How to contribute, using only one hand

[Pupsocket]

Sword & Board fighting kind of blows. Sure, you can do a decent shield-bashing guy, but then, you end up leading with your shield, and you discover that what you actually want is TWO shields.

I'm looking at a sword & board warrior who doesn't focus on shield-bashing, and I see a guy who's not carrying his own weight in a party. Basically, he does only 2/3rds of the damage he should be doing. What can we do to help the poor fellow?

***work is calling - I'll be back***

[Raisse]

Take a look at a quickdraw shield with the quickdraw feat. Then you can swing your weapon two-handed on your turn and swing out a shield when you're on the defensive.

[mplindustries]

Pupsocket wrote:

Sword & Board fighting kind of blows. Sure, you can do a decent shield-bashing guy, but then, you end up leading with your shield, and you discover that what you actually want is TWO shields.

I'm looking at a sword & board warrior who doesn't focus on shield-bashing, and I see a guy who's not carrying his own weight in a party. Basically, he does only 2/3rds of the damage he should be doing. What can we do to help the poor fellow?

***work is calling - I'll be back***

I'm pretty sure he's doing less than 2/3rds. And as for what we do to help this guy, well, we suggest he take a look at shield bashing or dropping the shield for a two-handed weapon.

A shield can add a staggering amount of AC with relatively little investment, but you have to pay for that somehow. This means less damage. There's no secret way around it, the trade-off is intended in the rules. The problem is that damage is generally way better and more important than AC, both because you have essentially infinite AC against an enemy that's dead and not attacking anymore, not to mention AC becomes less and less important and effective at later levels.

[Pupsocket]

There's really 2 questions, then: What to do with your one-handed weapon and what to do with your good AC.

[Chris Kenney]

The problem with good AC (other than the drop-off issue) is that it's hard to leverage, and all but requires party cooperation. The only thing you can do yourself to force people to target you is Antagonize, and if they're not big and physical that might bring those nasty Will-and-Reflex save spells down on your head if you're not careful.

You can try using battlefield or enemy control spells to force situations where the enemy has little choice but to attack the shield guy, although of the top of my head I'm not sure what's optimal for that.

[Umbranus]

You could use a buckler instead of a real shield. There is an archetype (fighter I guess) that lets you keep you AC from the buckler while using a twohanded weapon. That could do the trick. *

If you don't want to do that and still close the damage gap you can take a build that uses arcane strike on a full martial like a fighter. Sure other fighters could do that, too but you're at least nearer in damage to the fighters who don't.
You just have to be a race that gets some kind of arcane SLA. According to the FAQ that qualifies for arcane strike. If you add a bastard sword or dwarven battleaxe you're another baby step closer.

EDIT:
*The thunderstriker gains this only partial and only at higher level.

[Breiti]

Pupsocket wrote:

I'm looking at a sword & board warrior who doesn't focus on shield-bashing, and ...

Please define "sword & board warrior" ...

Has this to be a figther or can it be any full BAB class. Is it ok to multiclass or can we use a 3/4 BAB class as long as the build is melee focused and uses a weapon and a shield ??

Breiti

[mplindustries]

Pupsocket wrote:

There's really 2 questions, then: What to do with your one-handed weapon

Feel bad about yourself for not using a more dangerous weapon in such an offense focused game.

Pupsocket wrote:

and what to do with your good AC.

Smile smugly at enemies until you watch your party die around you because you're not a sufficient threat to actually bother attacking you.

[Pupsocket]

Breiti wrote:

Pupsocket wrote:

I'm looking at a sword & board warrior who doesn't focus on shield-bashing, and ...

Please define "sword & board warrior" ...

Has this to be a figther or can it be any full BAB class. Is it ok to multiclass or can we use a 3/4 BAB class as long as the build is melee focused and uses a weapon and a shield ??

Breiti

A person who uses a shield in one hand and a melee weapon in the other, and spends a significant amount of time in combat trying to hurt the enemy with his one-handed weapon.

For the purposes of this discussion, not someone who specializes in shield-bashing.

[Lincoln Hills]

Don't go underestimating the value of a shield. Even if you don't feel the damage trade-off is worth the boost in AC, by the time you get into mid- to high-level play, a weapon-and-shield tactic is giving you one additional item slot (shield) that two-handed fighters aren't getting. A shield +1 may not appeal, but if you add fortification, spell resistance or even a commonly-encountered energy resistance to the item, it's suddenly a lot more tempting.