Hello all,
With regards to the current implementation of Shield Block and Raising a Shield, I was thinking about the possibility of letting a shield stay raised after using an action to raise it, but have it affect your to-hit when attacking. Building on this, the same way that dropping a weapon is a free action, you could lower your shield for free in order to attack (or for whatever other reason).
So imagine that raising your shield still offers the bonus to AC, but now offers a matching penalty to land with an attack (maybe attributes like agile could mitigate this penalty?). This way, you are still using action economy effectively by raising your shield at the end of a turn, but there now exists an avenue for you to fight defensively in subsequent rounds if you are more focused on avoiding damage and less focused on hitting with your attacks.
Additionally, using the shield block reaction could reset the shield, requiring you to use an action to raise it again.
The short and sweet mechanics in TL:DR format are as follows:
--Action to raise shield.
--Free action to lower shield.
--Shield stays raised until lowered as a free action or using the shield block reaction.
--AC increased and to-hit decreased by equal amounts while shield is raised.
Tell me what you think!
Turn 1:
Attack, Attack, Raise Shield
Turn 2:
Lower shield (free), Attack, Attack, Raise Shield
Exactly the same as now, except that Attack of Opportunity has an additional penalty.
I'd be curious to see how treating it like a stance worked -- open trait, stays up until shield blocked used or you leave the stance. Maybe reduce to only +1 AC in exchange for the action saving. No effect on to-hit/etc.
Maybe reduce to only +1 AC in exchange for the action saving. No effect on to-hit/etc.
What would you do for light shields then? Remember, the +2 is for heavy shields.
Turn 1:
Attack, Attack, Raise ShieldTurn 2:
Lower shield (free), Attack, Attack, Raise ShieldExactly the same as now, except that Attack of Opportunity has an additional penalty.
I'm sure it's intended to work as it is now but with an option to keep the shield raised, eating the penalties but saving an action the next turn(s).
I'm sure it's intended to work as it is now but with an option to keep the shield raised, eating the penalties but saving an action the next turn(s).Turn 1:
Attack, Attack, Raise ShieldTurn 2:
Lower shield (free), Attack, Attack, Raise ShieldExactly the same as now, except that Attack of Opportunity has an additional penalty.
The idea is indeed to have it be able to work as it does now, but also give the chance to trade off to-hit for saving an action and maintaining the shield. With lowering the shield being a free action, you could continue to use the shield identically to how you use it now, but the proposed change would enable further choice when preparing to be hit.
So you are advocating that whatever the shield's bonus to AC is, it would be a penalty to hit. (perhaps as an increased MAP bonus equal to that amount)
So if allow the shield to remain raised at the start of your next turn without action, they would take a penalty of 1 or 2 on via MAP.
So someone could
T1 Turn 1
A1 attack 1 (-0)
A2 attack 2 (-5)
A3 raise shield large shield +2 AC
T2 Turn 2 (shield stays up 2 MAP applied)
A1 Attack 1 (-2)
A2 Attack 2 (-7)
A3 Attack 3 (-10)
Alternately, they could:
T2 Turn 2
F1 lower shield (eliminate the -2 MAP from having shield raised)
A1 attack 1 (-0)
A2 attack 2 (-5)
A3 raise shield large shield +2 AC
The idea that swinging around the shield is more inconvenient but allow them to focus on fighting defensively if they chose to. Definitely offers some additional options, styles, which seem to have balancing factors built in.
The feat allowing one to keep the shield raided could simply remove the MAP effect of having a raised shield, reflecting the training to work seamlessly with the shield.
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I'd prefer to simply decouple Raise Shield and Shield Block. Have Raise Shield give you the +2 (which is a pretty significant bonus on its own), and let people use Shield Block if they have a shield at all.
Then my shield isn't sitting there like a useless lump because I did something crazy like both move and cast a cantrip in one turn.