Shield-Based Fighter?

[falloutimperial]

My friend will soon be starting a low-level campaign for D&D 3.5, and I am interested in playing a fighter who is more interesting than your basic hit-it-with-my-sword gameplay. What I'm wondering is whether or not a fighter or fighter-like class could be viable later on having specialized in shields. I have not interest in min/maxing, but I do want to keep up at later levels. What do you think?

[Darrin]

Person_Man's Guide to Shields (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=123630)

[dantiesilva]

The knight class in PHB2 may help you. It focuses on helping your teammates by focusing on shield like abilities. Plus it allows you to challenge a opponent to mortal combat. Got to love that joke. All in all better then the fighter in my eyes, cavalier in the PF book is also something you may want to look into. Its a class their. And though it is not completely focused on shield ( saying you gain a mount at level 1) It has some of the ideas you are going for.

[Diovid]

Crusader (tome of battle) or Knight (as mentioned above) are probably the best classes for this.

[Tim Proctor]

My Captain America build is: Marshal 2/Knight 4/Legendary Leader 5/Master Thrower 5/Tactical Solider 4.

It works fairly well for not min/maxing, feats that I get are Goad, Draconic Aura, Double Draconic Aura, Combat Expertise, Allied Defense, Good Karma, etc.

[Voidling]

I've found play a knight fun and fills the tanking role very well, I started with 2 levels of fighter then when knight

I went for these Feats

Combat Expertise (used with knight’s challenge)

Defensive Strike (+4 to hit if they miss you)

Power Attack (using bonus from Defensive Strike)

[GenghisDon]

there are tons of cool builds for non-munchkin shield users, in many classes, just using base classes (or a single prestige).

Barbarian (whirling frenzy/UA) with a few shield feats makes a very durable, mobile, yet still capable melee combatant (just not the damage monger of the typical 2 hander power attack tree barb types)

A Cleric could make a nice shield focused caster/combatant

Fighter can go extreme shield, obviously. Fighter/Swashbuckler (CW, daring warrior feat/CS) works very well

Ranger can make a VERY cool weapon/shield warrior, particularily with a dip into scout (CR, feat: swift hunter/CS) or fighter.

Knight (PH2, as mentioned) is very durable. Perhaps add a fighter level or 4.

Paladin (charging smite option/PH2) could be very sweet. Again, maybe a 1-4 level fighter dip.

[ericgrau]

With mild optimization you can keep up on AC with shields. Though there is the animated shield at high levels for shield + THF or TWF which is strictly better than holding one in your hand. You won't keep up with a min/maxed shocktrooper ubercharger, no, but even at high levels monsters will miss you most of the time (50-75+%) while you still deal decent enough damage to be a major threat. All you have to do is spread your AC out to 4-5 sources rather than 2 to get more bang for your gp.

There are also builds out there with shield bash and so on. If you have a lot of feats to blow then tricks like combat expertise can pump your AC even further, but you have to be careful about sacrificing your offense (both in lost feats and hits sacrificed). Only do so in situations where your life is in danger and enemies are making attacks against the type of defense you are using.

[Gavinfoxx]

Use a Shield with Shield Spikes, two handed, as your primary weapon...

[falloutimperial]

All you have to do is spread your AC out to 4-5 sources rather than 2 to get more bang for your gp.


By that, do you mean using different armors and devices simultaneously?

[GenghisDon]

I think he means:
armor bonus
enhancement to same
shield bonus
enhancement to same
dodge bonus
deflection bonus
natural armor bonus
enhancement to same
luck bonus
sacred or profane bonus
ect

but several items is implied, as it is once again, cheaper/"more bang for your buck"

[ericgrau]

Armor, shield, ring of protection, amulet of natural armor, dusty rose prism ioun stone. At high levels add boots of speed, mithril + dex item. There are also some feats, class features and so on. +1 here and there adds up to a lot.

[GrumblyBear]

Two weapon fighting, improved shield bash, agile shield fighter (PHBII), and shield specialization (PHBII).

Use two heavy spiked shields, wear heavy armor, be a walking tank!

[Person_Man]

What I'm wondering is whether or not a fighter or fighter-like class could be viable later on having specialized in shields.

Yes, you can easily pull off a shield-centric build with Fighter, Crusader, Incarnate, Knight, Paladin, Psychic Warrior, Cleric, etc. There's plenty of good shield abilities and combos (Shield Slam, Inlindl School, Shield Bond, Shield Counter, Shield of the Severed Hand, etc). And you're generally not giving anything up if you know what you're doing (you can use a shield as a two handed weapon, or get 3+ arms, or use an Animated shield, or be a Bloodstorm Blade, etc). It's not the most optimal set of mechanics in the world, but it's doable.

[Uhtred]

I had a DM rule that shield spikes stacked with the bashing enchantment, so you could effectively up your shield bash size by three categories. My character was a Centaur (large-size) with Monkey Grip (huge-size) with spikes and a bashing enchantment. (past gargantuan and colossal size.) When I enlarged, I had to extrapolate damage by two size categories, and was doing more damage with my shield than with my Fullblade. It was gnarly. Throw two-weapon fighting and Improved Shield Bash in there and you'll truly be hurting folk.

[Gavinfoxx]

Ewww Monkey Grip. Never get Monkey Grip.

But a +1 Bashing Heavy Shield with +1 Psychokinetic Shield Spikes would be interesting, if everything stacked!

[ThiagoMartell]

In fact, if you allow such size stacking shenanigans, Monkey Grip becomes useful. It's usually not considered good because you get better return from Power Attack, but when a size increase adds 4d6 instead of 1d6 damage, it becomes relevant again. You can get better results from magical items, though.

[Elric VIII]

In Dragon 310 there is a Fighter variant that allows you o trade some of your bonus feats for various special abilities. One of these (for the Shieldfighter archetype) allows you to initiate combat mneuvers using your shield as though it were an unarmed strike. You cound build an interesing Stunning Fist build with this, using shield bashes.

If you're just interested in carying a shield (rather than focusing on defense) a TWF Rogue/Swashbuckler with Daring Outlaw isn't bad. There is a feat that lets you keep armor bonus to AC when shield bashing, and other than that it's just like and other TWF build. This ends up costing you a few more feats than an average TWF character, but it's not too bad.

A third option is Exotic Weapon Master. If your exotic weapon of choice is a one-handed weapon, you can choose an ability that lets you treat it as a two-handed weapon whe power attacking (even when you wield it with one hand). It requires EWP/racial familiarity, Weapon Focus, and a 1 level dip. After that just apply to your favorite PA charger build.