DnD 5th Buckler or Target Shield

[daze413]

Hello everyone, this is a quick and lazy port of the 2nd edition's Buckler, also called a Target Shield, to the 5th edition DnD. I've seen people homebrew bucklers but it just didn't feel right. I'd like to run this homebrew through people with more experience and see what you guys think.

Buckler/Target Shield
cost: 10 gp
requirements: 13 Dexterity [1];cannot be used with Heavy weapons [2]; cannot use a weapon's versatile property [2]

A Buckler or Target Shield is a small round shield of wood or metal that fastens to the forearm. Because of its size, it doesn't give you as much protection but you can use the shield hand as a free hand. When an opponent you can see makes an attack against you, you can use your reaction to add +2 to your AC for that attack. You must choose to do so before the opponent makes the attack roll.


The dexterity requirement is to keep every character from using the Buckler, I'm thinking of removing this since the shield proficiency requirement should do the trick. This could also be swapped to strength.
The restriction on heavy weapons and versatile weapons reduces the damage die of any weapons used with the buckler to a d8 and removes the ridiculousness of a glaive+buckler


Any comments and critiques are welcome. :smallbiggrin: I'll keep on editing this post to reflect suggestions and will add a small credit and change log spoiler below:


Oct. 10, 2015: When an opponent you can see makes an attack against you,
Oct. 12, 2015: removed Shield Proficiency requirement, people who are already proficient in shields would pick the shield over the buckler and the classes/archetypes whom the Buckler should appeal to don't have shield proficiencies. Credits to: Blood of Gaea

[Ninja_Prawn]

This might be worthwhile, if having free hands was more useful. The only situation I can think of where that is the case is a grappler who wants to use a shield. And even they can just sheath their weapon as a free action whenever they want to grapple. Casters have plenty of ways around their free hand restrictions already. Otherwise, you're using up your reaction to get something you could just get from a regular shield for no cost.

And presumably it's not compatible with Protection and Shield Master either.

Finally... you do realise real-life bucklers didn't strap to the forearm, right? I'm sure half the people reading this will want to bring that up. Best to have a rebuttal prepared.

[daze413]

This might be worthwhile, if having free hands was more useful. The only situation I can think of where that is the case is a grappler who wants to use a shield. And even they can just sheath their weapon as a free action whenever they want to grapple. Casters have plenty of ways around their free hand restrictions already. Otherwise, you're using up your reaction to get something you could just get from a regular shield for no cost.

But grapplers can't attack afterwards if they're using a shield and a free hand ;) People using light crossbows or shortbows should also find this useful, so will people with two-weapon fighting. Anyway, the marginal usefulness is part of the design, not everyone should be using this, same as not everyone uses a shield.


And presumably it's not compatible with Protection and Shield Master either.

It is still a shield for all intents and purposes, though I imagine the third bullet of the shield master feat would be difficult to rationalize. Perhaps it can be explained as an Evasion-like feat, owing to your increased agility? But, really, people with a Buckler won't be focusing on the shield itself but with their now free hand and there is no reason to really get those feats if you're using a buckler.



Finally... you do realise real-life bucklers didn't strap to the forearm, right? I'm sure half the people reading this will want to bring that up. Best to have a rebuttal prepared.

Will "this is fantasy" be enough? Seriously, though, as much as I try to emulate realism in my campaigns, I always bow to versimilitude and if this buckler looks believable enough, I don't think that's an issue.

[Ninja_Prawn]

This is... FANTASY! It should be enough, really. People get way too serious about this stuff.

And yeah, I totally forgot about two-handed ranged weapons. *facepalm* Archers could even flip it round so that their bowstrings don't cut into their arm!

[Blood of Gaea]

If I was going to add a buckler I would probably do this:

-0 AC.
-You cannot use this shield if you are wearing Medium or Heavy Armor.
-When a creature standing withing 5 feet of you uses an action to target you with a Melee Weapon Attack, you may give them Disadvantage for that action. You may only do this if there is only one hostile creature withing 5 ft of you.
-You equip or drop this shield at the same time you do a one-handed or versatile weapon.

Very useful ability, but situational, and it's worth noting the Shield Mastery feat still applies. I figured it fill in the gap of an off-hand defensive option for DEX users. The normal shield will still be better for STR based PCs, and when fighting more then one Melee.

[Ninja_Prawn]

-When a creature... you may give them Disadvantage...

So... you don't need to use your reaction to do this? That doesn't seem right, considering its basically the same as Protection, except that you protect yourself rather than someone else.

And a minor quibble: "giving" disadvantage makes it sound like you're giving them a gift. A better word would be "impose".

[daze413]

-You cannot use this shield if you are wearing Medium or Heavy Armor.

What is the reasoning for this restriction? I'm interested in knowing why the armor restriction but no shield proficiency is needed?

[Blood of Gaea]

What is the reasoning for this restriction? I'm interested in knowing why the armor restriction but no shield proficiency is needed?

Personal preference mostly, and medium would probably be fine with it. I doubt it would be overpowered with armour, it's just seems meh to me to imagine someone in plate wielding a buckler. But go ahead and ignore that restriction if you don't like it.

You can have it need a shield proficiency if you want, but if you do, consider giving Rogues a specific Proficiency for Bucklers.

I also don't feel it horrible needs the proficiency, due to their being ways around it.

1. Being in melee with more then one enemy makes it useless.

2. It only blocks one action worth of attacks, so anything on a bonus action, or and action surge will get around the effect.

3. Ranged attacks, or melee attacks that are not weapons (unarmed and magic) also get around the effect.

[daze413]

Personal preference mostly, and medium would probably be fine with it. I doubt it would be overpowered with armour, it's just seems meh to me to imagine someone in plate wielding a buckler. But go ahead and ignore that restriction if you don't like it.

You can have it need a shield proficiency if you want, but if you do, consider giving Rogues a specific Proficiency for Bucklers.

I also don't feel it horrible needs the proficiency, due to their being ways around it.

1. Being in melee with more then one enemy makes it useless.

2. It only blocks one action worth of attacks, so anything on a bonus action, or and action surge will get around the effect.

3. Ranged attacks, or melee attacks that are not weapons (unarmed and magic) also get around the effect.

Just to be clear, we are talking about your Buckler?

The shield proficiency does seem restrictive to other classes who might want to use it but aren't proficient. I'll look up the proficiencies of the classes to see if it really is overly restrictive.

[Blood of Gaea]

Just to be clear, we are talking about your Buckler?

The shield proficiency does seem restrictive to other classes who might want to use it but aren't proficient. I'll look up the proficiencies of the classes to see if it really is overly restrictive.

Yup I was talking about mine in this case, and yeah, I dropped the requirement for shields because bucklers are useful more to the classes that don't get armor and shields, then to the ones that do.

You could also group it with light armor, or as a martial weapon (like a net).

[daze413]

Yup I was talking about mine in this case, and yeah, I dropped the requirement for shields because bucklers are useful more to the classes that don't get armor and shields, then to the ones that do.

You could also group it with light armor, or as a martial weapon (like a net).

That is a good point. I'll remove the shield proficiency needed but this'll make the Dex requirement permanent. Thank you for the insight!

I don't think making it a martial weapon would be good, it'll restrict casting classes from using it.