A question recently came up of whether or not you lose your shield bonus when flat-footed. I think I saw that in the Player's Handbook somewhere, but I can't remember where.
That is weird, I swear I read it somewhere. I cannot find it though. I never applied shield bonuses to flat-footed AC, maybe it was an assumption on my part.
Not according to every entry (at least everyone I saw) in the MM where someone is using a shield.
Heck, guess I need to go through my characters and make sure my AC is right then.
Yes, shield bonus does apply to flat-footed AC. You only lose your dexterity and dodge bonuses to AC when flat-footed. However, it's a common houserule to say it doesn't, and it makes sense most of the time. Just warn the players about the houserule ahead of time rather than springing it mid-fight.
Not according to every entry (at least everyone I saw) in the MM where someone is using a shield.
Actually, according to the MM, you do keep it. Check out the gnoll. 15 AC. That's 10 base, 2 armor, 1 natural, and 2 shield.
So what happens when you have an animated shield, do you still loose shield bonus even though it's just floating in front of you to protect you.
You don't lose your shield bonus when flat-footed at all, period. Unless you pass a houserule. In which case it can be rescinded for the magic floating shield.
The real irony is that the animated shield doesn't protect you from touch attacks, which apparently means that touching the shield floating around you is the same as touching your person.
Yes, shield bonus does apply to flat-footed AC. You only lose your dexterity and dodge bonuses to AC when flat-footed. However, it's a common houserule to say it doesn't, and it makes sense most of the time. Just warn the players about the houserule ahead of time rather than springing it mid-fight.
Not according to every entry (at least everyone I saw) in the MM where someone is using a shield.Actually, according to the MM, you do keep it. Check out the gnoll. 15 AC. That's 10 base, 2 armor, 1 natural, and 2 shield.
The question was "do you lose the shield bonus?" My answer was "not according to the MM", i.e. you do not lose the shield bonus. Sorry if my response wasn't clear.
The question was "do you lose the shield bonus?" My answer was "not according to the MM", i.e. you do not lose the shield bonus. Sorry if my response wasn't clear.
Ah, I misread. Sorry 'bout that.
Yeah, we noticed this too. We couldn't find an old 3.5 book to look through to see if this was a real change or just something we always seemed to do for no reason at all.
Had a few situations like that crop up...
Well, d20srd.org is still up so you can go look there.
You never lost the shield bonus while being flat-footed, not in 3.0, not in 3.5, not in Pathfinder. It may be a little weird, but on the other hand, your shield is still there. Depending on the shield, it can cover almost half of your body, at least the front side. It's not as good as actively interposing it, but it's not useless, either.
But how would you handle that "correctly"? Lose half your shield bonus when flat-footed? An extra flat AC rating for shields? I guess the idea was to keep things simple, and to err on the side of protection.
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So what happens when you have an animated shield, do you still loose shield bonus even though it's just floating in front of you to protect you.You don't lose your shield bonus when flat-footed at all, period. Unless you pass a houserule. In which case it can be rescinded for the magic floating shield.
The real irony is that the animated shield doesn't protect you from touch attacks, which apparently means that touching the shield floating around you is the same as touching your person.
Sorry I was replying to your common house rule comment. Although I never been in a game with that as a house rule.