|
There's several options that allow a character to wield a halberd with a shield, like the Phalanx Fighter archetype or the Shield Brace feat. And while I've seen art depicting people wielding this combination, I have to ask, does it make sense? From what I understand, using a halberd in combat was basically an evolution of quarterstaff fighting, which required two hands. Part of me feels like using a halberd with a shield would basically make it a glorified battle-axe, or a glorified spear, rendering the halberd's versatility moot.
Any more historically-minded Paizonians wanna chime in about this? I get that it's a fantasy game, and part of me feels like it'd be cool, but part of me feels like it's badwrongfun...
It wasn't that uncommon to wield a weapon with two hands while having a shield strapped to a forearm, though usually it was done only momentarily to deliver a really heavy strike. It's not that far-fetched to have a fighting style that uses two hands on a halbard while there's a shield mounted on one arm, but conceptually there should be some kind of trade-off, like only getting one-handed damage.
so, I looked around a bit, and every single historical depiction I can find of halberds being used shows them sans-shield. Even the swiss army which was well known for it's great formations using halberds did not use shields.
So, i'd say for the most part they were used without a shield, or at least you were better off using a different weapon if you wanted a shield.
It wasn't that uncommon to wield a weapon with two hands while having a shield strapped to a forearm, though usually it was done only momentarily to deliver a really heavy strike. It's not that far-fetched to have a fighting style that uses two hands on a halbard while there's a shield mounted on one arm, but conceptually there should be some kind of trade-off, like only getting one-handed damage.
I don't know the exact text of Shield Brace, but the Phalanx Soldier archetype does treat halberds and other polearms/spears as one-handed weapons, so you don't get two-handed damage while doing that.
And this is fantasy, and rather high fantasy at that. Historical sources are good for inspiration, but shouldn't be used as the limit. Soulcalibur's Hilde uses a halberd one-handed, as do plenty of Dark Souls/Demon's Souls characters. 3rd level wizards are casting shield, which is twice as good as any mundane shield and doesn't use a hand, and summon monster II to drop an always invisible aether elemental that can do combat maneuvers at range almost as well at the fighter.
|
|
Shield Brace allows you to use a two-handed weapon sized appropriately for you from the Polearm or Spears weapon group while also using a light, heavy or tower shield with which you are proficient, applying your shield's armor check penalty to attacks made with the weapon.
To take it, you need the Shield Focus feat and either have a base attack bonus of +3 or be a level 1 fighter, and be proficient with at least some type of shield besides bucklers.
So for Phalanx Soldier, it looks like you only do +Str damage for one-handed instead of +1½ Str damage. So you trade some damage for AC, seems reasonable on the face of it.
Shield Brace subtracts the shield's ACP from your attack rolls, so you're trading accuracy for AC.
The exact bonuses/penalties might be off, but the idea is a common one in Pathfinder. A Phalanx Fighter will be doing 1-2 damage less depending on their Strength bonus to get +1 to +2 AC before enchanting the shield. A fighter using Shield Brace gets a -1 to -2 penalty to attack rolls in exchange for +1 to +2 AC before enchanting. I won't forbid anyone from doing that in my games, especially since PF isn't designed to reward extremely defensive fighters.
I think in PFS they ruled shield-brace to mean you're getting 1-handed damage, which makes sense.
A masterwork light shield has no ACP, and the same goes for a mithral or darkwood heavy shield. ACP is really no issue.
|
|
It's not really the mechanical aspects that I was worried about so much as the verisimilitude, honestly. I've seen Warhammer models that have a halberd plus shield combo, but we all know how over-the-top gonzo Warhammer is. Plus, I want to make sure I actually LOOK the part of a halberdier, and not wear anachronistic armor like scale mail (the time-frame of scale's heyday was when spears were the norm, and halberds hadn't really been invented yet, if memory serves).
Oh, if it's just the look of it, then no I don't think there are many historic examples in the real world of halberd-and-shield. But two-handed does better damage and AC is a mug's game. If you don't use a shield I doubt you'll be behind in effectiveness.
AC is generally dumped-on because the typical already-low-AC melee two-hander character isn't going to get much out of a few more points, statistically speaking. But a focused effort on AC with a character that can actually get it to a high level can do a lot for survivability. If a +3 heavy shield means you go from getting hit 50% of the time to getting hit 25% of the time, you've just cut incoming damage in half, and produced the same statistical effect as having Displacement running.
I have a concept character I'm messing around with that ended up in a 'might as well use fullplate/shield' situation; without really trying that hard, his level 9 AC would be around 30. A CR 9 monster with 'high attack' has an average attack bonus of +17, which means its best attacks miss more than half the time and it's iteratives are quite unlikely. A level 9 character doing the mithral medium armor and two-hander thing with 7 less AC, on the other hand, can expect to get a significant beating most of the time.
