Shield Revamp 3.5

[Teapot Salty]

Hey guys. So in general it is agreed that shields are not the best equipment. So after little thought I decided to do a bit of a revamp on them. Essentially, I wanted to make them more effective (whether they are or not I would love to have discussed) So... Instead of giving you an ac bonus, I decided that they give you a "miss chance" as long as you wield it and are not flat footed. The miss chance is dependent on the shield, the exact is shown below:
Buckler: 10% chance
Light steel/wood: 20%
Heavy steel/wood: 30%
Tower: 50%
If the shield is worn (on your back, not actively on your arm) or you are flat footed, it grants an ac bonus as vanilla shield.

What do you guys think? And as always, go nuts.

[VoxRationis]

If the shield is worn (on your back, not actively on your arm) or you are flat footed, it grants an ac bonus

This would imply that use of the shield requires active effort and movement by the wearer, which is good. However, the effects of the shields are unrelated to any sort of skill—they function equally well for all wearers, which doesn't quite fit well with the idea that they require active use.

[Cuaqchi]

It is however a good start... Maybe add a clause where the bonus is only available against a number of attacks each round (1-2) per attack the character would possess. Thus at low level you can fend off 1-2 people with ease while a high level character can use it equally as well even if completely surrounded.

[redwizard007]

Your starting miss percentages are to high. Once you begin to factor magical bonuses in (I'm assuming a 5% increase per plus,) then it becomes incredibly unlikely that the user of a magical shield is struck in combat. Even at lower levels with minimal bonuses the numbers would need to be altered. There is no way two attackers on opposite sides of a fighter using a tower shield would both suffer a 50% miss chance.

You could use a rule where one enemy per round is subject to the miss chance but that doesn't exactly make shields better. Or have the first attack suffer full miss chance and each subsequent attack at 5% less of a miss chance than the previous. (that would mimic the difficulty in defending from multiple attacks and attackers quite nicely.)

Better bet might be to reduce shields to 5/10/15/20% and have it affect all attacks.

The secondary effect of a shield bonus to AC if the shield is strapped to your back... make that go away. Mixing mechanics is rarely a good idea.