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How were you holding the greatsword?
Do you have quickdraw?The shield attack should have no penalties, but when did the sword come into play?
Arguably he could hold it in one hand, but not wield it. Though that is a commonly contested issue.
I'm curious as to why he's using shield bash instead of the great sword on his charge?
There's certainly nothing in the rules to inflict a -8 penalty on the attack roll with the greatsword in round two of the scenario as presented - the only question is whether the GM allows the character to go from "holding" the greatsword to "wielding" the greatsword as a free action. The surefire way to get around it would be to take the Quickdraw feat.
[Edit] Misread the OP.
There's also no reason for there to be a -8 on the Shield Bash attack - the only thing I can think of for it is that whoever told you that seems to believe that there is the Two-Weapon Fighting penalty applied to the Shield Bash, as an off-hand weapon, but I can't figure out why the penalty is only -8.
Anyway, RAW, no, you're attacking with a main-hand weapon on the shield bash, there is no penalty - in fact you get the charge bonus... and I think I just found the +2 bonus.
Got it.
He's wrong. Even if holding a weapon in the other hand, whichever weapon you attack with is your "main-hand" weapon and uses your full attack bonus (this also holds true if you are making a single attack with what you normally designate as your "off-hand" weapon, so it certainly applies on a shield bash) without the TWF penalties.
Two-weapon fighting penalties (and declaring one hand as main and the other one as off) only come into play in the very moment when you're actually using the two-weapon fighting feat to get extra attacks for your off-hand.
If you have multiple attacks due to high BAB, you can divide them to multiple weapons/hands eithout penalty.
And seeing that the shield-bash attack even takes place in another round, there's no way TWF penalties could apply.
Two-weapon fighting penalties (and declaring one hand as main and the other one as off) only come into play in the very moment when you're actually using the two-weapon fighting feat to get extra attacks for your off-hand.
The feat only reduces penalties. Anyone can Two-Weapon Fight to gain an extra attack.
The spirit of what you wrote was correct, and backed up by the TWF FAQ.
Two-weapon fighting penalties (and declaring one hand as main and the other one as off) only come into play in the very moment when you're actually using the two-weapon fighting feat to get extra attacks for your off-hand.The feat only reduces penalties. Anyone can Two-Weapon Fight to gain an extra attack.
The spirit of what you wrote was correct, and backed up by the TWF FAQ.
Correct. Anyone can two-weapon fight to get one extra attack. To reduce the penalties, you have to use the feat, and to get more than one extra attack, you have to use the improved/greater feat.