It's not really the mechanical aspects that I was worried about so much as the verisimilitude, honestly. I've seen Warhammer models that have a halberd plus shield combo, but we all know how over-the-top gonzo Warhammer is. Plus, I want to make sure I actually LOOK the part of a halberdier, and not wear anachronistic armor like scale mail (the time-frame of scale's heyday was when spears were the norm, and halberds hadn't really been invented yet, if memory serves).
by historical are you talking about Swiss Mercenaries than eventually became the Swiss Guard? They were so effective that eventually they were just bought by the Vatican to serve as a personal military force for the Vatican. which of course at the time was basically the richest organization in Europe.
In which case you'd probably wear half-plate or a breastplate and include a helmet.
I had a pretty great halberd + shield character that sounds very odd: Sohei Monk + Oracle 1.
Sohei can flurry a halberd with Weapon Training by level 6, and they can do it while wearing mithral medium armor.
One level of Oracle can grab a Revelation that lets you use your charisma for AC instead of dexterity.
Quick Draw and a quickdraw light shield means you can put a shield on and take it off as a free action.
So you can move your shield aside and flurry effectively with a halberd on your turn, then put the shield 'back on' and defend with a light shield, mithral medium armor and the Monk's Barkskin. The only downside to it was making attacks of opportunity with an unarmed strike; oh well. Shield Brace would even eliminate that issue, if its even worth bothering with. The 'combat style concept' was very straightforward: he attacks like mad with his weapon, but is able to leverage the shield on his arm for defense when not actually striking.
Technically it was a 'tribal warrior-sage' flavored character that also used Dual Cursed Oracle abilities and the Lore mystery, with the halberd being basically a nasty tribal spear.
But it could easily be done as a charismatic 'mountain-man halberdier' theme with a level of Nature Oracle or whatever. When you put together good charisma AC, mithral medium armor, a light shield and Qinggong Barkskin, AC is pretty great; and when you can flurry a halberd with Weapon Training, things get dead.
No you can't. Mithril might make medium armor that is treated as light armor, but you are still not proficient with medium armor, ergo you got plenty penalties to go with that shiny mithril breastplate. If you're going to dip, you can take one level of fighter or barbarian or ranger to get that medium armor proficiency.
In reality, shields has been made obsolete by firearms so no one had a shield on the battlefield.
If you are bringing firearms into the equation you can throw out ALL metal and/or heavy armor. Bullets are weird with what they will puncture and what will catch them...
No you can't. Mithril might make medium armor that is treated as light armor, but you are still not proficient with medium armor, ergo you got plenty penalties to go with that shiny mithril breastplate. If you're going to dip, you can take one level of fighter or barbarian or ranger to get that medium armor proficiency.
Oracles are proficient.
|
|
It's not really the mechanical aspects that I was worried about so much as the verisimilitude, honestly. I've seen Warhammer models that have a halberd plus shield combo, but we all know how over-the-top gonzo Warhammer is. Plus, I want to make sure I actually LOOK the part of a halberdier, and not wear anachronistic armor like scale mail (the time-frame of scale's heyday was when spears were the norm, and halberds hadn't really been invented yet, if memory serves).by historical are you talking about Swiss Mercenaries than eventually became the Swiss Guard? They were so effective that eventually they were just bought by the Vatican to serve as a personal military force for the Vatican. which of course at the time was basically the richest organization in Europe.
In which case you'd probably wear half-plate or a breastplate and include a helmet.
ooops, I'd have sworn they were restricted to light armor... obviously, I was mistaken.
No you can't. Mithril might make medium armor that is treated as light armor, but you are still not proficient with medium armor, ergo you got plenty penalties to go with that shiny mithril breastplate. If you're going to dip, you can take one level of fighter or barbarian or ranger to get that medium armor proficiency.Oracles are proficient.
And even if they weren't, the ACP for a mithril breastplate is only -1 which is easily eliminated by the Armor Expert trait.
And even if they weren't, the ACP for a mithril breastplate is only -1 which is easily eliminated by the Armor Expert trait.No you can't. Mithril might make medium armor that is treated as light armor, but you are still not proficient with medium armor, ergo you got plenty penalties to go with that shiny mithril breastplate. If you're going to dip, you can take one level of fighter or barbarian or ranger to get that medium armor proficiency.Oracles are proficient.
Or you wear mithril kikko armor which has an ACP of 0 for 1 point less of AC and 1 higher point of max dex. Totally worth it in my opinion to be able to spend a trait on something else.