Tower Shields OP?

[Story]

So today in my game the rules for hiding behind a Tower Shield came up, and it seems a bit broken. According to the SRD, you can get Total Cover by "giving up your attacks", while Total Cover means that you can't be targeted at all, though there is an exception for targeted spells because Boccob forbid spellcasters ever get inconvenienced in 3.5. Furthermore, there are no restrictions on moving or casting with the shield, only attacking.

Is it me or is this massively OP? It basically makes you invincible to mundane enemies.


P.S. I'm amused that trying to hide behind the shield gives you a -10 penalty due to ACP. Though total cover "usually obviates the need" to hide.

[SiuiS]

So today in my game the rules for hiding behind a Tower Shield came up, and it seems a bit broken. According to the SRD, you can get Total Cover by "giving up your attacks", while Total Cover means that you can't be targeted at all, though there is an exception for targeted spells because Boccob forbid spellcasters ever get inconvenienced in 3.5. Furthermore, there are no restrictions on moving or casting with the shield, only attacking.

Is it me or is this massively OP? It basically makes you invincible to mundane enemies.


P.S. I'm amused that trying to hide behind the shield gives you a -10 penalty due to ACP. Though total cover "usually obviates the need" to hide.

Technically, by the rules, once you hide your shield also hides with you and you're effectively invisible. Nobody really lets that happen though.

It's not overpowered. It stops being an issue around level three, and for levels one and two if you're really using the shield trick you probably need it. At level three even the melee characters are doing enough interesting stuff to make the shield a liability, and the tower shield is the only thing in the game that uses facing rules; only one direction gets the benefits of the wall and everyone else has LOS to you still, with callers and grenades making it less overpowered and more Fighter Trick Invisibility.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The 3.5 FAQ (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20030221a) has a lot to say about this, though many will not accept it as RAW:

Total cover prevents any attack against you. You can
use a tower shield to get total cover if you give up all your
attacks. What does “give up all your attacks” mean? Can
you move while getting total cover from the shield? Can
you cast a spell? Also, do you get total cover from all
directions or from just one side of your square? Will the
total cover from a tower shield negate spell effects? Will it
negate attacks of opportunity from movement or from
other actions such as spellcasting? Will it prevent charge
attacks against you? What about bull rush attacks? Can it
prevent grapple attacks or snatch attacks? Will it stop fear
effects, gaze attacks, or clouds of poison gas? Will it defeat
traps?

To claim total cover from a tower shield, you must use a
standard action. The tower shield rules don’t say that, but that’s
what they mean. Since you can take only one standard action
each round, you cannot also attack, cast a spell, activate a
magic item (except for some use-activated items), use a special
ability, use total defense, or start or complete a full-round
action during the same round you claim total cover from the
shield. You can, however, take a move action before or after
you claim cover from the shield.

Like other kinds of cover, the shield has to have a location
relative to you on the battlefield. When you use the shield for
cover, choose one edge of your space (not a corner). You have
total cover against any attack’s line of effect that passes
through that side of your space. If an attack’s line of effect goes
through the corner of the side of your space that the shield
blocks, you get cover from the shield (+4 AC, +2 on Reflex
saves) instead of total cover. If an attack’s line of effect passes
through a side of your space that the shield does not block, you
get no cover from the shield at all. To determine where the line
of effect enters your space, draw a line from the attacker’s
center to your center. Or, in the case of a magical effect, from
the effect’s point of origin and your center.

Once you claim cover from the shield, the shield keeps
blocking the side of your space that you chose until the
beginning of your next turn, when you can again decide
whether you’ll use the shield for cover. Once you choose the
side of your space that the shield blocks, you cannot change it
until your next turn.

You continue to threaten the area around you while you use
the shield for cover; however, it provides your opponents with
the same benefits you get. You cannot make attacks through the
side of your space that the shield blocks, and should you attack
through the corners of that space, your foe gets cover against
your attack. Since cover of any kind prevents attacks of
opportunity (see page 151 in the PH), the shield keeps you
from making attacks of opportunity in a pretty wide swath.

Total cover or cover from a tower shield has the following
effects in different situations:
Magical Attacks: A tower shield’s effects on
magical attacks depend on the kind of magical attack.
Any attack aimed at your equipment is aimed at you.
If a magical attack has you as a specific target (that is
it does not merely affect the area that contains you
but is aimed right at you), the shield has no effect. All
rays fall into this category, as does any spell that has
a Target entry in its header and any spell that has an
Effect entry and affects creatures (provided, of
course, that the attacker can and does choose the
shield user as a target). Magical attacks that fill areas
(bursts, cones, cylinders, lines, emanations, and
spreads) are subject to all the rules for cover on page
151 of the PH. Such attacks are completely blocked
if line of effect between you and the attack’s point of
origin passes through the side of your space the
shield blocks. You get cover (+4 AC, +2 on Reflex
saves) if the magical attack’s line of effect passes
through the corner of the blocked side. Spread effects
reach around the shield if they normally would
extend into your space, but you still get a Reflex save
bonus for cover when they do. A gaze attack is
blocked if the shield would give you total cover
against attacks from the creature with the gaze attack.
If the shield gives you cover only, you’re still subject
to the gaze attack (although you could avert or close
your eyes to avoid the attack).

Attacks of Opportunity: As noted earlier, cover or
total cover prevents attacks of opportunity. So you
could, for example, hunker down behind a tower
shield and pick up a weapon or rummage around in a
backpack and avoid attacks of opportunity against
you. If you’re moving while using the shield for
cover, things get a little more complicated. You must
determine whether the shield gives you cover (or
total cover) at the point during your movement when
you’d normally provoke an attack of opportunity.
Remember that attacks of opportunity are usually
resolved before the actions that provoke them. In
many cases, the shield won’t be positioned correctly
to protect you during your whole move.

