
BlingerBunny |
So I saw this guy while watching a playthrough of Dark Souls 2.
Imperious Knight
It made me curious if someone has already attempted this, or if there's a way to do this with two tower-shields, or a single tower-shield made for this purpose. It's incredibly intimidating, and even more so when he's swinging those shields around like a pair of greatswords.
Obviously I'd play a bit more aggressively, but having this as an NPC would be an interesting situation to deal with. What do y'all think?

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Tower shield specialist is an archetype... http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo-fight er-archetypes/tower-shield-specialist/
That said, using two isn't going to do much other than limit you in combat. You get a whopping 1d6 /x2 weapon (with spikes on it). Which is, for a fighter, kind of the worst weapon you can have.
The only benefit you get from planting it is a 50% miss chance if they don't take their move action to move to the side of you (like duh, unless they are in a tunnel they will always do this). And if they do this, you've give up your shield bonus, so you've hurt yourself. In a closed corridor where mobs can't move around you is about the only place this is handy. VERY situational.

Gobo Horde |

You can't put Shield Spikes on a Tower Shield, sadly :(
Shield Spikes
Benefit: These spikes turn a shield into a martial piercing weapon and increase the damage dealt by a shield bash as if the shield were designed for a creature one size category larger than you (see “spiked shields” on Table: Weapons). You can’t put spikes on a buckler or a tower shield. Otherwise, attacking with a spiked shield is like making a shield bash attack.
Makes sense, since you can't Shield Bash with a Tower Shield anyways :(
Which is a major pity, I have been trying to make an effective Tower Shield wielder for years :,(You could make him from a Siegebreaker Fighter and just describe it as him bowling people over with his shield. Or use the shield as an improvised weapon. Or just GM Fiat something in :)
Also check out Mobile Bulwark, Mobile Fortress and Mobile Stronghold.

Wonderstell |

Human
Brawler 2/Bloodrager 1
(Choose the Blood Conduit archetype if you want to pick up a combat maneuver bonus feat instead of Fast Movement)
Medium Armor Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, Proficiency with all weapons from the Close Weapons fighter group.
Trait:
Shield-Trained: Treat Heavy Shields as light weapons.
Feats:
1. Possessed Hand, Hand's Autonomy
2. Shield Wall(B)
3. Hand's Detachment
The Possessed Hand feat tree is from the Haunted Heroes Handbook.
The same effect could probably be achieved by just taking the Aberrant Tumor feat and choosing a Monkey as your familiar.
Class Features:
Brawler’s cunning, martial training, unarmed strike
Bloodline, bloodrage, fast movement (10)
Familiar instead of the 1st level Bloodline Power*
Valet Familiar (Crawling Hand)
Brawler's Flurry (TWF with a single weapon)
Martial Flexibility (Gain any combat feat as a move action for 1 minute)
1 bonus combat Feat
*You can choose to gain a familiar if you're a Bloodrager/Sorcerer as explained below.
This replaces the 1st-level bloodline power granted by the character’s bloodline; in addition, the character gains bonus spells from her bloodline one level later than she normally would. For example, a sorcerer with the aberrant bloodline who takes a bloodline familiar would not gain the acidic ray bloodline power, and she would gain her first bonus spell at 4th level, her second bonus spell at 6th level, and so on.
****************
Items:
Locked Gauntlet
Tower Shield
Heavy Shield, Spiked
*****************
Okay, so the problem with Tower Shields is that they confer a -2 penalty to all your attacks, and can't be used to shield bash. The ability to grant Total Cover is pretty neat, but you're not gonna find much use for it since it takes a standard action to use (or move action with the Mobile Bulwark Style linked in the comment above).
The solution is to not use your own actions for the Total Cover ability. Shield Wall is a teamwork feat that in addition to increasing your Shield Bonus, allows an adjacent ally to benefit from the Total Defense a Tower Shield grants (the same effect as the Mobile Fortress feat).
A Valet Familiar is considered to have all Teamwork feats its master has. With the Possessed Hand feat line your own hand comes to life and can acts as your familiar, which should without a doubt be able to grab hold of your Tower Shield. You'll keep your Familiar fastened to you with a Locked Gauntlet, keeping it out of sight and harm at the same time. Now, the familiar is wielding the Tower Shield and uses its own standard action to grant Total Cover to itself and its master.
Since the Familiar is wielding the Tower Shield, you'll not suffer the ACP or -2 penalty to attack (but you'll still carry the weight). You could also choose to equip a Diminutive (the size of your familiar) Tower Shield, since Shield Wall makes no restriction of what size you need to be.
This gives us a Human seemingly wielding both a Heavy Shield and Tower Shield at the same time, making TWF bashing attacks with the Heavy Shield while benefiting from Total Cover. Since Hand's Autonomy lowers TWF penalties by 1, and Shield-Trained lets us treat Heavy Shields as light weapons, the attack penalty is only -1/-1.

