Shield Rules

[KenkuKen]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has any houserules for shield use. I think shields were never implemented properly and would like to make some changes regarding their use.

One houserule I remember coming across was a +1 increase across the board for all shields except bucklers. And a flat percentage to block an attack based on shield type: 5% buckler, 10% small shield, 15% large shield. Whenever a shield blocks an attack in this manner it takes damage and may get broken. I think this is a fair and balanced system making sword and board builds more viable.

What do you think?

Thanks

[SunKing]

I think this perhaps adds an unnecessary die roll, where shields are already adequately handled via the existing AC rules. But it’s not my place to judge your proposed change on the basis of ‘badwrongfun.’ If you and your players like the change, then go for it! This would look remarkably similar to the existing concealment rules.

My only shield houserule is that I allow adding the shield bonus to reflex saves where it’s stylistically appropriate: like Caramon on the cover of DL1...

[Egeslean05]

I'm in agreement with SunKing, though I do like the idea of shields having higher AC's (though I think the buckler should also gain that +1 bonus as well). With shields, you generally don't want to take an attack 'head on', instead your aim is usually to redirect the attack in a way that will give you an opening to attack your opponent. That's partially why many, if not most, shield designs are rounded or angled.

If you do want to add in another percentage roll, perhaps instead of negating an attack you could do a reduced damage sort of thing. For instance, if an attacker meets, or beats (by 5 or less), a shield wielding PC's AC, have the attacker roll a percentage die. If the attacker rolls under a certain percentage, their attack damage is then reduced by a certain amount.
Buckler: 10% reduce damage by 1/4 (rounded down)
Light: 20% reduce damage by 1/4 (rounded down)
Heavy: 30% reduce damage by 1/2 (rounded down)
Tower: 40% reduce damage by 1/2 (rounded down)

This way it only comes into effect when the attacker just barely hits. When visualizing it, you could think of it as the shield getting in the way just enough to make the attack less powerful/precise or a glancing blow.

I'd only do one of the options (meets the AC or beats it by 5 or less) depending on whether you wanted the roll to happen more often or not.

[Dajur]

I like the idea of an opposed roll during the attack. D20+Attack bonus vs D20+shield bonus.