Hi, my friends and I are about three sessions deep into Pathfinder. I have a question that we can't figure out an answer for.
Suppose my character is armed with a weapon and a shield. Let's say I attack with my weapon, resolve the attack, and then decide to full attack, and bash with my shield. Does the shield bash suffer a two weapon fighting penalty? What about the weapon attack I made before the bash? What about any further weapon attacks to be made after the bash? What if I make a weapon attack, and then I decide not to shield bash? We're uncertain of exactly when the shield counts as a weapon.
Thank you for any help. I understand people have run this topic into the ground with "dual wield shield" threads, but I haven't found an answer to this question anywhere.
Oh, one more. When a weapon has a trait, like "trip" (defined as, "this weapon can be used to trip"), does that mean the weapon's reach applies to trips, or that a successful trip deals weapon damage and has a threat range?
Thanks again,
Dan
Yeh, that's a bit of a black spot, it's not actually covered by RAW, merely implied.
I assume you're talking about the Deciding between an Attack or a Full Attack section. To my mind, that's regarding a full attack because your BAB is +6 or higher.
Because the -2 from TWF applies to both attacks, by not declaring your full attack before your first attack, you're getting an undue advantage.
In short, if you're BAB is +6 or higher you don't have to declare the full attack before your first attack, if you're TWFing then you do.
As far as trip weapons go, both the Guisarme and Whip have Reach and Trip traits and yes, can be used to trip at full reach. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the weapon to avoid being tripped.
If you did not take the TWF penalty on your first attack, the only way that you can bash with the shield is using iterative attacks.
However, it seems perfectly reasonable to make a single attack with TWF penalties, and then decide whether that was an Attack Action (leaving you with a move action but no more attacks) or a Full Attack Action (leaving you with your TWF attacks and any iteratives but no move).
If you did not take the TWF penalty on your first attack, the only way that you can bash with the shield is using iterative attacks.
However, it seems perfectly reasonable to make a single attack with TWF penalties, and then decide whether that was an Attack Action (leaving you with a move action but no more attacks) or a Full Attack Action (leaving you with your TWF attacks and any iteratives but no move).
That's how I do it. I make one attack with the two-weapon fighting penalty and then decide if I want to take a move action or take another attack with the two-weapon fighting penalty.
Of course if you take a move action first, then by all means, attack with your full modifier.
Thanks for the help, that method makes the most sense. Until shield slam becomes available, it seems to me like bashing is strictly worse than dual wielding, unless I'm missing something.
A similar question related to Combat Expertise: Can I make an attack with a weapon, resolve the attack, then declare a full attack and apply combat expertise to the remainder of my attacks?
When do player's invoke CE? Is it a feat for the party tank to use when surrounded? Would you ever stack fighting defensively on top of it?
Thanks for the help, that method makes the most sense. Until shield slam becomes available, it seems to me like bashing is strictly worse than dual wielding, unless I'm missing something.
A similar question related to Combat Expertise: Can I make an attack with a weapon, resolve the attack, then declare a full attack and apply combat expertise to the remainder of my attacks?
When do player's invoke CE? Is it a feat for the party tank to use when surrounded? Would you ever stack fighting defensively on top of it?
You declare the full attack and all things that will modify it, like power attack or combat expertise or Two weapon fighting. Then you can choose to not take later attacks, but the bonuses and penalties still apply.