Animated Item Cost (and Crusader build ideas)

[yoshi67]

I'm playing a new campaign with low to mid optimization. Our DM likes crazy stuff and I just started really reading ToB and want to play something from it. I like the idea of Crusader, and read about it being used in the common "two-handed weapon with animated shield" build. However, we will have plenty of melee capability in the party and want to focus solely on being a tank/wall. I want to be the big guy that stands there taking punches laughing to keep the enemy occupied while my group does their thing. So I thought what better way to do that than to reverse the setup with double wielded shields and an animated weapon. I can't seem to find the cost of an animated weapon (same as animated shield?), don't know how viable a build like this might be, and just want to know what you might think about it.

[Namfuak]

The Animated property only exists for shields, probably because the developers thought it would be unbalanced on weapons (but casters can summon them, because the developers don't understand the balance of their own game). It's sort of pointless anyway, because shield bonuses don't stack, so using two is just wasting an arm. You can make one out of Riverrine, which turns half the shield bonus into a deflection bonus and deflection bonuses stack, but honestly you should stick with one sword, one shield and spend the money on stacking AC other ways (improving magic armor, amulet of natural armor, ring of protection, etc) (ask your DM about applying common effects on top of existing magic items as outlined in the Magic Item Compendium, it will mean you can have a bunch of nifty magic items while still having all the basic +x to stat stuff you need).

[Darrin]

I can't seem to find the cost of an animated weapon (same as animated shield?), don't know how viable a build like this might be, and just want to know what you might think about it.

For an animated weapon, you'd probably want to start with the Dancing property (DMG), but it's probably not worth it for a +4 enhancement bonus. A cheaper alternative might be to use the Flying property from Magic of Faerun, which is only a +1 enhancement bonus. It's not intelligent, and it's not clear from the rules what precisely it can do, but if you can order a skeleton to attack, why not a weapon? It attacks as an animated object, so you want to add the Sizing property (+5000 GP, MIC) to make it colossal.

Since shields can also attack as a weapon, make it a Flying Force Surfboard (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=10294124&postcount=5). Then you can ride around on your shield while TWFing with your other shields.

Or, make it a spiked gauntlet, which can then wield a spiked shield.

Now, as far as wielding two non-animated shields, there are two ways to wield heavy shields in each hand and only take -2/-2 TWF penalties: Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting (Complete Adventurer) or Agile Shield Fighter (PHBII). Oversized TWF is probably the better pick here, because as a Crusader you're going to be feat-starved, and Agile Shield Fighter has more prereqs.

We can't stack a shield bonus with another shield bonus, but there are two ways to get something a little extra out of the second shield:

1) Make one shield out of Riverine. Half of your shield bonus becomes a deflection bonus, which *does* stack with a shield bonus.

2) Inlindl School feat from Drow of the Underdark lets you convert 1/2 of your shield bonus into an attack bonus when you're attacking with a light or finessable weapon. This doesn't work with Oversize TWF/Agile Shield Fighter unless you add feycraft shield spikes to a feycraft shield, which should count as a light weapon for the purposes of TWF but still count as a one-handed weapon for Power Attack and such.

For giggles, add a Dwarven Buckler-Axe on each arm. This also offers a +1 shield bonus, but fortunately does not incur an additional -1 penalty for being a buckler. You don't have to pick up Exotic Weapon Proficiency to wear these, as you probably won't be attacking with them, but if you're a dwarf, you can swap your racial weapon familiarity with Dwarven Waraxe/Urgrosh to Buckler-Axe. As a crusader, you can also swap your tower shield bonus to pick up Exotic Shield Proficiency: Extreme Shield, but unfortunately you can't shield bash with those.

Another idea... not all that optimized, but could be fun: use two razored shields (FR Underdark) and go into Dervish for Dervish Dancing Razor Shields.