Path of War Iron Tortoise Questions

[ColossusCrusher]

So I had a few quick questions:

A lot of the counters in the discipline say to make an opposed attack rolls at your full BAB plus your shield bonus: does that include bonuses from Strength, weapon enhancement bonuses or other sources like magic buffs?

The Zweihander Sentinel Archetype gives you a shield bonus to AC when using a two handed weapon and allows you to use that weapon to make shield bashes for the purposes of Iron Tortoise maneuvers. Do you lose the shield bonus to AC when doing so as you would with a real shield or not, as it's just a shield bonus and not an actual shield?

Thanks for the help, these edge cases are kind of confusing.

[Sayt]

The 'Shell' counters in the Iron tortoise school, other than Iron Shell at level one, do not get strength to the counter check. Iron shell is inconsistent with it's followers in that is calls for a shield bash, which includes Strength.

That said, at higher levels, you can get a huge shield bonus to ac. Heavy Steel Shield+Enhancement bonus, Stance of the Defending Shell and Shield Focus (Which you want for a feat which grants shield AC to touch) You can easily get quite a healthy bonus, at least at moderate levels.

[ColossusCrusher]

That's a very odd way for them to write it. Unfortunately as you can see from my followup question I'm using the Zweihander Sentinel archetype so my shield bonus is only equal to my aegis bonus, and we're starting at level one. I'll probably have to look for the counters that let me use shield bashes and stuff instead of BAB+Shield Bonus.

And my follow up question? Does that generic shield bonus go away when I bash with Zweihander Sentinel? I don't think it should, since it's not actually a shield, but I don't know.

[legomaster00156]

I'd say you probably should lose the shield bonus, for the same reason you'd lose the shield bonus with an actual shield: now that you've bashed with it, you are no longer in the proper stance to use it effectively as a shield.

[Tuvarkz]

Probably not, as you are treated as having the shield whenever you are wielding the two-handed weapon.

[ColossusCrusher]

And I assume I'm reading Defensive Focus correctly when I think the first 5-foot increase to threatened area is at level 5?

As for the shield bash issue, I'll take it up with the DM. Seems like it could go either way.

[Ellowryn]

The Zweihander Sentinel Archetype gives you a shield bonus to AC when using a two handed weapon and allows you to use that weapon to make shield bashes for the purposes of Iron Tortoise maneuvers. Do you lose the shield bonus to AC when doing so as you would with a real shield or not, as it's just a shield bonus and not an actual shield?


Well, looking at the actual wording the shield bonus to AC and the use of a two handed weapon as a light shield are two different abilities. As for the shield bonus, it specifically states that you gain one as long as you are holding a weapon in two hands (subject to other normal restrictions of the Aegis class feature) so it doesn't matter if you use the weapon to attack or not, simply holding it gives you the bonus.

[Tuvarkz]

And I assume I'm reading Defensive Focus correctly when I think the first 5-foot increase to threatened area is at level 5?

As for the shield bash issue, I'll take it up with the DM. Seems like it could go either way.

First increase happens at level 1, then 5, 10, 15, 20, as per the DSP FAQ thread.