Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ToastedAmphibian 03-26-08, 07:02 AM	Is there any penalty for using an "Animated Mithral Extreme Shield" if you arnt proficent? Well, i guess my question could be rephrased as "Do masterwork construction and the Mithral special material stack for teh purpose of dertiming the Amor Check Penalty of a shield?" If not, is there an item anyone knows about that grants something akin to a continous effect "Force Screen" Rings of Force shield are pretty sad, as you still have to actually wield the shield, thus taking up vital hand space. I only have 4 hands and im not about to waste one on a shield. :}
Lotus Crane 03-26-08, 11:12 AM	Is there any penalty for using an "Animated Mithral Extreme Shield" if you arnt proficent? You still take any associated penalties with an animated shield that you do with a non-animated one, aside from having hands free to wield weapons, cast spells, or do whatever. Armor check penalties (which are doubled if you aren't proficient), arcane spell failure, and the tower shield's -2 penalty to your attacks still apply. Well, i guess my question could be rephrased as "Do masterwork construction and the Mithral special material stack for teh purpose of dertiming the Amor Check Penalty of a shield?" Mithral items automatically count as masterwork (see the description of mithral armor and shields), and thus cannot be "further masterworked." Essentially, since mithral armor and shields have a net reduction of -3 ACP, you can think of it as -2 due to the material, -1 from the construction itself (since nobody is wasteful enough to ever make non-masterwork armor from such a precious material).
ToastedAmphibian 03-26-08, 01:45 PM	Armor check penalties (which are doubled if you aren't proficient), You are mistaken. A character who wears armor and/or uses a shield with which he or she is not proficient takes the armor’s (and/or shield’s) armor check penalty on attack rolls and on all Strength-based and Dexterity-based ability and skill checks. The penalty for nonproficiency with armor stacks with the penalty for nonproficiency with shields I also wasnt refrencing a tower shield, but an "Extreem Shield", an exotic shield from races of stone. After looking through the crystal keep indexes, i dont see any way to furtehr reduce a shields armor check penalties. This makes my options: Animated Tower Shield, mythral: +5 Ac, -2 attacks +4 max dex -7 Amor check Animated Extreem Shield, Mythral: +4 AC -1 Attacks/physical checks -1 Armor Check Heavy Shield, Darkwood or Mythral: +3 AC Is +3 AC really worth 10,000+gp? I know its basically unslotted and of a sorta odd type, but that still seems a little steep. Edit: Never mind, a ring of protection +2 is 8000, so i guess 10,000 isnt too bad. Still, are there any better options out there than an animated heavy shield?
RavenDrake 03-26-08, 04:15 PM	Still, are there any better options out there than an animated heavy shield? In terms of maximum benefit for minimal tradeoff? No, not really. An animated +1 mythril or darkwood heavy shield grants a +3 shield bonus with no armour check penalty (15% ASF for darkwood, 5% for mythril, but then I'm guessing you're not a caster). So even if you're not proficient, there's no associated penalty. If you can't(or don't want) to take proficiency with shields, that's going to be about your best bet.
Lotus Crane 03-28-08, 12:03 AM	I also wasnt refrencing a tower shield, but an "Extreem Shield", an exotic shield from races of stone. I'm familiar with the extreme shield; I was only quoting the tower shield's attack penalty as a reference to what being animated won't help you with. If you really need to reduce ACP further, there's the nimbleness property (I think originally in Magic of Faerun, but re-printed in MIC).
ToastedAmphibian 03-28-08, 06:20 AM	Nimbleness seems to be an armor only enhancment. And adding that to a +1 animated extreem shield would get me a +4 shield bonus with no penalties. The same as a +2 Animated Heavy shield. And it would cost about 60 or so more GP for the extreeme shield.