It means movement as in movement speed not as in general movement, thats why they are still restricted to the max dex of armors, the negative 2 is because your still carrying a door around, personally I would never use a tower shield. The -2 to attack for +2 AC (over heavy shield) is not worth it and it comes with a max dex of +2 and an ACP of -10
i was wondering why the dwarf fighter takes the minus 2 to attack when fighter gives tower shield proficency and it says for movement dwarves arent affected by armor...so why would a dwarf be encumbered for reasons of attack when it doesent affect him for movement?
The word you're getting tripped up on is Encumbrance. Slow and Steady negates one part of Encumbrance, not the entire mechanic.
Slow and Steady: Dwarves have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.
Slow and Steady refers to having exceeded a certain weight in respect to your character's strength or restrictions from the weight of armor worn/items carried. Dwarves are not affected by encumbrance in regards to their movement speed like other races would be.
Dwarves are still affected by all other forms of Armor Encumbrance. (Limiting your DEX modifier, Armor Check Penalties, etc).
Armor Descriptions - Shield, Tower: ... When employing a tower shield in combat, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls because of the shield's encumbrance.
The encumbrance in the armor description for a Tower Shield is not referring to the above facet of the game term (Encumbrance). Rather, they are attempting to say: because of the shield's enormous size it is difficult to attack properly as it is throwing you off balance(even with proficiency).
This is a somewhat unique form of Encumbrance found on the tower shield. All creatures who wield one are subject to this penalty.
As the Encumbrance by Armor from the Tower Shield does not affect speed and the dwarf will still suffer the Encumbrance from Armor penalty. Similarly, they will still suffer Armor Check penalties for wearing Armor.
even if it is the same term for encumbrance its an attack penalty not a speed penalty, dwarves only have a protection from encumbrance penalties to speed
even if it is the same term for encumbrance its an attack penalty not a speed penalty, dwarves only have a protection from encumbrance penalties to speed
It's because the dwarves have short but strong legs, so they aren't slowed down by wearing armor. The tower shield isn't leg based...
