|
This question relates to a character that has gone through several iterations, from a death priest to a clini-clown to a performer. This is that final character.
The concept is this; the character is a traveling performer who uses hand puppets to entertain children and impart knowledge from one village to the next. His stage, his puppet theatre is also his shield. It's large, it provides total cover under the right circumstances.
What I would like to know is; is spell combat compatible with Total Cover shield action? Is it possible to cast a spell and then duck back behind total cover? For the moment leaving the question of arcane spell failure. Is creating total cover part of that repertoire?
If not, what other ways are there to gain full cover from the tower shield (preferably without eating at my action economy)?
Setting a tower shield to grant total cover requires a standard action. So does casting most spells. You can't do both in the same turn. You need to find a way to cast a spell with less than a standard action, such as a quickened spell.
Spell combat (I assume you are talking about the magus class ability) is a full round action, and only lets you cast a spell as part of a full round action that lets you make your weapon attacks and cast a spell. It does not help with casting a spell and ducking behind a tower shield.
The skirnir magus archtype does let you use a shield, but only lets you use the shield hand to do somatic components. It still won't help with using a tower shield to grant cover.
|
There is no way to spell combat with a tower shield unless you have a third arm or a natural weapon and the arcana that lets you use it in spell combat. You need a weapon held in hand, and a free hand in the other.
Even if you could spell combat with a tower shield, you can't use it as cover and spell combat at the same time. Setting the Shield to cover is a standard action, and spell combat is a full round action. You can't do both due to action economy.
Spell combat allows you to make all your weapon attacks with a light or one handed weapon while also casting a spell.
A tower shield cannot be used to make shield bash attacks (at least without a class feature or feat allowing it), so does not qualify as a weapon. This alone prevents it from being used with spell combat.
If you get around that issue due to a class feature, it is still a no go. Taking cover behind your tower shield is not part of 'making all your attacks with your weapon'. Taking cover is a standard action, and therefore cannot be combined with spell combat (a full round action).
It really is a problem of action economy. In order to have Total Cover from anything (a tree, a wall, a tower shield, whatever) every round, you have to start your round behind the cover (or else you didn't have Total Cover against all the attacks of your enemies last turn) and you have to end your turn behind the cover (in order to use it against all the attacks of your enemies for the upcoming turn).
That's easy if all you want to do is stay in cover. Maybe to drink a potion or heal an ally or buff yourself. But when you want to actually attack an enemy (spell, bow, whatever), you need to have LOS (Line of Sight) and LOE (Line of Effect) to make that attack.
This means:
1. Use an action to move out of cover.
2. Use an action to make that attack.
3. Use an action to return to cover.
That's three actions. You normally only have two. You cannot use a 5'Step as one of those actions because of the rule that says you cannot take a 5'Step in any round that you also move.
So what you really need is one more action, or a means to combine two actions into one (or three into two).
You do have a Swift action, but normally there is no way to use it to make an attack or to move. But you can change this. For example, using Quicken Spell makes it possible to use move actions for steps 1 and 3 and use a swift action to cast an attack spell for step 2.
If you could find a feat or class ability or magic item or whatever that lets you move (even if it's only 5 feet) as a swift action, then you could still do those three steps to make a normal Standard Action attack for step 2 and use this trick for a Swift Action to get back into cover. I don't know of a way to do this off the top of my head.
You could use a Quickrunner's Shirt to gain one extra action, but this only works once per day.
You could use a feat like Spring Attack or Shot on the Run to turn this into a Full-Round action to move in a big circle, starting and ending behind your cover and making an attack during that movement. Off the top of my head I don't know of a way to do that with spells. Although, if it's a touch spell, you could cast it in a previous round and then use Spring Attack to deliver the touch in subsequent rounds.
Maybe there are other ways to gain an action or combine actions.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You need 1 hand to hold the tower shield, one hand to cast a spell with spell combat, and a third hand to attack in melee. Bronzekin do you have 3 hands?
That doesn't matter. Even if you do have 3 or more hands, you still can't do it. You can't take a standard action (to get the tower shield to grant cover) and a full round action (spell combat) at the same time.