Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Borak 07-25-06, 08:49 AM	Tower shield - May I combine the action of Total Defence (+4 AC) with the tower-shield's cover? - What kind of action is to decide using tower-shield's cover, instead of the shield bonus (+4 AC), or varing the cover amount? - Does the cover's bonus of tower shield apply as penalty to hit for who uses it (except for total cover)? - Does the tower-shield's cover apply only to a side of my occuped area? Have I to choose where to orient it? Or does it apply to each side of my area? - What does it mean "You can’t make an attack against a target that has total cover"?Does physical attacks fail automatically? - Can I use a tower shield if I am prone? - Can I benefit of cover advantages even I'm not competent in tower shields? Precisely, what are the penalties I'd suffer if I'm not competent in tower shields? - If on an imaginary line lies my enemy in front of me, me, an ally of mine behind me, and I use tower shield to benefit of cover, does my ally (who got cover from me because I'm in front of him) benefit also of the tower shield cover? Regards.
pres_man 07-25-06, 10:27 AM	Tower shield - May I combine the action of Total Defence (+4 AC) with the tower-shield's cover? - What kind of action is to decide using tower-shield's cover, instead of the shield bonus (+4 AC), or varing the cover amount? The answer to this depends on the answer to your second question. Total Defence is a standard action, so if using a tower shield for cover is a standard action, then they can't be combined. I believe that either in the FAQ or some article on rules I saw that the statement about giving up your attacks was really to indicate it was a standard action, and was written poorly. - Does the cover's bonus of tower shield apply as penalty to hit for who uses it (except for total cover)? You can only use a tower shield for full cover or for standard shield bonuses, you can't use it for varying degrees of cover. - Does the tower-shield's cover apply only to a side of my occuped area? Have I to choose where to orient it? Or does it apply to each side of my area? This is one of the few places that you have to choose a side for it to apply to. Basically you are setting it up as a small wall that you can hide behind, that wall has to be somewhere. - What does it mean "You can’t make an attack against a target that has total cover"?Does physical attacks fail automatically? Yes, though they could always instead try to sunder the tower shield. Target spells still work, since they just hit the shield and effect the person using it. - Can I use a tower shield if I am prone? As a shield definitely, for total cover, most likely. - Can I benefit of cover advantages even I'm not competent in tower shields? Precisely, what are the penalties I'd suffer if I'm not competent in tower shields? You take a -10 penalty on all attack rolls (or -9 for masterwork tower shield). - If on an imaginary line lies my enemy in front of me, me, an ally of mine behind me, and I use tower shield to benefit of cover, does my ally (who got cover from me because I'm in front of him) benefit also of the tower shield cover? No, though they would still get soft cover from you. Though a DM may rule that you and the tower shield are acting as a low wall, and thus give the ally cover that way. The benefit for that would be that your ally might be able to ignore the cover when attacking the foe if he is closer. The negative would be the foe could ignore it when attacking the ally when he is closer. Regards. Salutations