Eliminating Tower Shield ASF

[SwordChucks]

I'm trying to make a warforged warlock based on Protoman. Is there a good way to reduce the ASF on a tower shield to 0% so I can use it like Protoman (without using the animated property or an unseen servant). Additionally, the rules seem to assume that if you're using a shield then your other hand is holding a weapon. If I leave one hand free with the other holding the shield does that do anything for me?



Edit:
Blended quartz from A&EG (pg18) has-20% ASF
Githcraft DMGII (pg 276) gives -5% ASF
I just need to remove 25% ASF now.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Generally you use one hand to hold the shield, and your other hand to hold or wield whatever you're attacking with, whether that's holding a weapon or using the hand to make gestures for somatic components of spells. All warlock invocations have a somatic component, so you have to keep one hand free if you're going to use them.

One of these things is a tower shield, the other is certainly not a tower shield. See if you can guess which is which.
http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1396/29/1396292510127.jpghttp://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb/GamesRadar/us/Games/M/Mega%20Man%209/Bulk%20Viewers/PS3_360_Wii/2008-09-19/Proto%20Man--article_image.jpg

Just get a Mithral Heavy Shield that's +1 Twilight (PH2 p21), otherwise you're going to be taking nine levels of Spellsword in addition to those two things to get at tower shield down to 0%.

[SwordChucks]

The point for me is how it works in the game. When he holds up his shield your projectiles do nothing, since that's the main benefit of a tower shield in 3.5 (gaining cover) that's what I decided to use. Unless there's a better type of shield that grants cover, I need a way to make the tower shield work.

Edit: Also, Twilight is only mentioned as an armor enhancement.

[Fouredged Sword]

Mithral gets you 10% of the way there. Githcraft and Faycraft will get you another 10%, leaving you with a 30% failure rate. If you can talk your DM into letting you apply twilight, that is another 10%.

Not sure how to cut off that last 20% though.

[Thurbane]

Unfortunately there's nothing I know of that removes the -2 to hit penalty, other than a high quality homebrewed "Hobgoblin Paragon" racial class, which now appears to have been eaten by the internet. :smallfrown:

[SwordChucks]

Unfortunately there's nothing I know of that removes the -2 to hit penalty, other than a high quality homebrewed "Hobgoblin Paragon" racial class, which now appears to have been eaten by the internet. :smallfrown:

The -2 to hit isn't so bad for a blastlock because it's a ranged touch attack for Eldritch Blast.


Mithral gets you 10% of the way there. Githcraft and Faycraft will get you another 10%, leaving you with a 30% failure rate. If you can talk your DM into letting you apply twilight, that is another 10%.

Not sure how to cut off that last 20% though.

Mithral is a lot lighter than blended quartz but is half as effective, and feycraft can't be applied to non-wooden shields.

Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone :smallsmile:

[Erik Vale]

Twilight brings it to 15%, other than that I think you're dealing with class features.

[Troacctid]

A level of Spellsword shaves off 10%, but qualifying for it is going to be somewhat troublesome. On the upside, if you do dip another spellcasting class for it, you can at least go into Eldritch Theurge for your troubles.

[Jeff the Green]

feycraft can't be applied to non-wooden shields.

Beyond that, applying feycraft and githcraft is a big stretch. Not only would you have to convince a fey to go help a githyanki shield-maker on the astral plane, you'd need to convince the xenophobic githyanki to accept the help.

[Thiyr]

Convince the gith to accept it? Bah! Just needs more magical compulsion! Charm a bunch of nixies, get them to go with you to the astral, get them to charm a gith into making what you want (feycraft just needs the crafter to be magically influenced by the fey, and afaict that wouldn't interfere with githcraft. Not too huge a stretch, just takes a bit more effort)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Edit: Also, Twilight is only mentioned as an armor enhancement.

Fire Resistance, Electric Resistance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm), etc. only mention armor in their descriptions, but they're listed on both the armor and shield tables in the DMG/SRD. Twilight does not state that it cannot be applied to shields, and in BoED it's listed under "Armor and Shield Special Abilities" indicating that it could be used to improve a shield.

Go Duskblade 1/ Warlock 4/ Spellsword 3 with Precocious Apprentice and a +1 Twilight Blended Quartz Githcraft Tower Shield. You'll need to use flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) to also get a Warforged feat (Mithral Body, etc.) at 1st level. Be sure to consider Practiced Spellcaster for Warlock.

[Psyren]

I would say Protoman is Mythic and thus has Armor Master (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/mythic-heroes/champion#TOC-Armor-Master-Ex-).

Either that or his Protobuster turns his blasts supernatural in some way, thus making ASF no longer an issue.

[SwordChucks]

Fire Resistance, Electric Resistance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicArmor.htm), etc. only mention armor in their descriptions, but they're listed on both the armor and shield tables in the DMG/SRD. Twilight does not state that it cannot be applied to shields, and in BoED it's listed under "Armor and Shield Special Abilities" indicating that it could be used to improve a shield.

The section lists no shield-only enhancements but features several enhancements that specifically mention both armor and shields. I'd parse that as meaning that Twilight is armor specific. Not that I see anything wrong personally with it applying to shields I just don't think it's RAW. The less effort I have to spend convincing a DM of something the better.

That said I like that build a lot and I'll probably steal it. :smallbiggrin: Thanks a bunch everyone!