Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Furdaddy 03-29-06, 02:08 PM	The SRD says: Upon command, an animated shield floats within 2 feet of the wielder, protecting her as if she were using it herself but freeing up both her hands. Only one shield can protect a character at a time. A character with an animated shield still takes any penalties associated with shield use, such as armor check penalty, arcane spell failure chance, and nonproficiency. I read this to mean that it takes a standard action to animate the shield, since that's the default for command activations. However, since there's no stated duration for the effect, the shield apparently stays animated indefinitely. Seems pretty strong in that the bearer doesn't even have to blow an action in combat to animate the thing since he'll just activate it in the morning and leave it "on" all day. Which raises another issue: Does the shield stay activated and effective even when the bearer is sleeping or otherwise helpless? Other than a high cheese factor, I don't see why not. Finally, I assume that the attack penalty for wielding a weapon in the shield-hand is not one of the "penalties associated with shield use" that the wearer still takes, since if that were true an animated buckler would give a penalty but a shield wouldn't. Unless, you assume that the inability to wield a weapon in the shield-hand is a "penalty associated with shield use." Wow, that's an impressive number of issues for a single core magic item! And, depending how they shake out, it's either highly optimized or nearly useless. Am I missing something, or is an animated shield really that good?
Xaktsaroth 03-29-06, 02:12 PM	The SRD says: I read this to mean that it takes a standard action to animate the shield, since that's the default for command activations. However, since there's no stated duration for the effect, the shield apparently stays animated indefinitely. Seems pretty strong in that the bearer doesn't even have to blow an action in combat to animate the thing since he'll just activate it in the morning and leave it "on" all day. Which raises another issue: Does the shield stay activated and effective even when the bearer is sleeping or otherwise helpless? Other than a high cheese factor, I don't see why not. Finally, I assume that the attack penalty for wielding a weapon in the shield-hand is not one of the "penalties associated with shield use" that the wearer still takes, since if that were true an animated buckler would give a penalty but a shield wouldn't. Unless, you assume that the inability to wield a weapon in the shield-hand is a "penalty associated with shield use." Wow, that's an impressive number of issues for a single core magic item! And, depending how they shake out, it's either highly optimized or nearly useless. Am I missing something, or is an animated shield really that good? Yes, an animated shield does last all day long, and secondly, the penalties associated with shield use are listed directly afterwards(ACP, etc...) and you take none outside of that(so you don't lose your shield bonus to attack if you attack with a weapon in your off-hand). Yes, Animated is just that good.
Furdaddy 03-29-06, 02:23 PM	the penalties associated with shield use are listed directly afterwards(ACP, etc...) and you take none outside of that(so you don't lose your shield bonus to attack if you attack with a weapon in your off-hand). Your conclusion may be correct, but I disagree with this reasoning because it says "such as," meaning the penalties listed are of the sort that you continue to take but are not necessarily the only penalties that still apply.