I have a character build for a paladin fighting primarily with a heavy spiked shield, and a light off-hand weapon (probably a kukri).
Feats:
1-Improved shield bash (bash, keep shield AC)
3-Two-weapon Fighting (reduce 2wf penalties)
5-Power attack (trade attack penalty for damage bonus)
7-Leadership (allows cohorts)
9-Shield Slam (Free bullrush when hitting with shield)
11-Shield mastery (No 2wf penalties with a shield, shield enhancement used for shield bashes)
13-power attack
15-Shield focus
17-missile shield
19-Improved Critical (shield)
A)Paladin Divine Bond--shield (as a weapon--I assume I can select my shield as the bonded item, without any archetype use, but enhancements only apply to the 'weapon' aspect of a shield)
B)Shield gets +5 enhancement bonus, bashing, shield spikes. Shield(weapon) gets +1, possibly enhanced with paladin divine bond into a +5 defending weapon, assigning all +5 of the shield(weapon) into AC.
Shield Mastery then allows use of the +5 Shield(armor) to be used when attacking with shield(weapon).
C)Offhand weapon: +x Defending Kukri---with all the enhancement assigned to AC
Assuming lvl 11 (since that's when shield mastery kicks in) a full-round attack would look like this:(no strength bonuses included)
*Paladin Divine bond giving shield(weapon) +3 enhancement value
+5 spiked, Bashing heavy steel shield :spikes +1(base) +2(divine bond) Defending (divine bond) 3 enhancement of shield(weapon) assigned to AC
Shield bash (main) +16/11/6 2d6+5 (+5 from Shield Mastery transference) (11 bab, +5 enhance, -0 from TWF/shield mastery)
Offhand (+1 defending kukri, enhancement assigned as AC bonus) +9 1d4 (11 BAB, -2 TWF, +0 enhance:assigned to AC)
Total AC increase from defending 4=3(shield(weapon)) +1 (kukri)
So far as I understand, all of these work with each other/stack (defending says "stacks with all other bonuses", meaning even itself) The kukri would have to be attacked with to have it's AC assigned (as it must be 'used')
Next question (Q1):
This is a mythic campaign, using the new mythic rules. I want to take Sacrificial shield (immediate action: reduce damage taken by shield's hardness/hitpoints, breaking shield)
If the shield is used like this, it would still receive the broken penalty when used as a weapon, correct?
Next question (Q2):
To maximize that feat, I want my shield to be adamantium (20 hardness) I would only have to pay for the SHIELD to be adamantium, not the spikes, correct?
Next question(Q3):
Legendary weapon (mythic path choice) "Unyielding" Doubles hardness/hitpoints of a typical shield of it's type. This is after the additions from material type /enhancements, correct?
EG: Adamantium (hardness 20) +5 enhancement (+2 per enhancement) has hardness 30, doubled into hardness 60.
Next question(Q4):
Legendary weapon (mythic path choice) "Upgradable" Assigned to the shield as a 'whole' (since, in pathfinder, shield spikes are not a separate "item" from the shield itself, like they were in 3.5e) I would be able to use the enhancement increasing ritual on either the armor aspect or the weapon aspect of the shield (requiring separate rituals for each, with proper calculations in respect to price)
So far as I can tell, all my rules findings are solid, albeit culminating into a rather broken build allowing a 60 damage absorbtion every turn, with a possibility for an incredibly high AC bonus from 2 defending weapons, whilst still maintaining a +5 enhancement attack bonus.
So, I offer this to the forum---What am I doing wrong?
and also... anything else I could do better? =D
@ Dwayne, with no enhancement bonuses and -2 from TWF I'd never confirm a crit with the offhand.
I'm mostly looking for rule's lawyers to point out what of my proposed steps isn't accurate.
At no time was the sacred shield archetype mentioned, in fact in section "A" I specifically clarified my understanding of the rule with a shield being a melee weapon, and thereby bondable for *weapon* enhancements, sacred shield only applies to the *shield* enhancements.
TWF is required for shield master.
Fey foundling has nothing to do with the build, separate from the obvious benefit to a LoH paladin.
Please keep contributions to something at least marginally relative to the original post.
Thank you for the ideas though, as completely off target as they were.
