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so a granted power for a cleric from artificers domain lvl 8 is dancing weapon. a shield can be a weapon. can i have a dancing shield? a dancing spiked shield? if i have improved shield bash can my dancing shield bash and enemy and still grant bonus to my ac? thx
Some GMs will try and tell you that a Shield isn't a weapon, even though it's listed in the Weapon tables, it says it attacks as a weapon, and can be enhanced like any other weapon. So by the rules, it's a weapon, which means it's eligible for this ability to be affected.
Take not that the ability says you touch a weapon and give it the Dancing weapon property, which is a +4 property. This means if you have an effective +7 or higher weapon, it's not eligible for this power, as it breaks the +10 hardcap rule. I don't know if you have any weapons like that, or plan to have any, but if you do, that's something to keep in mind.
As for what it entails, here's what the entry says:
As a standard action, a dancing weapon can be loosed to attack on its own. It fights for 4 rounds using the base attack bonus of the one who loosed it and then drops. While dancing, it cannot make attacks of opportunity, and the activating character it is not considered armed with the weapon. The weapon is considered wielded or attended by the activating character for all maneuvers and effects that target items. While dancing, the weapon shares the same space as the activating character and can attack adjacent foes (weapons with reach can attack opponents up to 10 feet away). The dancing weapon accompanies the activating character everywhere, whether she moves by physical or magical means. If the activating character has an unoccupied hand, she can grasp it while it is attacking on its own as a free action; when so retrieved, the weapon can't dance (attack on its own) again for 4 rounds. This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons.
There is bolded text that clearly says you aren't considered armed with (or in this case, carrying) the Shield, which means you do not retain the Shield AC it grants. It does say, however, that for effects that target items, you're considered wielding it. This means if something tries to Sunder or Disarm it, it uses your CMB/CMD. Unfortunately, for feats like Shield Master, Weapon Focus, et. al., they would not apply as they aren't "effects that target items."
Also note that loosing it is a Standard Action, and that if you choose to regrip it early, there is a 4 round internal cooldown before you can loose it again (whereas if it's not regripped and it falls to the floor, you can just pick it up and do it again).
This works very well if you have the Called property onto the weapon, as you can loose it, call it back into your hands (as a Swift Action) after 4 rounds pass, and then loose it again, and so on and so on.
If you were wanting it to give you an AC bonus, you would need the Animated property (which is a +2 cost). The good news is that it's an Armor property, so you don't have to cut down on its weapon ability anymore than you have to. The bad news is that it too has to be loosed with its own action, and I don't think you can loose them to function as both an Animated Shield and a Dancing Weapon at the same time, since once you do one action to loose it, it'd be out of your hands, and therefore you can't loose it again without regripping it.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to houserule that you could loose it to both Attack and Defend, since it takes both your Standard and Move Action, and requires a hell of a lot of investment to do, but per the rules, it's not possible.
@tratshguor
In my opinion, everything Darksol said is correct.
@Darksol
Also note that loosing it is a Standard Action, and that if you choose to regrip it early, there is a 4 round internal cooldown before you can loose it again (whereas if it's not regripped and it falls to the floor, you can just pick it up and do it again).
That is a subtlety that I hadn't noticed before. Thanks for pointing it out.