|
I'm trying to get an idea on the utility of Shield Block from low levels on. I would imagine it being used frequently at low levels but I don't have the game experience to know at mid levels and on what function it plays in round to round combat.
From a few of the game broad casts I have seen damage seems to scales quickly to where a shield would be destroyed very quickly with any regular use.
Other question I have is how feasible is it to get an adamantine shield at earliest possible level. I would see this as a means to extend the life of using Shield Block. Are there other means of increasing a shields hardness/hp?
Thanks in advance!
I used it a fair bit in Chapter 6 of the playtest (the one with the 9 waves of increasing difficulty). But it was also a situation where I was using Paladin Magicks whereby I was Shield Blocking for an ally and performing a Retributive Strike (which also granted some DR against the triggering attack); there's a feat that let you do both and I had the shield ally guardian (and second guardian for the weapon).
But that was also back when Dents were a thing. With the new shield HP system I'm not sure I would've done that. It would entirely depend on the numbers, but whiteboarding, it doesn't seem...worth it to get DR 10 against one attack and have your shield taking a good chunk of its own health as a byproduct.
Once or twice a fight, assuming you have crafting to repair them.
Sturdy shields can go two or three times a fight.
How viable is it for a martial to MC into a caster and use the Shield cantrip and a 2-handed weapon? You get half the AC boost, and only one block per combat. But you don't have to fix it and it heightens for greater hardness.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Naturally I think it depends on the class and the situation in combat, but as a DM I've found that my players who have Shield Block tend to use it to mitigate smaller hits so that the big one doesn't take them out, and to try and make the hardness account for the largest fraction of damage it can. Though the Fighter generally just raises their shield to get the AC bonus and use AoO instead of Shield Block because AoO hits more often than not
I think shield HP might be like hoarding potions or other items; it's only useful if you use it. Repairing items is very easy in 2e. Even just blocking three attacks with a steel shield at level one saves you a heal spell, not to mention however many hits didn't land or weren't crits because of the AC bonus
I do hope they do more with higher level shields and materials, though I haven't done anything with my table past level 8
i must not understand how shields work. I GM'd the lvl 5 Origins of the Open Road which uses the lvl 5 pregens. Valeros has a steel shield which says this:
ou interpose your shield between yourself and the attack, reducing the damage by 3. You and your shield each take any remaining damage, possibly breaking or destroying the shield (the shield gains the broken condition after taking 6 or more damage and is destroyed once it’s taken 12 damageWell...any creature that can do 15 or more points in an attack would completely destroy Valeros' shield and that just happens to be nearly every creature in the adventure. What's more, with some of the harder encounters Valeros got critically hit. Had he used his shield to block it, he still takes all but 3 points.
Obviously if you can get special material weapons, blocking becomes more viable, but at level 5, he's still using a steel shield.
You have it right, most shields will break if used for blocking anything but the lightest hits. You mainly use them for the +2 AC, and work best against small hits, not crits.
Though a steel shield should have Hardness 5; HP (BT) 20 (10). (15 damage to break, 25 to destroy). That should let him block 1 hit, then repair it later.
Seems like put in the stats for the wooden one, which has Hardness 3; HP (BT) 12 (6). (9 to damage, 15 damage to destroy)