Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Kwll 11-10-03, 02:38 PM	Does it make sense to anyone that when you have your animated shield floating about protecting you, that you still take the normal armor penalties to skill usage? Ie. Person swimming with animated large steel shield floating nearby has as much difficulty keeping from going under as someone with the shield strapped to thier arm? I think this is just nutty to be blunt. Any Wizardly types willing to address this?
d_nychus 11-10-03, 02:40 PM	Maybe it just keeps hitting you in the head?
was_fired 11-10-03, 02:46 PM	While it is indeed in the air the weight continues to press on you and in turn weighs you down and produces the armor check as random parts of your body are weighed down as they become the closest object to it. Best I can think of.
Rabe 11-10-03, 06:48 PM	I asked the rules department about those shields when asking about grappling. According to them, an animated shield carries all the same characteristics as a normal shield, except that it floats by itself (and its not easier to grab or sunder). Rabe
Xavim 11-10-03, 06:52 PM	So somehow a shield that hovers in the air all by itself without coming into any physical contact with you is weighing you down and encumbering you? Next they're going to tell me I can't use my hands because my everdancing daggers are weighing down on them. What's the point of an animated shield if you suffer the same penalties for one that isn't? Why would anyone want one when they could just as easily carry a normal one. At least for now I can still have a dozen animated daggers around me.
BlackFiend 11-10-03, 07:19 PM	Good...didn't like them anyway. Too munchy for my tastes.
Kwll 11-18-03, 04:10 PM	So, I take it that no WOTC types care to comment on this, then?
Menothras the Reasonably Lucid 11-18-03, 05:12 PM	Originally posted by BlackFiend Good...didn't like them anyway. Too munchy for my tastes. It's really hard to say something that makes that much sense in-game is munckin-y. I mean, if you were a fighter type, and you found out that you could have a sheild protecting you without holding it, wouldn't you want to get one? It allows you to use a more powerful weapon, and still be just as protected, which is *generally* what fighter-types want.
Brendan Candries 11-20-03, 09:11 AM	"It allows you to use a more powerful weapon, and still be just as protected, which is *generally* what fighter-types want." Free lunches is what munchkins live on.
Lord Arkhaven 11-20-03, 09:36 AM	Having a shield constantly floating all around you would hamper your movements. In the swimming example the shield would hamper you arm strokes or obstruct your vision.
Menothras the Reasonably Lucid 11-20-03, 01:33 PM	Point taken. But that's really more of an issue with how the game is run. It really depends more on whether or not the DM rules it to know what a sheild is suposed to do, and have it act acordingly, or that it's an uninteligent hunk of metal and it will get in the way.
IceFractal 11-20-03, 02:39 PM	Well if it still gives the penalty its not that useful is it? Monks can't use it, Sor/Wiz can't use it, various other people might not wan't to use it, basically its only for two-handed weapon fighters now.