[PF] Improvised Shields, is this a thing?

[Alanto]

Hey.

Ah, in short, I'm running a Pathfinder game in a week or so, it's only going to run for a couple of weeks and I'm giving the party premade characters, for such a short game it seems fair, and they're all cool with it.

One of the characters isn't especially going to be carrying 'real' weapons, and is getting the Catch Off-Guard feat and some assorted toys to go with it instead (seemed like a nice character point, and the player seems good with it)...I'm drifting off-topic.

TL;DR - Do you think it'd be reasonable to use Catch Off-Guard to use a briefcase as an improvised shield (they're a Detective-archetype Bard)? Or indeed is there something more appropriate that I've missed?

(as a final note, this isn't going to be much of an optimised party. My group really doesn't tend to put much effort into being powerful)

[Doc_Maynot]

If it wasn't for being pathfinder, and that the character is a bard, I'd recommend Drunken Master from 3.5 Complete Warrior. They explicitly get features like this.

[MightyPirate]

I haven't seen anything that specifically deals with this but I'd say Catch Off-Guard is only for melee weapons and Throw Anything only covers ranged weapons.

I'd treat an improvised shield as an improvised tool so a -2. There's no check for using a shield though so I'd treat it as an armor check penalty and also a shield you aren't proficient with so that -2 applies also to attack, str, and dex rolls. If a character were going to be built around this I'd have them take improvisational equipment (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/equipment-traits/improvisational-equipment). Rough and Ready (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/traits/equipment-traits/rough-and-ready) may also be useful if Catch off Guard is eating too many feats for you, sadly you can't have both traits.

[Alanto]

Okay, that makes sense. It shouldn't be hugely important in any case.

Thanks for the input!