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Please discuss the implications, ac / cover bonuses and penalties of the scenarios below. In all scenarios our creature is human and of medium size.
As our baseline: Medium size creature is holding a medium size heavy steel shield with one hand.
1. Now is holding a large size heavy steel shield with one hand.
2. Now is holding a medium size heavy steel shield with two hands.
3. Now is holding a large size heavy steel shield with two hands.
Assume now that our creature has four arms.
4. Four arms and holding a large size heavy steel shield in his two left hands.
5. Four arms and holding a huge size heavy steel shield in all four hands.
Discuss.
Shield bonuses don't stack. The best shield applies an AC bonus, the rest are dead weight, even if he has 4 shields. From the Equipment chapter: "Each type of armor grants an armor bonus to Armor Class, while shields grant a shield bonus to Armor Class. The armor bonus from a suit of armor doesn't stack with other effects or items that grant an armor bonus. Similarly, the shield bonus from a shield doesn't stack with other effects that grant a shield bonus."
As BBT said, there are rules for holding inappropriately sized weapons. A medium sized shield is appropriately sized for a medium creature to use with one hand, a large sized shield is appropriately sized for a medium creature to use with two hands. However, these rules really only seem to apply to attacking with the shield as a weapon. Other than possibly being encumbered by the total weight, as well as maybe having multiple Armor Check Penalties for using more than one shield, I don't see any rules that would affect the character's AC.
While the rules don't support it, I would suggest that using a large sized shield might work exactly like using a tower shield, i.e., you can use it for total cover, you suffer a penalty on attack rolls, etc.
Aside from this, using over sized shields holds no value mechanically that I'm aware of.
There's the bigger dice when you bash with it.
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Aside from this, using over sized shields holds no value mechanically that I'm aware of.There's the bigger dice when you bash with it.
Ahah, oh yes. A large shield for a medium creature works. I don't know of any rules saying that more arms allows you to continue to increasing the size of weapons. If not, I'm pretty sure the rules impede you from using weapons two steps larger than yourself without an exception.
How effective is a table strapped to your medium arms (1 to 4 arms is unimportant)?
The thread linked by BBT is full of RAI or houserules so read it .. it is the best informations source. By the way there is no RAW.