Super old character idea: Bard with a tower shield?

[Zaq]

I had it in my head that I started playing D&D in college. And this is true. That's when I started really playing the game. But what I'd forgotten for a long time is that I had technically touched the game exactly once before, several years prior. A friend had tried to get me into the game with a one-shot. I don't remember much about it, but what I do remember is that for some reason, I had insisted on playing a Bard with a tower shield. I think I had visions of being first in line and providing cover to my allies or something? Not sure what Bard had to do with it, but either way. I had forgotten about that until very recently. I think the character was a human? I forget that bit.

Anyway. Just for kicks, what can we do with that mechanically insane concept? Let's stipulate the following:

The character must wield a tower shield. Actually wielding it, too. No animated shields or dancing shields or anything like that. Gotta be a real tower shield that you're holding in your hand and using like a tower shield.
Creative thinking is encouraged, but let's minimize the amount of raw "tower shield of invisibility" cheese we use.
Character must be a Bard and must feel like they're primarily a Bard. Doesn't have to be straight-classed or anything, but the more Bardlike we are, the better.
No specified level, but stuff that comes online early is always better than stuff that takes forever.
No specific book list, but since I don't have access to the majority of the stuff from Dragon magazine, it's more interesting to me to leave magazine stuff alone.

So anyway. Casting spells with a tower shield in hand is a foolish proposition, but Bards cast spells, so we'll need to find a way to still have Bard-style magic (off the top of my head, we can try to rely on Still Spell, we can try to find lots of spells without somatic components, or we can do something like Runesmith if we can get that without losing too much Bardness). Bardic music, on the other hand, works fine without hands as long as we're singing, so that's kind of interesting. Maybe we could go into Seeker of the Song or Virtuoso or something that relies primarily on music rather than on casting.

That's about as far as I've gotten so far, though. I know that it's not a very strong basis for a character, but I'm just playing around with an old memory rather than trying to bring something to a real game, so we can afford to be a bit loose. Still, the concept is so interestingly mechanically jarring (I mean, how crazy suboptimal are tower shields anyway if you aren't trying to engage in enough sleight-of-RAW that you argue that they make you untargetable, let alone on a caster?) that I feel like it's worth playing around with a bit. Anyone got anything worth adding?

[JyP]

I think you could match this concept with the Growling Shields used by the Fir Domain tribes from Slaine comics (or Slaine D20 RPG)

The Fir Domain are also known as the Tribe of the Growling Shields for their fearsome battle feat of shield-growling, when they use specially shaped metal shields to amplify their war-cries. This feat reveals a great deal about the tribe in general for they are geared towards defense, and their warriors make great use of shields. Yet they use the shields for offence too - the shield growl instills terror into the hearts of any who face them in battle. This combination of attack and defense runs through many of the tribe's activities in both peace and war-time.

[Arkhios]

Too bad a Tower Shield is made of wood; no exceptions. (If you could make one from metal, you could use mithral to lessen the shield's Arcane Spell Failure chance by 10%. Wouldn't be much, but it's still something)

My memory fails me if there were a magic armor/shield that would lessen the item's ASF chance by any amount or not. I seem to recall that there was a way, but I don't remember what or where was it. Definitely not in DMG, that's for sure.

[JyP]

Slaine D20 is kind of low-tech, with rules for flint weapons for example - and no tower shields or plate armors. Checking in the rulebook : any shield can be made into a growling shield whenever it is created. Growling shields are carefully shaped and iron-lined so as to make a great growling noise whenever battle cries are yelled into them. You must take the Shield Growl feat to do so (which has 2 other feats as prerequisites, Battle Cry and Improved Battle Cry).

I guess you could adapt such rules for D&D - maybe set the tower shield as a Legacy Item with powers and so on.

[NerdHut]

Too bad a Tower Shield is made of wood; no exceptions. (If you could make one from metal, you could use mithral to lessen the shield's Arcane Spell Failure chance by 10%.

