Guarding (shield special ability): A guarding shield
allows the wearer to transfer some or all of the shield’s
enhancement bonus to an adjacent creature’s AC (this
bonus stacks with all others). As a free action at the start
of her turn before using any of the shield’s other abilities,
the wearer may choose an adjacent target and how much
of the shield’s enhancement bonus to allocate at the
start of her turn. The target’s AC bonus lasts until the
wearer’s next turn or until the wearer and the target are
ever more than 5 feet apart, at which point the target’s
bonus ends and the shield’s enhancement bonus works
normally for the wearer. This ability only affects a shield’s
enhancement bonus to Armor Class, not its enhancement
bonus on attack rolls (if any) or any other shield abilities.
Moderate abjuration; CL 8th; Craft Magic Arms and
Armor, shield other; Price +1 bonus.
Guarding, Greater (shield special ability): As the
guarding property, except as a free action, the wearer
selects any number of adjacent allies to receive the
shield’s bonus. All selected allies receive the same bonus.
If a shielded target is ever more than 5 feet from the
wearer, the effect ends for that target but not for any
other targets.
Strong abjuration; CL 12th; Craft Magic Arms and
Armor, shield other; Price +2 bonus.
So if you had a group of martials with +5 shields, using this ability to provide it to everyone adjacent to them, you would be looking at up to a +40 AC, that specifically says it "stacks with all others."
Of course, having 8 people surround you isn't that feasible, and that person would almost definitely not be attacked, plus getting your hands on 8 +7-equivalent shields, but still, kinda crazy. Definitely improves the phalanx.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Also, fireball.
Also, Ratfolk can share one square between two of them. So you could potentially have +85 AC (+10 from each surrounding square, plus the one in the square with you).
But again, absolutely no use in an actual game. Unless a GM was particularly mean.
EDIT: Oh, trust me, Cheapy, I know that this is definitely a sub-par set up. But the phalanx as a tactic doesn't really work in PF, this just helps it be not quite so bad.
|
** spoiler omitted **
So if you had a group of martials with +5 shields, using this ability to provide it to everyone adjacent to them, you would be looking at up to a +40 AC, that specifically says it "stacks with all others."
Of course, having 8 people surround you isn't that feasible, and that person would almost definitely not be attacked, plus getting your hands on 8 +7-equivalent shields, but still, kinda crazy. Definitely improves the phalanx.
You'd actually be looking at +35 AC. Remember that the initial wielder of the shield loses his bonus in order to give it to everyone else.
**EDIT**
Posted that and read it, felt like it came off really douchey and math nazi'ish. Was just pointing out that the math didn't account for the fact that you redistribute the bonus, not just share it.
Ssalarn, you are a really nice guy if you think that came off as douchy and/or math nazi'ish. And don't take this in that way either:
You're incorrect. You can have 8 people surrounding you, each of whom can give up to a +5 to you. That's +40. Yes, you can then trade off your bonus to give to them, but you wouldn't have to, but that doesn't change the fact that you are receiving +40 - you are just then subtracting 5 from your total AC (which I'm not going to bother totaling out. I imagine Phalanx Soldier [fighter archetype] would come into play in this as well).
One could make 8 identical phalanx soldiers and a single cleric with the same shield and make a veritable living tank. Most creative use of leadership I have considered in a while.
|
|
Ssalarn, you are a really nice guy if you think that came off as douchy and/or math nazi'ish. And don't take this in that way either:
You're incorrect. You can have 8 people surrounding you, each of whom can give up to a +5 to you. That's +40. Yes, you can then trade off your bonus to give to them, but you wouldn't have to, but that doesn't change the fact that you are receiving +40 - you are just then subtracting 5 from your total AC (which I'm not going to bother totaling out. I imagine Phalanx Soldier [fighter archetype] would come into play in this as well).
Ah, you are correct. Sorry, I read the initial post as there being a total of 8 people, not 8 surrounding a 9th. Guess if I'd just taken a moment to picture a grid in my head I'd have realized what you were getting at :)
This actually kind of gave me some fun ideas for a campaign I'm running right now where the party will be fighting an orcish witch-king (using the scarred witch doctor archetype) and I was trying to think of some fun ways to make the orcs more challenging without having to divvy out a ton of character levels or templates to critters that will die nameless.
Actually, using 9 creatures, only the center will gain maximum benefit. The 4 corners will only gain from 3 adjacent allies, and the 4 on the sides will gain from 6 adjacent allies...
So you'd have to have three sets of calculations assuming equal distribution of enhancements across all 9 shields. One for the corners, one for the sides, and one for the center. Your corners become your weakpoints in this scenario.