Fun with Shield Cloaks

[Lost In Limbo]

Hello all, I've recently learned about the Shield Cloak which seems like a really cool item but I'm not really sure how to best use it. Is it best used as just a replacement for your standard shield or are their some unique things you can do with it?

[Kaisoku]

Since your hand is free if you use a buckler, you could have a different set of shield enhancements on the Cloak vs your Buckler, and swap between them by wielding one or the other.

Like, one has fortification while the other has spell resistance or reflection. Or load one up with "once a day" stuff while the other is your straight up always-on benefits (higher enhancement, various defensive abilities, etc).

[Trekkie90909]

I suppose if you only have one attack per round as part of a full attack action anyway you could make a two handed attack with a one handed weapon as a standard action, then as a move action grab the cloak and get a shield bonus.

I guess if you're being sneaky it has the advantage of being a shield you can potentially get past guards. At higher levels or in a dungeon setting.... I guess it's useful with vital strike or if you spec really heavily into cleave.

I'm not sure to be honest, I would assume (although it's not explicitly stated anywhere) that you need to be using the cloak as a shield to benefit from any enhancements so maybe just grab some situationally useful stuff (arrow catching/poison resistant/etc) for those times when you just need a little boost out of direct combat.

[Magda Luckbender]

Cloaks were routinely used in historical combat styles. Here's an informative video.

Glad to see Pathfinder has some magic cloaks to reflect this trend in fantasy.

[KuntaSS]

Honestly seems like a waste of a shoulders slot, that's where your cloak of resistance would normally be.

[Jayson MF Kip]

As was mentioned, being able to sneak a cloak into an opera or fancy gathering is a benefit on it's own, but I'm partial to being able to switch on the fly between two-handing a longsword and going sword-and-board as appropriate.

Not sure what happens when it's dancing, though...

[KuntaSS]

Right, but it's just a +1 to ac of a common bonus type in a slot that would normally hold the boost to your saves, if someone can sneak a weapon or velociraptor into the ballroom to attack your ac, you can probably sneak in a buckler or your bracers of armor. More likely someone just walked in with spells prepared and then you are going to be wishing for a save boost as opposed to an ac boost. Maybe on a paladin or other high save character it'd be a decent low level cloak.

[Lost In Limbo]

KuntaSS wrote:

Right, but it's just a +1 to ac of a common bonus type in a slot that would normally hold the boost to your saves, if someone can sneak a weapon or velociraptor into the ballroom to attack your ac, you can probably sneak in a buckler or your bracers of armor. More likely someone just walked in with spells prepared and then you are going to be wishing for a save boost as opposed to an ac boost. Maybe on a paladin or other high save character it'd be a decent low level cloak.

Unless of course you have a gm that's pretty flexible about double enchanting items, and you can get a Shield Cloak of Resistance.

[KuntaSS]

Actually completely forgot about that. Yeah it makes a great cheap rider effect onto your cloak if your DM allows custom item creation.

[Dark Immortal]

I dunno if my recent (coincenental post inspired this or not) but the reason I use a shield cloak is so that I can swing my scythe and then use my move action to have the shield bonus to ac. I can also grab the shield when the ac is needed and channel when I want to make everybody have a bad day. The cloak was also thematic because, well, I use a freaking scythe. It's like trench-coats and shot-guns with a slow motion entrance and the intro to a killer rock anthem playing in the background.

Finally, someone will invariably mention getting a cloak of resistance, how magic users are superior (or allude to it) and I like picking things that do not reinforce the idea of being a carbon copy clone by fulfilling *seriously overdone* standards.

In fact, because of those very suggestions about cloak of resistance and casters, I have gone out of my way to outfit *almost* all of my pfs characters with any item that is not that. To date, none have fallen to a caster and all have had a lot of fun by picking items that were true to the character or actually did something interesting.