Animated Shields

[Krel]

Personally, I just hate them. You get no penalties for having a huge piece of metal floating in front of your face?

 

[RangerWickett]

If you pay as much for that piece of metal as a king does for a castle, then yeah, you take no penalties. Or rather, you don't take penalty to attack rolls if you're proficient in the shield. You still take the armor check penalty as if you were carrying the shield. You just don't need a spare hand to hold it.

And if you're a monk, you count as using a shield, which negates your wisdom bonus to AC. Which is itself a bit silly.

 

[Victim]

character with an animated shield still takes any penalties associated with shield use, such as armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, and nonproficiency.

You still get the penalties from the shield. Of course, animated shields still pretty much obselete fighting styles that hold a shield in one of their hands and thus increase the power of two handed weapons.

 

[Monkey Boy]

Hate em. Ban em. Death to the cheaty floating shield.

 

[Cedric]

Hmm...I voted that they are fine as they are, but after thinking about it more, I guess it was wrong of me to vote that way for one big reason.

I don't allow two handed weapons to be used with an animated shield and only allow a limited class of off hand weapons to be used with an animated shield. To my thinking, it just gets in the way.

Cedric

 

[Dross]

Hate em. Ban em. Death to the cheaty floating shield.

This is what I do in my games.

 

[Deadguy]

Hate em. Ban em. Death to the cheaty floating shield.

And I'll add that I do the same. Animated shields undo the only major benefit of going the sword-and-board route: better AC. So in the interests of balancing play, they are ruled out in all the D&D games I run.

 

[the Jester]

I don't like 'em. I don't ban them, but I have never used them imc.

 

[Alzrius]

I have absolutely no problem with animated shields. You're still taking all possible statistical penalties for using them, but just happen to have your off-hand free also. That seems quite acceptable for the +2 cost of enchanting them with just that ability.

 

[frankthedm]

I have absolutely no problem with animated shields. You're still taking all possible statistical penalties for using them, but just happen to have your off-hand free also. That seems quite acceptable for the +2 cost of enchanting them with just that ability.

Not with how much one gains with a 2 handed weapon.