When employing a tower shield in combat, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls because of the shield's encumbrance.
Does this change if the Tower Shield is made out of Mithral?
It's doesn't specifically states so, so no.
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The description of a Tower Shield is: "massive wooden shield", so I don't think Mithral is even an option.
The description of a Tower Shield is: "massive wooden shield", so I don't think Mithral is even an option.
So how about Darkwood?
FWIW, I don't think it would work, since the tower shield's -2 isn't an armor check penalty, but darkwood tower shield is an option.
Regardless of the material, the Tower Shield will always give -2 to attack rolls.
This is an additional penalty over and above the Armor Check.
Regardless of the material, the Tower Shield will always give -2 to attack rolls.
This is an additional penalty over and above the Armor Check.
Correct, the -2 to attack is the fact that you have a really large piece of whatever hanging on your arm and causing your attacks to be off-balanced and unwieldy.
The fact that you have Tower Shield Proficiency from a class or feat allows you to not take the Armor check penalty to your attacks and damage.
A Darkwood Tower shield would reduce the weight by half (22.5 lbs for Medium).
A Tower Shield cannot be made from metal. Although you could have one created from Dragonhide, Ironwood, or Paueliel (a type of wood similar to Darkwood).
In all cases the penalty to attack would still be -2. This can be negated by taking the Tower shield specialist archtype in Ultimate Combat for Fighter.
If your DM allowed content from 3.5 you can make a Mithral Tower Shield from the Races of Stone splat book. A Steel Tower Shield weighs 100 lbs. so a Mithral Tower Shield would weigh 50 lbs.
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Link: Debate over whether the existence of a special magic mithral tower shield implies the legality of nonmagical ones
Reading those old arguments makes me glad I don't care about that sort of thing any more.
Reading those old arguments makes me glad I don't care about that sort of thing any more.
This.
Holy crap... I was trying to figure why this thread was necro'ed, but got distracted by all petty squabbling. Went down a rabbit hole there. My god.
The material composition of your Tower Shield matters how much, exactly?
Weight? Probably not an issue to anyone seriously considering using a freaking Tower Shield in the first place. And still heavy AF, even at half the normal weight. Almost like it's not even worth arguing about.
Armor Check Penalty? Does not apply to attacks if one is proficient... and who else actaully even considers using one? Plus, it's not like the material is going to save you from that -10... Darkwood is still -8, Mithral would still be -7... you still suck at literally every single Dex/Str check regardless of its material. Almost like it's not even worth arguing about.
Arcane Spell Failure chance? Lmao. It's 50%... and would still be 40% if made from Mithral... not even worth trying. Definitely not worth arguing about.
Max Dex? I'm sure this matters a lot to people using Tower Shields. Lol. But probably doesn't matter enough to argue about.
Hardness/HP? How many GM's (besides myself) actually use Sunder against the party? Does this come up often enough to actually argue about it on the internet?
Tower Shields are going to suck regardless of the material they are made from. Even the examples of published Mithral Tower Shields still suck.
Agreed. Never seriously considered using one myself. Played a PFS game one time and the full plate wearing tower shield using fighter fell in a bog and nearly drowned cuz he wouldn’t drop the shield. He eventually did drop it but one of the party casters still had to summon a water elemental to save his butt and find his shield after lolz.
@Voodist, Apparently people have gotten towershields down to almost 0 armor check, enough that allowing it to be mithral would mean you can use nonsensical cheese like Versatile Weapon + Butchering Axe + Shield Brace with no penalty. So it matters to someone.
Being able to bash with a Tower Shield would be awesome.
Regardless of the absolutely stupid amount of feats it would require to be effective, a Kool-Aid Man build with a Tower Shield would be cool AF. Using fun things like Breaker of Barriers, Shrapnel Strike, and Stunning Irruption... you could initiate combat by blasting a hole in the wall, and immediately plug said hole with your shield. Is it a silly knock-knock joke, or an epic distraction? We go on my signal...
Everyone within "20 feet of your entry point must succeed at a Fortitude saving throw (DC = 10 + your base attack bonus) or be stunned instead of acting in the surprise round (if there is one) plus 1 round thereafter. Characters who succeed at this save are instead shaken for 1d4 rounds." Plus, everyone within 10 feet also has to make a Reflex save with a DC equal to 10 + half your HD + your Strength modifier, or takes 1D4 + the object's Hardness in piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage.
And the freaking shield is there when the dust clears. It's hilarious.