General consensus - came up at a table?!?!

[LaShana]

Had a situation come up at a table I was playing at that I wouldn't allow and that clearly the GM wasn't comfortable with but we didn't have clear rules on it. We had a paladin at the table using a weapon cord to hang on to her wooden tower shield. When needed she would release the shield and free that hand. Twice she was called on to use her bow....With a 40 pound wooden tower shield hanging from one hand.
I feel there should at least be a penalty to her bow use and wouldn't the release of a 40 pound shield to drop to her side cause a problem? Or is this just me applying real world logistics again?

[Rysky]

Weapon Cord wrote:

Weapon cords are 2-foot-long leather straps that attach your weapon to your wrist. If you drop your weapon or are disarmed, you can recover it as a move action, and it never moves any farther away from you than an adjacent square. However, you cannot switch to a different weapon without first untying the cord (a full-round action) or cutting it (a move action or an attack, hardness 0, 1 hit point). Unlike with a locked gauntlet, you can still use a hand with a weapon cord, though a dangling weapon may interfere with finer actions.

I believe that covers it?

[shaventalz]

An easy answer is right there in the text of the weapon cord.

"However, you cannot switch to a different weapon without first untying the cord."

EDIT: Ninja'd! But it looks like this text is present in all three sources for the item, so there shouldn't be any odd edge cases.

[andreww]

Also, weapon cords only work with weapons and removing any kind of shield is always a move action as per HERE

[Starglim]

andreww wrote:

Also, weapon cords only work with weapons and removing any kind of shield is always a move action as per HERE

There are exceptions (APG, UC), but they don't work for a tower shield or help with what the player is trying to do.