Wonderstell |

@Knight Magenta
Yup, really silly. The Total Cover part is important, though. So I'll explain my reasoning.
As a standard action, however, you can use a tower shield to grant you total cover until the beginning of your next turn. When using a tower shield in this way, you must choose one edge of your space. That edge is treated as a solid wall for attacks targeting you only. You gain total cover for attacks that pass through this edge and no cover for attacks that do not pass through this edge (see Combat). The shield does not, however, provide cover against targeted spells; a spellcaster can cast a spell on you by targeting the shield you are holding.
So you're supposed to choose one edge of your space, and you gain Total Cover against any attack that passes through this edge.
Since melee attackers must trace a line from the least advantageous corners of their squares to the most advantageous corner of the defender's square, then a Fine creature would be able to benefit from Total Cover with a Tower Shield against adjacent medium creatures.In other words, even if the 'edge of your space' is only 1 inch long an adjacent melee attacker would be forced to draw a line through it.
Ranged attacks (or melee attacks with reach) are a bit trickier.
To determine whether your target has cover from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target's square passes through a square or border that blocks line of effect or provides cover, or through a square occupied by a creature, the target has cover (+4 to AC).
Ranged attackers may use the their most advantageous corner to trace lines, but must still be able to reach all of the defender's corners without passing a wall.
So if a Fine creature stands in the south-eastern corner of space X, and uses a tower shield to gain Total Cover facing south, here's how it would play out.
Assume the attacker is medium sized, and has no reach weapon.
The Fine creature has Total Cover from attacks made in the squares denoted C.
0.X.0.0
C.C.C.0
0.0.0.0
Assume the attacker is medium sized, and uses a ranged weapon.
The Fine creature has Total Cover from attacks made in the squares denoted C.
0.X.0.0
0.C.0.0
C.C.C.0
As we can see, there's no mechanical difference if the Tower Shield wielder had been Fine, Diminutive, Tiny, Small or Medium. The attackers still have to trace a line to the Defender's most advantageous corner.
****************
This made me realize something even more silly, though. Tower Shields does not provide Total Cover against targeted spells, because a spellcaster can still target the shield you are holding.
But if you're granting Total Cover to an ally, then they're not the one holding the shield. So all Targeted Spells should automatically target your familiar when it grants you Total Cover (toward the spellcaster). The Hand's Detachment feat has an extra benefit of being able to regrow your hand in 2d4 days if its destroyed, so this tactic would make your Hand a spell-sponge vs targeted effects.

Wonderstell |

@Ryze Kuja
Have you seen the Shield Champion archetype for the brawler?
Your thrown shields basically gain the Returning enchantment, and you're able to attack several targets with one throw. The benefit to the latter is that you can use your whole attack routine with one shield/one throw, while you'd normally require several Returning shields to make more attacks.

Ryze Kuja |

@Ryze Kuja
Have you seen the Shield Champion archetype for the brawler?
Your thrown shields basically gain the Returning enchantment, and you're able to attack several targets with one throw. The benefit to the latter is that you can use your whole attack routine with one shield/one throw, while you'd normally require several Returning shields to make more attacks.
Yes, but we weren't talking about a Shield Champion Brawler :P