with your off hand.

Blackbloodtroll is correct (if, perhaps a bit blunt about it). You can hold whatever you want in your off hand while making attacks and nothing prevents you from picking between the two weapons for which is your off-hand and which is your main-hand. The penalties for two weapon fighting aren't because you have something in your off hand (otherwise all shields, not just a tower shield, would cause problems). They're because you're basically trying to juggle the weapons and they get in each others' way a bit simply because they're restricting the attack arcs you can use against an opponent if nothing else.

So avoid that issue altogether. A quickdraw shield with quick draw feat. Standard action attack with broadsword. Move action retrieve quickdraw shield from the bag you inexplicably keep it in. Free action ready the shield. This is completely rules legal, makes logistical sense, and does not break game balance.

Following that same logic, stowing the QD shield (free), full attack with broadsword (full round), then donning the QD shield (free) is also legal.

And following that same logic, doing the same with a magical weightless force construct that otherwise functions identically is also legal.

Denying someone the AC bonus from a shield they just equipped is like denying someone the threat from a weapon they...

First off, I wouldn't have posted if I didn't feel there was a game balance issue. In this case the person honestly did not care in the LEAST about the AC bonus from he shield. He was using it to make use of feats that only worked when you had a shield ready. Specifically the one that lets you deflect an incoming ranged or ranged touch attack once per round (and at the ranges he was firing from he wasn't taking much fire).

The thing you have to remember is that a "round" is six seconds long, meaning that technically characters are acting nearly simultaneously, initiative order is simply who's reacting fastest within that six seconds.

The reason you lose the AC bonus from a buckler when you use that arm to attack is because you've dedicated that arm to attacking for the round and can't effectively mount a defense against incoming attacks. Same would (and should) apply to the Quickdraw shields. The only benefit of those being that you don't have to keep a shield glued to your arm constantly in case a fight breaks out (a pretty nice benefit all things considered).

In the case of drawing a weapon it's significantly easier to whack at someone than it is to block someone whacking at you. Also drawn weapons are automatically in position to attack and do someone bodily harm. The same can't be said for a shield you just drew and the blade coming at your neck.

Fulmir wrote:

It came up in this instance because the character in question was using the ring to use shield feats. The AC was mostly incidental (especially in the context of this particular game). The only reason I'm questioning this is because a Buckler says you can't use the shield in the same round you make attacks with a weapon using that hand.

If they were not wielding the buckler, but only a sword, and they attacked with the sword as a standard action, then spent a move action to ready the buckler, it should grant the AC bonus. Same thing with a light or heavy shield. The ring is basically doing the same thing, only with a free action instead of a move.

The issue is attacking with a hand that uses the shield and still getting the bonus. Not sure where you got the "move action to ready" bit but it makes some sense if the sword was on the same arm as the buckler.

The other piece of evidence is that making a shield bash with a shield also removes the AC bonus for the round and even de-activating and re-activating the Force Shield wouldn't change that.

Yeah, you can use it with a Greatsword this way.

In the Serpent Skull AP, they actually equip the iconic Valeros with one at higher level, so he gets the shield bonus to AC.

Meh. It's a +2 bonus you can't increase. Not a game breaker.

==Aelryinth

It came up in this instance because the character in question was using the ring to use shield feats. The AC was mostly incidental (especially in the context of this particular game). The only reason I'm questioning this is because a Buckler says you can't use the shield in the same round you make attacks with a weapon using that hand.

It specifically says Ring of Force Shield is wielded the same as a heavy shield. A heavy shield specifically states you can't use the hand wielding it for anything else. So, you can't use the ring and a two-handed weapon. No clarification needed, it says it quite plainly. Unless I am misunderstanding the question, then I apologize.

Ah, sorry, the implication is that the character is deactivating his ring (a free action) making his attacks for the round, and then reactivating the ring (also a free action).

So, another guy in my gaming group and I got into discussing shield abilities and he pointed one out and mentioned that he'd used it in a previous game. In said previous game he was using a Longbow and I immediately wanted to know how he was using a two handed weapon and gaining a shield bonus. The buckler specifically says this isn't possible (at least without feats) but the Heavy Shield, which the Ring of Force Shield imitates has no such wording since you can't use the hand for anything. If anyone knows of any official clarification on this item please post, I couldn't find anything but a lot of speculation and 'well here's how I do it'.