Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Shields Shall be Splintered!

I'm working on giving the shield a bit more love in my Moldvay/Cook/LL hack. The shield really doesn't get the prestige it deserves. There's a reason it was a staple of the infantryman's gear from the dawn of history all the way into the 17th century. Shields work. They stop blows, they can be moved to intercept attacks coming from almost any direction, and they can be used to attack your foes. Simply lowering your AC by a mere point is hardly representative of the value of a good shield.

However, things are complicated by my adoption of some popular houserules for weapon damage. To whit, I'm considering tossing the plethora of different dice types for weapons and just adopting 1d6 for single-handed weapons and 2d4 for two-handed weapons. This is a variation on schemes I've seen elsewhere. Fighting with two weapons allows you to roll 2d6, and you take the better roll.

So you can see that there's a lot of value to fighting without a shield in improving the damage your character dishes out, making the shield an even less likely choice. What can be done to rehabilitate the shield and make it a worthwhile choice mechanically?

I'm considering allowing the shield to act as ablative armour. One thing historical shields frequently did was shatter. A strong blow with an axe or a sword could cleave a shield, splintering the boards. Viking duels often had a three-shield rule, allowing each combatant to enter the contest with a shield on his arm and two spares in reserve. (I believe this was seen in "The 13th Warrior", but it's been a while since I've watched it, so my memory could be faulty.)

With my houserule, you get the usual -1 to your AC with a shield. However, any time you take damage, you can opt instead to say your shield absorbed the force of the blow. The shield is shattered and must be discarded, but you don't take any damage from that hit. It's quick, it's easy, and it's valuable.

What about magic? Should a shield ward you against the ferocity of a fireball or a lightning bolt? My instinct is to say yes, but that makes a shield incredibly valuable, and takes a lot of the sting out of those spells. Maybe you can sacrifice the shield in exchange for an automatic save and half damage? Do you get to decide after you've rolled the save, or do you have to choose before you roll? We can go crazy with this and say that shields crafted from the wood of the rowan tree can be sacrificed for a successful save versus any spell, even those that don't deal damage directly.

What about magical shields? I'm kinda meh about the idea of mundane swords being able to shatter magical shields. On the other hand, I certainly don't want a warrior being able to just ignore hits every round because his shield won't break. Maybe each +1 gives the shield a 10% chance to survive the blow? Maybe I just won't have magical shields in my campaign? Seriously, in the quarter-century-plus I've been playing D&D, I think I can count the number of magical shields in my games on one hand.

(I also considered allowing the shield to give its bearer an AC of 3 versus a single opponent, but then you have to keep track of who it's been used against, and the character's AC jumps around between 3 and whatever their armour grants. It's a lot more hassle in the thick of dice-rolling. And I just love the visceral feel of shields being cloven in twain under the blows of a dangerous foe.)

229 comments:

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Nicky Paul said...
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تنظيف مكيفات بالرياض

ظلت دائما اجهزه تكييف الهواء هي من اهم العوامل التي تقدم المساعده والعون االي الانسان حيث انها تدعمه علي تحمل تقلبات الجو سواء الحراره العاليه او الحراره المنخفضة ، وان رفاهيه الانسان تعتمد بشكل كبير علي مكيفات الهواء وكل ذلك يعتمد علي حالة مكيف الهواء لديكم حيث انه من الواجب دائما عمل صيانة وتنظيف بشكل مستمر لمكيفات الهوات الهواء فان ادائها يعتمد بشكل كبير علي ذلك حيث انها من الممكن مع عدم صيانتها وتنظيفها بشكل منتظم ان تؤدي الي عطلها ان وانهياراها تماما ، فيما يلي بعض النصائح الهامة حول كيفية الرعاية بمكيف الهواء الخاص بك …
تنظيف مكيفات
- اذا كنت تعيش بمنطقة قريبة بشكل كبير من المناطق الصناعية ، فيجب عليك الاهتمام بشكل كبير بتنظيف المكيفات بشكل مستمر وعلي فترات متقاربة اكثر من اي منطقة سكنيه اخري فيجب عليك دائما الاستعانة بـ تنظيف مكيفات بالرياض
للقيام عملية الصيانة والتنظيف الدورية بالنيابة عنك ، او اذا كانت لديك الخبره الكافية بذلك فمن الممكن عمل الصيانة بنفسك غير ذلك قد تكون حالة المكيف لديك علي المحك لذلم فانت دائما تحتاج الي تنظيف المكيفات بالرياض .
شركة تنظيف مكيفات
- اذا كنت من هواه مقتني الحيوانات الاليفة مثل القطط او الكلاب او غيرها من الحيوانات الاليفة فذلك من اهم الاسباب التي تحتم عليك العناية جيدا بنظافة المكيفات بالرياض بشكل دائم ومستمر فان الفراء الناتج من هذه الحيوانات دائما ما يتحد مع ذرات الغبار والتي تعمل علي انسداد وتضييق فتحات الفلاتر والغاز الخاص بالفريون داخل المكيف مما قد يؤدي مع الوقت الي تلف المكيف فلذلك فان شركة تنظيف المكيفات بالرياض هوا من اهم العوامل الاساسية التي تحافظ دائما علي عمر مكيف الهواء لديكم .

Lockie said...

oh wow good stuff

trollsmyth said...

Lockie: Thanks!

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Love your writing skills.
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Unknown said...

I can't tell if this has already been suggested but I think a few quick options to consider might be (in no particular order)

wooden shields could be more disposable one sacrifice and it is done; metal shields could be more durable one sacrifice and they can't used used again until repairs are made

magic shields have "charges" they can sacrifice; they could be per unit of time or a number of charges total (1d4+1?)

magic shields could offer "special" sacrifices, i.e. "charges" as about but vs fire magic or ice magic

potions for shields, the shield isn't magical per se, but you can apply a potion to it and it is magical for a certain amount of time or conditions

full body shields (lightweight wood and leather) that hide the user or provide soft cover

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