| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So reading through the various feats in the new armour handbook and the mobile bulwark style & tower shield specialist feat got me thinking about the Tower Shield Specialist archetype from Ultimate Combat. So I was wondering whether throwing all these things together would make something fun and viable if maybe not super optimal.
Mobile Bulwark Style
Reqs:Str 13, Shield Focus, TS proficient, BAB +1
Add shield’s AC & enhancement bonuses to CMD vs bull rush & overrun.
When in the style, you can set the edge of total cover as a move action.
Mobile Fortress
Reqs:As above except Str 15, MB Style & BAB +4
Add shield’s AC & enhancement bonuses, halved, to touch AC, only –1 penalty on attack rolls. When in the style grant any adjacent ally total cover against attacks passing through the covered edge.
Mobile Stronghold
Reqs:As above except Str 17, Mobile Fortress & BAB +7
No penalty on attack rolls. When in the style, whenever you use a tower
shield to gain total cover, you (& adjacent allies) also gain partial cover vs spells passing through the set edge. Also when in the style, as an immediate or swift action, gain total cover against a single attack made against you.
Tower Shield Specialist[Feat]
Reqs:Shield Focus, TS proficient, BAB +11 or fighter lvl8
Reduce the armour check penalty for tower shields by 3, if you have armour training class feature, modify armour check penalty and max Dexterity of tower shields as if they were armour.
Tower Shield Specialist Archetype is here
So there's a bit of redundancy between almost all of what Fortress (an a little of Stronghold) gives and what the archetype gives. Tho I think to get the thrid feat in the chain and get penalty reductions & extra AC a little sooner it's probably worth it. Willing to hear other thoughts on that.
Now the Specialist feat is interesting because it helps to considerably reduce the skill check & Dex penalty of a tower shield.
Start: -10 check penalty, +2 Dex.
With Specialist feat: +3 skill penalty = -7, +2
Armour Training 1: +3, +2 = -4, +4
However I'm unclear if armour training is applied to the tower shield stats and then again to the armour's stats. It would seem useless for the Specialist feat to say it can get applied to the shield if it can only be applied to one of them at a time, but also it sounds just a little too good if it does apply to both for a total of +6 off check penalties.
Regardless of the above there are now two choices on how to remove the remove the remaining penalties:
Take armour training 2 to 4 OR Get a mithril tower shield (another +3, +2) & a trait. Allowing for advanced armour training options.
Which is better probably depends largely on what armour is being used on top of the shield, which in turn depends on what type of build I go for. Has to be Str based due to the feat requirements. Beyond that my first thought is perhaps predictably a tank.