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I have a paladin with a long sword and a heavy spiked steel shield.
I know in a round without any penalties I can make 1 attack with my characters long sword and in 1 round without penalty my character could make 1 shield bash with his shield.
What would happen if my character decided to make one attack with his long sword and in addition, in the same round makes 1 shield bash with his shield?
What would the penalties to the attack rolls be?
Would the Two weapon fighting feat mitigate these penalties? How about the Improved Shield Bash feat? Two weapon Rend?
Thanks.
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Its like fighting with any two weapons, but you lose the shield ac bonus for the round unless you have improved shield bash. The pain is in twf's dex 15 requirement. 3.5 had a feat that acted as twf just for shields and had no dex requirement. I really wanted one in PF but I think Jason was against it for some reason.
BBT is talking about iterative attacks with the full attack action: that is, when you get two attacks at +6 and +1, you can take one of them with your sword and the other with your shield.
To be clear, the penalties for attacking with both are -6 with each hand, plus an additional -4 for your shield hand as the off-hand.
If you exchanged your shield for a light shield, the penalties for both hands decrease by 2.
If you take TWF, the penalties for both decrease by two and you no longer apply the off-hand extra -4 penalty.
In my opinion, any sword and board paladin would be wisest to use a light shield. Yes, it's a (very slight) damage reduction, but the penalties are much reduced and, critically, a light shield allows you to hold your weapon in your shield hand so that you can use Lay On Hands or cast spells. (Admittedly, in my experience most DMs don't enforce those rules, anyhow, but it's good to be prepared.)
Shield Bash and Two Weapon Rend don't affect the penalties you take by Two Weapon Fighting, but the TWF tree does.
Ok.
First, anyone can employ the Full Attack Action of Two Weapon Fighting (using two weapons in a round). This action carries penalties in excange for the benefit of gaing an extra attack. The feat Two Weapon Fighting Reduces these penalties.
Your Heavy Shield is classified as a One Handed Weapon, while a Light Shield would be classified as a Light Weapon which carries lesser penalties. Your Longsword is also classified as a One Handed Weapon.
The penalties for your two attacks with a Long Sword & Heavy shield are: -6 to your first attack and -10 to your second attack (now called off-hand). You can choose to start off with either your shield or your sword as your first attack.
If you had a light shield instead you'd have -4 to your first attack and -8 to your second attack (now called off-hand).
The two weapon fighting feat would reduce the penalties to -4/-4 with a longsword/heavy shield and a -2/-2 for a longsword/light shield.
If you do not have the Improved Shield Bash feat you forfeit your shield's AC bonuses in the round in which you use it to attack, but it has no effect on your attack roll penalties - nor does Two Weapon Rend.
Once you reach a base attack bonus of +6, you gain an extra attack per round and you can attack once with your longsword, and once with your shield, and suffer no penalties on attack rolls during a full attack action - but you would not be employing two weapon fighting. Additionally, you can use Two Weapon Fighitng during you full attack action for a total of 3 attacks.
For even more attacks add in Impoved or Greater Two Weapon Fighting.
*pant pant* That's a lot of digging.