Races of Stone has a Steel Tower Shield at ASF 50%, which is functionally to the wooden one except it's metal and is way heavier. But tack on Mithral and you're off to a good start.

[Aharon]

I had it in my head that I started playing D&D in college. And this is true. That's when I started really playing the game. But what I'd forgotten for a long time is that I had technically touched the game exactly once before, several years prior. A friend had tried to get me into the game with a one-shot. I don't remember much about it, but what I do remember is that for some reason, I had insisted on playing a Bard with a tower shield. I think I had visions of being first in line and providing cover to my allies or something? Not sure what Bard had to do with it, but either way. I had forgotten about that until very recently. I think the character was a human? I forget that bit.


If the bard focuses on singing instead of casting, that would still be useful and feel bard-like? -> Standard Song-Optimization? I mean, it's not as optimal as other weapons, but you could probably use stuff like dragonfire inspiration with the usual add-ons to attack with your shield for a bunch of elemental damage d6?
-> Question is wether there's a way for a human to gain the dragonblood subtype. I'm sure there is, but I don't know from the top of my head.

If the goal is to actually do something interesting with the shield, that's way harder ;-)

[Elrak]

-> Question is wether there's a way for a human to gain the dragonblood subtype. I'm sure there is, but I don't know from the top of my head.

If the goal is to actually do something interesting with the shield, that's way harder ;-)

The answer to that would be Silverbrow human.

Building up on the idea of focusing on Bardic Music, War Chanter and or Warrior Skald could add a bit to the martial concept of this build. Throw in some Warblade to get access to White Raven tactics and the feat song of the raven and you got yourself an interesting chasis for a war leader inspiring his troops from the front lines.

To round it up, Words of creation would probably be a must and it would certainly not hurt if we could make use of the Eberron options for swapping out songs for feats (i.e. Getting song of the heart asap).

This would definetly not be the most OP character (nothing that loses CL is) but a fun one nontheless.

[Darrin]

Races of Stone has a Steel Tower Shield at ASF 50%, which is functionally to the wooden one except it's metal and is way heavier. But tack on Mithral and you're off to a good start.

Make it out of blended quartz (A&EG) for -20% ASF. Add Feycraft and Githcraft for -5% each. Add Twilight for another -10%, and then dip Spellsword 1 for -10%, and you can get ASF down to 0%. It's going to be really heavy, though... 180 lbs. (Also, Twilight cannot technically be applied to shields, so you may need a handwave there.)

A bard that sticks to summoning and BFC spells could do pretty well behind a tower shield.

[Arkhios]

Races of Stone has a Steel Tower Shield at ASF 50%, which is functionally to the wooden one except it's metal and is way heavier. But tack on Mithral and you're off to a good start.


Make it out of blended quartz (A&EG) for -20% ASF. Add Feycraft and Githcraft for -5% each. Add Twilight for another -10%, and then dip Spellsword 1 for -10%, and you can get ASF down to 0%. It's going to be really heavy, though... 180 lbs. (Also, Twilight cannot technically be applied to shields, so you may need a handwave there.)

A bard that sticks to summoning and BFC spells could do pretty well behind a tower shield.

These are a sour and solid proof that I've fallen off the wagon :D

Dammit, I used to know a whole lot more tricks regarding 3.5 than I can remember now!

[Elrak]

A bard that sticks to summoning and BFC spells could do pretty well behind a tower shield.

Summoning Bards are fun but then again, if you go that route then I always think taking the ACF Savage Bard and tacking on Greenbound Summoning makes the most sense. In this constelation though, having a tower shield is not as impactful I feel, when your summons can basically just spam cast walls around you.

[lylsyly]

These are a sour and solid proof that I've fallen off the wagon :D

Dammit, I used to know a whole lot more tricks regarding 3.5 than I can remember now!

It's called "sometimers." At least that's how my 60 year old brain sees it. ;D

[Pleh]

What if the shield doubled as an instrument somehow? Anything can be a drum, but hollowing the tower shield and putting a drum skin over the wielder's side could improve the percussive qualities. Of course, you could just as easily lay strings over the hollow bits and make it a stringed instrument or a mouthpiece to make it a woodwind.