Charging and Bull Rushing: Opponents can charge
you while you claim cover from the shield. An
opponent moves as normal when charging you,
moving to the closest square from which a melee
attack normally would be possible. If the shield gives
you total cover from the attack, the attack
automatically fails. Foes can bull rush you normally,
moving right into your space in spite of the shield.
You normally get an attack of opportunity against
someone entering your space, but not if the shield
gives your foe cover or total cover.

Grapple and Snatch Attacks: Total cover from a
tower shield blocks such attacks (the foe just can’t
get hold of you). The foe could, however grab the
shield. Conduct such attacks just like any other
grapple or snatch attack. Your foe can’t damage you
unless he pins you first. You can escape the foe’s
hold simply by dropping the shield (a standard action
since it’s strapped to your arm), so long as the foe has
not pinned you.

Traps: Cover or total cover from a tower shield is
just as effective against a trap as it is against any
other attack.

[Story]

Where are the facing rules for tower shields? I didn't see them.

Anyway, our party is currently level 3 coincidentally enough. It came up when we wanted to get through a hallway where goblins were chucking javelins at us from the sides.

There's also the old trick of wielding a shield all the time then dropping before you attack, but that just gets you an extra +4 AC when ambushed, so it's hardly gamebreaking. The real issue is the confusing rules regarding total cover.

Edit: One other quirk of the rules I just noticed. When you are targeted by a non-touch attack spell, using the total cover option is actual worse than getting the normal shield bonus. I guess the people who wrote those rules just assumed that all spells are touch attacks.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Where are the facing rules for tower shields? I didn't see them.

Cover is always from a direction. The tower shield doesn't make a dome over you, so it doesn't grant you total cover from every side. It's a flat board, so you have to decide where that flat board is relative to you when gaining cover from it.

[Zancloufer]

Cover is always from a direction. The tower shield doesn't make a dome over you, so it doesn't grant you total cover from every side. It's a flat board, so you have to decide where that flat board is relative to you when gaining cover from it.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/combatFacing.htm

Combat facing here helps, ALOT. I would just rule that it's like the "Front", except front is where the shield is facing (unless your facing the same direction your blocking from, which would mean shield "front" = your "front").

Also the bit about rays still being able to target you I would call BS on. If it can block attacks, bull rushes, grapples and AoEs it sure as hell can stop ranged touch attacks as you have COMPLETE COVER. Unless the spell/ability specifically calls out that it can pierce complete cover, the Tower Shield blocks it.

Now there is nothing saying that you can't attack the SHIELD it's self, in which case many spells could just blast through it. Now a Tower Shield only has 5 hardness and 20 HP so it wouldn't take too much to destroy it (though magical ones, or something like Mitheral or Adamantine is harder, but still).

[ericgrau]

Short version of the cover rules is that you effectively have a mobile wall on one side of you. It works both ways and does not block all directions. This is in the definition of total cover, no-facing be darned. This is not broken at all.

Tactical options like this should be strongly encouraged, especially among mundanes who must dig through game mechanics to find interesting things to do rather than having them all listed out for them.

Trading attack bonus for AC is also a good idea at low level when most foes are mundane and not very fast to be able to move around. This tradeoff favors the stronger combatant which is usually the PC.

[Curmudgeon]

Furthermore, there are no restrictions on moving or casting with the shield, only attacking.
From page 171 of Player's Handbook:
All spells that opponents resist with saving throws, that deal damage, or that otherwise harm or hamper subjects are attacks. Most casting is attacking, per the definition used for adjudicating spells.

Where are the facing rules for tower shields? I didn't see them.
There aren't any; D&D doesn't have facing.
Combat Facing

The standard d20 combat rules intentionally ignore the direction a creature faces. The rules assume that creatures are constantly moving and shifting within their spaces, looking in all directions during a fight.

[ericgrau]

It's not really facing, the tower shield merely has a specific location on the battlefield like any other wall. It's not violating no-facing any more than having an immobile wall north of you. Total cover having a specific location is defined in the total cover rules.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

My group didn't make taking cover from a tower shield require a standard action for a while. I made a 1st level Druid with a wooden tower shield (nonproficient) and a Warbeast Riding Dog, and for a while I'd spend every fight concentrating on Enrage Animal while gaining total cover from the shield. It was biting at +8 to hit for 1d6+9 damage with +6 to trip, it had the same AC and double the HP of any PC, and I was still able to walk around with the shield and act as a moving obstacle to block enemies.

Being able to buff and heal allies, concentrate on ongoing spells, and summon creatures from the safety of total cover that a tower shield grants is too good. It should take a standard action every round to gain total cover from a tower shield, and I wish they'd added it in the PHB errata or included it in the Rules Compendium instead of settling for clearing it up in the FAQ, so it would be actual RAW instead of a suggestion.

[Vogonjeltz]

Where are the facing rules for tower shields? I didn't see them.

Anyway, our party is currently level 3 coincidentally enough. It came up when we wanted to get through a hallway where goblins were chucking javelins at us from the sides.

There's also the old trick of wielding a shield all the time then dropping before you attack, but that just gets you an extra +4 AC when ambushed, so it's hardly gamebreaking. The real issue is the confusing rules regarding total cover.

Edit: One other quirk of the rules I just noticed. When you are targeted by a non-touch attack spell, using the total cover option is actual worse than getting the normal shield bonus. I guess the people who wrote those rules just assumed that all spells are touch attacks.

Dropping a shield requires you to loose it first. (Move action, unless you combine it with another move if you have +1 BAB)

So that would only work if your opponent let you do it, and if your best option is a single attack.