The shield is one of the oldest and most fundamental tool of defense. You always first want a shield, then a helmet, then start armoring up the rest of the body. Two handed weapons only really became popular after plate armor was invented, since a shield doesn't offer much when all of your body is metal-covered. And here's my gripe: The mechanic of a shield providing a flat AC bonus can never accurately simulate their true function due to how AC works, that is, the higher it is the more value from each further point. If the bonus is too small the shield is worthless in the hands of an unarmored man, if the bonus is too large then they become too appealing for those heavily armored.
So here I walk in with my magnum opus, perhaps the best house rule I have ever created - the bonus of a shield is determined by armor worn: +4 for an unarmored person, -1 for each "tier" of armor, down to +1 at heavy armor.
This rule effectively creates two AC tracks, so for a shieldless person unarmed / light / medium / heavy armor has 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 AC respectively (or 9 / 7 / 5 / 3 with descending AC), while one with a shield would have 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 AC (5 / 4 / 3 / 2).
This rule has many upsides: It keeps the balance of the standard game by preserving the maximum non-magic AC, it makes the archetype of "guy with a tunic, shield and sword" viable and gives meaning to the otherwise useless chainmail +1 item.
If you plan on using it also keep in mind these things: shields do not work against attacks from behind, can be broken and still take up a hand.
About shield breaking, that should happen through some kind of critical attack effect or such, absolutely do NOT add any kind of rule that allows you to reduce damage/prevent an attack by intentionally shattering them. Shield are meant to absorb blows, how could it be possible to choose to break yours after an attack? And if you say it's the player choosing, not the PC, then that's a disconnect between the two, which is practically always bad. Those rules lead to characters carrying as many backup shields as they can, which is ridiculous, don't really work when shields of the magical variety start appearing, slow down combat, give players a get-out-of-jail-free card should they be about to die, and make shield disproportionately more appealing than two-handing or such.
I really like how this system slots into traditional armor mechanics- all the praise you've been getting is well-deserved! I run a system with an automatic hit (ItOish), and a shield sundering-type mechanic of negating the damage of an attack by destroying an item is kind of a must for the sorts of combat I run in it. What would you recommend as an alternative for me?
ReplyDeletethe only reason i'm not stealing this immediately is because i already committed to one slot = 1 ac for my fantasy elfgames. and it's a good enough idea that i'm second-guessing that decision
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