Tower Shields and Zombie Goblins

[Curelomosaurus]

A bit of a weird idea I had to help low-Dex builds keep their defenses high. I'm still working a few kinks out with tower shields, but here's what I've got:

-Hire a Level 1 necropolitan air goblin warrior with heavy taint and 2 flaws, for 7 starting feats. Use point buy to max his Dex (at a 22) and have him take the following feats: Wedded to History (throwback) for immunity to effects that target undead; Skill Focus (Ride) for +3 Ride; Mounted Combat to replace his mount's AC with his Ride check 1/round; Shape Soulmeld (Riding Bracers and Kruthik Claws) for +4 Ride, Handle Animal, Hide, and Move Silently; Saddleback to replace his/his mount's Reflex saves with his Ride check; and whatever Core feat gives +2 Ride.
Give the goblin the traits: Slow and Saddleborn.

-The goblin's Ride modifier is +20. Put him in a masterwork exotic saddle fitted to a human. He takes a -3 penalty to Ride checks because humans are ill-suited as mounts.

-Give your goblin 2 masterwork hide shields (360 gp) to give him total cover except against targeted spells.

-Both your reflex saves can be replaced, at will, by either 27 or 1d20+17 (since the goblin can always take 10). Your AC can likewise be replaced once per round.

-Give him a set of camouflage armor with a masterwork Hide tool and shadowweave clothes, for a Hide modifier of +15. He takes 20 on his Hide check (hiding behind his tower shields) for a DC 35 Spot check to notice him.

A few kinks that need working out:

Does a hide/tower shield's total cover provide the benefits of normal cover or improved cover for the purpose of bonuses to Reflex saves, Hide checks, and gaining Improved Evasion? What about two tower shields?

How do you determine which side of a creature gains cover from a hide/tower shield?

Could the goblin use a Collar of Perpetual Attendance and have the unseen servant he controls grant you cover by holding a hide shield?

[RSGA]

A bit of a weird idea I had to help low-Dex builds keep their defenses high. I'm still working a few kinks out with tower shields, but here's what I've got:

-Hire a Level 1 necropolitan air goblin warrior with heavy taint and 2 flaws, for 7 starting feats. Use point buy to max his Dex (at a 22) and have him take the following feats: Wedded to History (throwback) for immunity to effects that target undead; Skill Focus (Ride) for +3 Ride; Mounted Combat to replace his mount's AC with his Ride check 1/round; Shape Soulmeld (Riding Bracers and Kruthik Claws) for +4 Ride, Handle Animal, Hide, and Move Silently; Saddleback to replace his/his mount's Reflex saves with his Ride check; and whatever Core feat gives +2 Ride.
Give the goblin the traits: Slow and Saddleborn.

-The goblin's Ride modifier is +20. Put him in a masterwork exotic saddle fitted to a human. He takes a -3 penalty to Ride checks because humans are ill-suited as mounts.

-Give your goblin 2 masterwork hide shields (360 gp) to give him total cover except against targeted spells.

-Both your reflex saves can be replaced, at will, by either 27 or 1d20+17 (since the goblin can always take 10). Your AC can likewise be replaced once per round.

-Give him a set of camouflage armor with a masterwork Hide tool and shadowweave clothes, for a Hide modifier of +15. He takes 20 on his Hide check (hiding behind his tower shields) for a DC 35 Spot check to notice him.

A few kinks that need working out:

Does a hide/tower shield's total cover provide the benefits of normal cover or improved cover for the purpose of bonuses to Reflex saves, Hide checks, and gaining Improved Evasion? What about two tower shields?

How do you determine which side of a creature gains cover from a hide/tower shield?

Could the goblin use a Collar of Perpetual Attendance and have the unseen servant he controls grant you cover by holding a hide shield?

So starting from the bottom, because there's where I see the most clean cut and obvious issue. The PHB texts for Tower Shields say that to get Total Cover from it you have to give up your attacks. This isn't quite clear what kind of action it is, but that doesn't matter much because Unseen Servants can't attack in any way as per the text. So while they can carry some tower shields, they're never going to be able to give cover because they can't actually do the thing they need to give up in order to get the cover. Sadly, it's only going to ge more interpretational from here.

Now, as for the benefits, it's a bit shaky because the text doesn't explicitly define how it gives cover other than by giving up your attack. At the most ludicrously generous to the Shield situation, the GM basically allows you to make a box by either saying that it's always total cover relative to other regardless of direction and timing or that you can move the cover whenever interacted with and by then you are probably in territory where Drown Healing is going towards sanity.