Might be able to use Summon Instrument with it so you don't always have to carry it everywhere.

[Arkhios]

It's called "sometimers." At least that's how my 60 year old brain sees it. ;D

Ouch! And I'm only 31!

[lylsyly]

Ouch! And I'm only 31!

LOL. Well,at least you are talking about one of the most complicated systems out there.
Everytime I build a character, it's back to pouring through the books, indexes, and forums because I can't remember half the options. In my defense, although I have owned all the books since 2010 (A Garage Sale of all things, cost me $50 for the whole thing) I have only actually been playing 3.5 since late 2016 (stuck to earlier versions and Traveller up till then).

More on topic:

Can you make your tower shield a masterwork tool of Perform: Oratory. Staying on the front line, using your Oratory to control/coordinate the fight while providing bonuses to your comrades.

Got to squeeze at least a couple of shield fighting feats in too!

[Dread_Head]

Divine Bard is usually lackluster as it mostly just adds a wisdom dependence to the bard. However in this case it would neatly take care of the ASF issue surrounding tower shields. You could even wear full plate to go with the tower shield and that would let you get away with a lower dexterity to counterbalance the higher wisdom.

[PacMan2247]

What if the shield doubled as an instrument somehow? Anything can be a drum, but hollowing the tower shield and putting a drum skin over the wielder's side could improve the percussive qualities. Of course, you could just as easily lay strings over the hollow bits and make it a stringed instrument or a mouthpiece to make it a woodwind.

Might be able to use Summon Instrument with it so you don't always have to carry it everywhere.

I was thinking along these lines, but instead of stretching a skin over one side, just make it into an overgrown steel drum.

[Zombulian]

I remember one of Person_Man's example builds in his Knight Handbook was a Knight/Bard/War Chanter. I actually pointed out that it's not fully legal RAW because War Chanter requires Non-lawful Alignment, but also, I don't see any rules about ex-Knights arising from changing alignments.

[Telonius]

I'm thinking a Bardsader build might do something there. Crusader does get tower shield proficiency. Little bit of a Crusader dip to get Song of the White Raven, then another level (or feat) to get White Raven Tactics. After that, you could get into one of the Bard PrCs that doesn't usually get quite so much love, since they don't advance spellcasting, like Seeker of the Song or something similar.

[Zombulian]

I'm thinking a Bardsader build might do something there. Crusader does get tower shield proficiency. Little bit of a Crusader dip to get Song of the White Raven, then another level (or feat) to get White Raven Tactics. After that, you could get into one of the Bard PrCs that doesn't usually get quite so much love, since they don't advance spellcasting, like Seeker of the Song or something similar.

Or War Chanter *eyebrows wiggle*
Would actually work well thematically and crunch-wise right? Full BAB plus neat song options like giving allies temporary hp to supplement your Crusader healing. Good breakoff points would be 3 or 5 probably. The capstone is neat but a bit of a slog to get to.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Is this 3.5 or Pathfinder?

If 3.5, is there any reason a Bardsader with Song of the White Raven and Snowflake Wardance couldn’t wield a tower shield?

[Zombulian]

Is this 3.5 or Pathfinder?

If 3.5, is there any reason a Bardsader with Song of the White Raven and Snowflake Wardance couldn’t wield a tower shield?


You cannot use this feat if you are carrying a shield

ten characters

[Dr_Dinosaur]

ten characters

I’m afb at the moment, is that SW? If so, it’s not especially necessary imo. Song of the White Raven and maybe a Marshal dip for even more aura is plenty to make a Bardsader

[Zombulian]

I’m afb at the moment, is that SW? If so, it’s not especially necessary imo. Song of the White Raven and maybe a Marshal dip for even more aura is plenty to make a Bardsader

Yeah that was text from Snowflake Wardance

[Arkhios]

Yeah that was text from Snowflake Wardance

I find it amusing that such a Special Snowflake trick is actually named as Snowflake <something> :p