Weapon Master (Shield)

[Anders]

So you can get Weapon Master (Shield) because you can attack with your shield. Does this affect the penalties for multiple Blocks, as Block would be the Shield equivalent of Parry?

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Anders

So you can get Weapon Master (Shield) because you can attack with your shield. Does this affect the penalties for multiple Blocks, as Block would be the Shield equivalent of Parry?

As per martial arts, consecutive blocks suffer a cumulative -5 penalty (IDNHMBWM so I can't give you a page ref)

[Kromm]

From Multiple Blocks (Martial Arts, p. 123): "Those with the Weapon Master advantage halve these penalties and round in the negative direction."

[Maz]

And then get an sharp edged heavy iron shield to attack with sw-2 cut damage. With Weapon Master Damage bonus on an Easy Skill, with a weapon weighting 50lbs few will be able to parry it at all.

You'll even have a hand free to point and laugh. ;)

#Powergaming

[Anders]

And of course there's no minimum ST for shields, so no damage caps.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Anders

And of course there's no minimum ST for shields, so no damage caps.

That seems like it should be errata'd, or at least optional rule'd. As it is, the edge cases can ambush you pretty fast.

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Maz

And then get an sharp edged heavy iron shield to attack with sw-2 cut damage. With Weapon Master Damage bonus on an Easy Skill, with a weapon weighting 50lbs few will be able to parry it at all.

You'll even have a hand free to point and laugh. ;)

#Powergaming

The fighter in my DF game currently does this. It has proven extremely effective in a scary way. What is turning into a signature move is for him to make a rapid strike with his sword and shield at the neck. It takes a big monster not to fall on a major wound that way.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

That seems like it should be errata'd, or at least optional rule'd. As it is, the edge cases can ambush you pretty fast.

Unsurprisingly, Ghostdancer has an article on this. ;D

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

That seems like it should be errata'd, or at least optional rule'd. As it is, the edge cases can ambush you pretty fast.

I'd personally like to assign MinST to shields based on LTC2, p. 16. I'd treat a buckler as 1-handed; a normal shield strapped to an arm as "1.5 hands"* - use 3/4 its weight; a guige counts as an extra hand, so with a buckler, that's 2 hands for 2/3 weight and with a normal shield, "2.5 hands"* for 1/2 normal weight.


* These multipliers are basically just for in between cases. A regular shield with a guige would let a ST 10 man wield up to a Light Medium Shield or a Heavy Light Shield and ST ll would get you anything 15 pounds or lighter (56% of the shields in Low Tech. ST 12 would cover everything except the Large Homeric Buckler, Heavy Large Shield, and Large Roman Scutum; and ST 13 covered everything in Low-Tech. That seems a tad high, ST-wise. I may need to tweak the numbers a little, but I think its the right path to start with.

This conversation has come up on the forums a long while back, iirc. This was my solution then.

[Appletoe]

Originally Posted by Humabout

The fighter in my DF game currently does this. It has proven extremely effective in a scary way. What is turning into a signature move is for him to make a rapid strike with his sword and shield at the neck. It takes a big monster not to fall on a major wound that way.

Have you considered giving your monsters immunity to pain and/or unconsciousness to get around this?