Shields Reimagined!

[captaincrumbcake]

I really do not like the way shields are incorporated into the combat mechanic at all--never have.
The purpose of a shield is to block an attack(more or less). So, if my fighter does just so vs. the ogre swinging its giant club, my shield has just made contact with its weapon.
This does 2 things: (1) it prevents the club from striking me and, (2) takes the force of the blow itself.
It is #2 that is the point. Though the ogre "missed" me, it hit  my shield--easily, since I was purposely placing my shield to take the blow.
So, it seems to me, that there should be an optional (fighting man only) mechanic of Blocking via a shield. To keep it simple I would apply the following:

1. The fighting man (dwarf, hobbit too) can elect to "block" an attack in lieu of attacking himself that round. In doing so, he automatically takes 1 hp of damage from the blunt force for each HD difference between him and the attacker; attacks from beings/creatures of less or equal HD cause no damage. EX. a L3 FM with 13 hp elects to block a blow from a hill giant, taking 5 hp of damage rather than risking sustaining the 2-12 possible. (This mechanic-strategy gives the player of the Fighting Man one more tool in the toolbox.)
2. A magic shield will reduce the B-F damage by 1 point per each magical plus.

If considering using the above, one should not include the shield bonus to AC # needed to hit by any other opponents attacking the Fighting man.

This is a rough draft of a HR for The Lost Lands.

[tetramorph]

I like rethinking shields every now and then as well.

But really I think of shields as a weapon, or as part of a single shield / sword mode of attack.

Don't know what that would mean, mechanically speaking.

[captaincrumbcake]

Dec 1, 2015 18:54:12 GMT -5 tetramorph said:

I like rethinking shields every now and then as well.

But really I think of shields as a weapon, or as part of a single shield / sword mode of attack.

Don't know what that would mean, mechanically speaking.

I'll expand upon the thought a bit.
Mechanically, when a character adds a shield to his/her protection, it makes him/her more  difficult to "strike a blow against". But this idea is not correct--by lifting a shield, one actually directs opponents' blows to the shield; kind of like, allowing an auto-hit in order to deflect the opponent from striking at the actual armor itself, and finding the "weak" spot.
Shields are considered part of one's armor, certainly. And while one could add in a smiting ability to the shield, that would make it both an offensive and defensive device; but I can only concentrate on one element at a time. So I'm sticking with Defensive for the moment.

[captaincrumbcake]

Dec 1, 2015 14:48:03 GMT -5 captaincrumbcake said:

I really do not like the way shields are incorporated into the combat mechanic at all--never have.
The purpose of a shield is to block an attack(more or less). So, if my fighter does just so vs. the ogre swinging its giant club, my shield has just made contact with its weapon.
This does 2 things: (1) it prevents the club from striking me and, (2) takes the force of the blow itself.
It is #2 that is the point. Though the ogre "missed" me, it hit  my shield--easily, since I was purposely placing my shield to take the blow.
So, it seems to me, that there should be an optional (fighting man only) mechanic of Blocking via a shield. To keep it simple I would apply the following:

1. The fighting man (dwarf, hobbit too) can elect to "block" an attack in lieu of attacking himself that round. In doing so, he automatically takes 1 hp of damage from the blunt force for each HD difference between him and the attacker; attacks from beings/creatures of less or equal HD cause no damage. EX. a L3 FM with 13 hp elects to block a blow from a hill giant, taking 5 hp of damage rather than risking sustaining the 2-12 possible. (This mechanic-strategy gives the player of the Fighting Man one more tool in the toolbox.)
2. A magic shield will reduce the B-F damage by 1 point per each magical plus.

If considering using the above, one should not include the shield bonus to AC # needed to hit by any other opponents attacking the Fighting man.

This is a rough draft of a HR for The Lost Lands.

3.(I'm adding to my HR) is Smiting. I haven't worked out the details, yet, but it will likely be a per level ability of the Fighting Man.

[captaincrumbcake]

Smiting

Is a shield mechanic that allows the Fighting Man (including fighters-only dwarfs, hobbits and elves) the ability to use the device as a blunt-smacking attack every other round once combat has begun. 
The shield-smite will do 1 hp of blunt-force damage to the opponent per level of the fighting man, with a 5% cumulative chance* per strike of knocking one's opponent prone and disabled for 1-3 rounds. (Note that this latter function will not apply to creatures/beings more than twice the size of the fighting man; so the DM must make "rulings" as to what fits and what doesn't as each encounter occurs.)
The Smite attack is treated as a mace on the character's attack chart, with a bonus of +1 to hit.

* cumulative against the same opponent the next available opportunity. If the FM changes targets (for even 1 attack), returning to one already smited will reset this % routine.


(If I think of anything else, I'll add it later.)

[robkuntz]

One would have to determine whether the shield took the full impact, or not, taking into account dead on, glancing (miss) and all levels of variations in between, including factoring weight/force due to extra-normal size and weapon weight, etc. Quite a lot of work to properly simulate a "miss-impact". Shields were also used to confound the opponent's targeting ability.