Reinforcing Rune & the Sapling Shield

[JrKenny2408]

I have a character that is going to use a Sapling Shield. I have a question about how it interacts with the reinforcing runes:

For arguments sake, say I have a Lesser Sapling shield. The hardness of the 2 forms are as follows:
Buckler - Hardness 6
Tower Shield - Hardness 8

Now lets say I apply a lesser reinforcing rune (+3 hardness to a max of 10). How does this interact with the 2 forms of the sapling shield? For the buckler, the hardness obviously increases to 9. However, the tower shield runs into the cap, since the +3 takes it to 11.

Given the tower shield is listed as one of the base shields, does it just increase the hardness from 9 to 10 because of the cap? Or does it take it to 11?

For reference, the specific text from the sapling shields 1 action transformation is as follows:

"... The buckler becomes a tower shield, gaining the corresponding AC bonus, speed penalty & ability to Take Cover. It keeps the same HP & BT, but its hardness & bulk increase by 2 in this form. ..."

[Nelzy]

I Would say the base items changes, and then you apply the reinforcing runes effect.

[Tridus]

Nelzy wrote:

I Would say the base items changes, and then you apply the reinforcing runes effect.

That's how I'd run it. Apply the changes to the item itself first, then apply the rune to the new base item.

[NorrKnekten]

Thats consequent with how we know changes to an item's statistics work.

[Claxon]

Keep in mind that the reinforcing rune was an (in?)elegant solution to a problem. The problem is that basically no shield except the sturdy shield was useful, because it had the highest hardness, BT, HP.

The reinforcing rune basically makes it that any shield can have the same hardness, HP, BT as a sturdy shield while still having the other properties that make it special.

[ottdmk]

Claxon wrote:

The reinforcing rune basically makes it that any shield can have the same hardness, HP, BT as a sturdy shield while still having the other properties that make it special.

Not quite.

While a Minor Reinforcing Rune can make any Steel Shield the equal of a Minor Sturdy Shield, the Rune falls off from there.

A Lesser Rune will make a Steel Shield of 8 Hardness, 72 HP and 36 BT. Lesser Sturdy is 10 Hardness, 80 HP, 40 BT.

Moderate Rune: 8 Hardness, 84 HP, 42 BT
Moderate Sturdy: 13 Hardness, 104 HP, 52 BT

Greater Rune: 10 H, 100 HP, 52 BT
Greater Sturdy: 15 H, 120 HP, 60 BT

Major Rune: 10 H, 104 HP, 52 BT
Major Sturdy: 17 H, 136 HP, 68 BT

Supreme Rune: 12 H, 128 HP, 64 BT
Supreme Sturdy: 20 H, 160 HP, 80 BT

So, the Rune can make Blocking at higher levels worth it, but a proper Sturdy Shield will always be better at Blocking.

Of course, the thing I'd do is get a Moderate Sturdy and then start buying Runes with Greater at 13th... it's much cheaper.

[TheFinish]

ottdmk wrote:

Of course, the thing I'd do is get a Moderate Sturdy and then start buying Runes with Greater at 13th... it's much cheaper.

Yeah, the initial cost is a bit higher (going from Moderate Sturdy to Greater is 2.000 gold, buying a Greater Reinforcing Rune is 2.500) but after that upgrading your rune is far cheaper and you end up saving around 7.000 gold overall, which is a good chunk of change.

One of those weird quirks with shields.