And the double power-attack was a brain-fart, thanks for that catch.
Well it's not by any means as broken as you think. You'll be mid mythic tiers by the time you put that all together and at that point 60 damage absorption will be needed!
Your saves should be good but I worry about your touch AC!
I like the concept.
Xmorsx twice you have posted in this thread, and neither time have you been on topic with the conversation (that is, the specifics on this build with a specific interest in rules issues). Please stop posting irrelevant information, it only serves to detract from the original thread.
And Stuart I'm aware of the touch AC (and possibly CMD) issues with this build. The plan is for one of the early-ish mythic feats to be shield focus, which adds my shield AC (7) to my touch AC. That, incorporated with paladin's smite-evil providing a deflection modifier, should help with that.
I'm also considering using the empty slot 13 feat for combat expertise, and taking the mythic version (which adds +2 dodge, and can allow for ignoring all penalties) to result in a mythic power usage for 1 minute of +8 dodge AC.
I think those 2 additions will make her much more durable to non-traditional attacks.
answer 0- yes, you need to attack with the kukri to assign its bonus
a1): expect some table variance (it depends on the GM)- this could go either way. it is one item, so the whole thing should be broken or not-broken toagether, but you do have to pay for the defense and weapon separately (not just enchants... requires separate masterwork components) so some GMs may allow the weapon portion to function normally.
a2): for the mythic feat to work the way you want it to, you only need to pay the adamantine cost for the shield, not the spikes; however, if you do that the spikes will not be adamantine... they will not gain the extra hardness/hp if someone tries to sunder and they won't penetrate DR/adamantine (if you want them to do that you have to pay the extra 3k for the weapon portion).
a3): unyielding doubles the hardness (and triples the hit points) of "a typical item of its type"- a typical adamantine shield has hardness 20 x2 for unyeilding = 40, then apply the extra 10 for +5 enhancement... total hardness = 50.
a4): correct (though see answer to question 1- that could end up being a double edged sword, figuratively speaking).
general comments
- look for a sun-blade, they're thematically great for paladins and they make an awesome off-hand weapon (since they count as a shortsword for that).
- try to pick up imp bull rush and greater bull rush. the +4 to succeed is helpful and the free AoO is great- move, shield slam, AoO is a nice little combo when you can't full attack (and you took power attack twice so you have at least one feat available, lol)
- leadership is the single most powerful feat in the game, but it can also slow things down at the table (and there's a danger it might draw too much attention to you and leave other players feeling a bit left out). on top of this, in a mythic campaign there's a very real threat that you might go through (non-mythic) cohorts like apple goes through iphone versions... for these reasons, i'd consider switching out leadership for another feat.
hope that's helpful. have fun!
hmm... i apologize but i think i actually was wrong about answer 0. after posting i reread defending and it does appear that you can use the enhancement bonus for your AC even when you don't attack with it. (you do, however, have to spend a free action to activate defending at the beginning of your turn, so no using it before you've had a chance to act)
Thank you nate, very helpful perspective and answers.
I'm aware both parts must be masterwork, and are enchanted separately... but, regardless of rules, (and as much as I like it to be different) I can't really understand how the 'armor' aspect of the shield to be broken, but it still remain fully functional as a weapon.
I think you'd be right with the 50hardness shield as well... With that phrasing your ruling does make sense, thank you for the catch. *snaps fingers*
And the leadership/bullrush is going to be combined into having a wizard to stay in the back ground for group buffs/debuffs/battle field control... whilst being largely invisible if possible. Also Item creation Primary spell of choice will be the various 'Pit" spells of which I can shield-slam non-flying opponents into. I was intrigued by the bullrush chain, but unfortunately the bullrushing character doesn't enjoy the AoO on a success like you implied, just other characters... I was actually going back into my template to adjust for these when I read that. =(
Sunblade is a very nice item, but I'm not sure how upgrading it will work out, and I -really- want the double-defening weapon for serious AC stacking. I want to be the tank of the group.
Great great suggestions though, and I'm going to fiddle to see if I can make space for the bullrush feats to help in battlefield control a little more.
shoot.
sorry about misleading you on greater bull rush- i totally forgot that the 'rusher' doesn't get the AoO :(
(still good feats for someone who's going to get a ton of free bull rushes though)