While flicking through the Armoury book looking for some potential fun toys for my current character (Osharo Akashic Mystic), I spotted the Shield Projector and got pretty exciteded - a perfect weapon for my support-heavy caster! Sadly after doing a bit of reading up on them, they appear to be far removed from the image I had in mind of them, but now I have an itch that nothing in the books can scratch. So, I figured I'd try to brainstorm a fun but reasonable suggestion to pitch to my GM as an alternative.
So, first things first, needing an attack roll (which seems to be the consensus on how they function) to give your allies a buff is harsh, but I appreciate why they didn't want it to be an automatic success. My thought is to make it essentially a 5ft "blast", targeting a square rather than a specific individual which you target much as you do for other area effect weapons. That means you still need to make a roll to hit, but it's going to be far less punishing that trying to hit your heavily-armoured fellow adventurer when the whole point you took a Shield Projector is because you can't hit anything for toffee.
This also opens the door to make the Shield Projector much more of a utility tool. It states that it doesn't hinder the actions or movements of anyone the Shield effects, but what if it counted as difficult terrain for anyone trying to enter from an adjacent square into it, potentially slowing an opponent down a little? Or better yet, acting as a 5ft cube obstacle that requires it to be destroyed before it can be passed, meaning you could bottleneck enemies or deny certain squares unless the GM is willing to bust it, which is one less attack coming in at you and your allies? It might require a little coordination with your allies to ensure you don't wind up hindering each other, but I think it would make the Shield Projector more interesting to use in combat without being overpowered. Any thoughts, critique or suggestions on what other people have done to try and spice up Shield Projectors?
