Attaching a shield to barding?

[Yogibear41]

Is it possible to attach a shield to the barding/armor of something like a war horse or a war dog without interfering with its ability to attack?

[Xerlith]

If you have gold, the easiest way would be using an Animated shield, I guess.

[hymer]

Presumably the soul-destroying Animated Shield can be used by people who don't have hands if the DM is so inclined. He shouldn't be, though.

This is the sort of question I get a lot from one of my players, and it really sucks the fun out of me. I get grumpy, annoyed, tired, vexed, riled, irked.

[Yogibear41]

Well, it was less about using an animated shield and more about physically attaching one to the quadraped who would be potentially serving as the
"fighter type" but didn't interfere with his ability to bite and such.


Or even sticking something like a tower shield on its back for a turtle type shield bonus lol.

[hymer]

Well, no hard feelings, I hope.
Shields are written in my PHB to be strapped to your forearm and gripped with your hand. So, you need both to be able to use a shield. The average war dog probably needs the Girallon's Blessing or something, and it still wouldn't be proficient with the shield, so it would hinder its attacks.

[Yogibear41]

Well, in the particular case I am thinking of this critter will have proficiency, and a high enough Int score to know what its doing.

[IdleMuse]

Assuming the creature in question has Proficiency, and a hand to wield it in, then sure, why not? Just strapping it to the creature won't do anything in exactly the same way that just strapping a shield to your back as a humanoid PC won't do anything.

[Captnq]

Funny you should bring this up. I'm working on a shield handbook.

There's the saddle for the burrowing animal. It is referred to as having a "shield" but there is no indication that it grants an armor class. Been trying to figure that one out.

Now, the Wagon Shield can be "locked into place" and provides 3/4ths cover for a small size critter and 1/2 cover for a medium sized critter.

Now that's a question, Can you mount wagon shields on a war dog? I would say, No. However, if it was say, two sizes bigger, say, a War elephant? I'd say sure, you could mount something up. That's RAI, not RAW, mind you.

[Captnq]

Oh, wait, you want the shield bonuses for the MOUNT. Oh. Well.

Ring of Force Shield. There ya go.

[Fouredged Sword]

One could get a small enough rider wielding a riding shield. The mount would then get the shield bonus without needing to wield the shield.

I considered this for my TO Wizard McMonkeyhat.

He is a wizard who defends himself by being ridden by his familiar and a large number of tiny monkeys. They all make ride checks to negate damage to the wizard every time he gets attacked. The wizard wears a bridel of battle to give the monkeys all the mounted combat feat. Give one of the monkeys a riding shield and the wizard gets a nice boost to AC as well.

[Yogibear41]

I guess I should just be more specific in what I am asking it would probably help alot more, althought I might try to apply ideas I learn from this to something down the road.

Basically, I'm just on another one of my theoretical build of strange and abnormal things, for this weeks randomness I'm looking at the Canoloth, a yugoloth from MM 3. Its a 6 hd creature with a +5 la so it would probably have to be some type of gestalt build to even be playable with that LA. Haven't actually written up a build yet, but I had the idea of going cleric then into Bone Knight, because having essentially a 4 foot tall bull dog esque, paralyzing monster from a bad place incased in full plate bone armor just tickled my fancy, and I was just wondering if I could get this thing a bone extreme shield or something(taking fighter dip for prof there, also to get ride as a class skill for earliest possible entry into bone knight.

[Big Fau]

The Shield Gauntlet from RoS could be made to work if the animal has Exotic Armor Proficiency.

[Captnq]

I considered this for my TO Wizard McMonkeyhat.

He is a wizard who defends himself by being ridden by his familiar and a large number of tiny monkeys. They all make ride checks to negate damage to the wizard every time he gets attacked. The wizard wears a bridel of battle to give the monkeys all the mounted combat feat. Give one of the monkeys a riding shield and the wizard gets a nice boost to AC as well.

That is going in the handbook.

[Big Fau]

One could get a small enough rider wielding a riding shield. The mount would then get the shield bonus without needing to wield the shield.

I considered this for my TO Wizard McMonkeyhat.

He is a wizard who defends himself by being ridden by his familiar and a large number of tiny monkeys. They all make ride checks to negate damage to the wizard every time he gets attacked. The wizard wears a bridel of battle to give the monkeys all the mounted combat feat. Give one of the monkeys a riding shield and the wizard gets a nice boost to AC as well.

So he's wearing primative armor?

:smallbiggrin:

[Coidzor]

Mourning Mutate feat > Aberrant Feat(Inhuman Reach, maybe?) > Deepspawn feat and gloves of man for the resultant tentacles?

Dragonblood subtype > Dragon Tail feat > Prehensile Tail feat


Well, it was less about using an animated shield and more about physically attaching one to the quadraped who would be potentially serving as the
"fighter type" but didn't interfere with his ability to bite and such.

Or even sticking something like a tower shield on its back for a turtle type shield bonus lol.

IIRC, There's some kind of Nezumi shield from Oriental Adventures and possibly Dragon Magazine that is only usable while prone that might be adapted to being worn on the back of a quadreped, but then you run into questions of if it's just a form of heavy armor or not with such an adaptation.


One could get a small enough rider wielding a riding shield. The mount would then get the shield bonus without needing to wield the shield.

I considered this for my TO Wizard McMonkeyhat.

He is a wizard who defends himself by being ridden by his familiar and a large number of tiny monkeys. They all make ride checks to negate damage to the wizard every time he gets attacked. The wizard wears a bridel of battle to give the monkeys all the mounted combat feat. Give one of the monkeys a riding shield and the wizard gets a nice boost to AC as well.

<3


Well, no hard feelings, I hope.
Shields are written in my PHB to be strapped to your forearm and gripped with your hand. So, you need both to be able to use a shield. The average war dog probably needs the Girallon's Blessing or something, and it still wouldn't be proficient with the shield, so it would hinder its attacks.

Make a Light Shield or Buckler Masterwork and the armor check penalty drops to 0, which means they can use it at no penalty despite lacking proficiency.