What I feel is probably the intended way of doing would be more that you choose a direction (or in this case two directions) and plant the shield in that direction as best you can and then you start adjudicating from there with a few things kept in mind. Total Cover doesn't necessarily give any concealment so you likely don't break line of sight and thus stay observed for the whole time. Therefore you need something else to be able to make the Hide roll when you move or you need to be able to hide while observed. Perhaps you have artfully disguised your shields to match the colors and patterns of the walls in this dim cave and so you plan to blend in. Otherwise it should probably be some kind of Epic Hiding much like balancing on a cloud is Epic Balancing since you have also hidden the cover that you were using to claim you broke observation.

As it gives the equivalent of Total Cover, the reflex and evasion bonuses are in a state of binary extremes. Either the attack can get around the cover and it gives you nothing, ala what page 151 has to say about spreads or what the Tower Shield has to say about targeted spells, or it doesn't and it should slam right into your shield which hopefully absorbs the whole thing.


Of course everything but the inability of Unseen Servants to take Total Cover using Tower Shields is very arguable. Oh, and you can't do any attacks to anyone while you're riding that goblin until they get around the Total Cover or you're doing something that goes out from your square, whatever interpretation of total cover you use. They on the other hand still have a few tricks that can hit you.

[Curelomosaurus]

So the basic idea works, even if the unseen servant bit doesn't? As for hiding, the goblin can always take the Dark template for HiPS.

The main goal of this is to let characters with low Dexterity use the goblin rider's Ride for AC and Reflex, and from what you said it sounds like that works. The unseen servant bit was simply a way for the goblin to put its actions to use.

[RSGA]

So the basic idea works, even if the unseen servant bit doesn't? As for hiding, the goblin can always take the Dark template for HiPS.

The main goal of this is to let characters with low Dexterity use the goblin rider's Ride for AC and Reflex, and from what you said it sounds like that works. The unseen servant bit was simply a way for the goblin to put its actions to use.

The Unseen Servant definitely doesn't work. The other bits may or may not work depending on circumstances. The version of Saddleback that lets you take 10 and replace a Reflex save with a Ride check is, from what I found, a Faerunian regional feat that's restricted to Humans from the areas of Cormyr, Dambrath, the Hordelands, Narfell, Nimbral, the North, the Western Heartlands so you'd have to get that allowed in as all the others are variations on Get A Plus to Ride.

Lots of battlefield control can still get you, as can some save or dies, and the shields are going to be obvious targets to sunder without repricussion which starts to take things apart a bit. So it's a nice trick, but also one to be careful with. You don't want to get Haboob-ed and have a wall around you.

[Toliudar]

The 'Hide behind the thing that is part of what you want to have hidden' concept is definitely not going to fly - at least, not in any game I've seen. It also seems questionable whether, since the the goblin is behind total cover with no ability to see what's going on on the other side of its shields, they can use the Mounted Combat feat to block attacks to its mount. This seems roughly analogous to a rider who is blindfolded.

[Nifft]

@Toliudar - your analysis seems perfectly correct, I just want to say that this line:


This seems roughly analogous to a rider who is blindfolded.

... makes me want to play a Blind Swordsman archetype, except on a motorcycle.

[Khedrac]

-Hire a Level 1 necropolitan air goblin warrior with heavy taint and 2 flaws, for 7 starting feats. Use point buy to max his Dex (at a 22) and have him take the following feats: Wedded to History (throwback) for immunity to effects that target undead; Skill Focus (Ride) for +3 Ride; Mounted Combat to replace his mount's AC with his Ride check 1/round; Shape Soulmeld (Riding Bracers and Kruthik Claws) for +4 Ride, Handle Animal, Hide, and Move Silently; Saddleback to replace his/his mount's Reflex saves with his Ride check; and whatever Core feat gives +2 Ride.
Give the goblin the traits: Slow and Saddleborn.
The biggest reason that this doesn't work is the word I have put into bold - if you are hiring him he is an NPC and under the GM's control for race, stats, flaws, skills and feats.
Even if you take leadership and make him a follower the DM still has approval over your choices to a greater degree than he does for players (I.e. (s)he can rule that the follower would not take a feat that is campaign-legal for players.)

Also, I think taking "wedded to history (throwback)" would probably make it impossible for the goblin to become a necropolitan - remember, it is not an inherited template, one has to acquire it which means changing type and it is a ritual specific to humanoids and monstrous humanoids...