DSP's Radiant Dawn Stance of the Sunlight Shield (5th level stance)...what can we do

[Ramza00]

DSP's Radiant Dawn Stance of the Sunlight Shield (5th level stance)...what can we do with it? Most people are not familiar with Path of War's Radiant Dawn for it comes in a later book. If you haven't seen it please google it for it is incredible and is one of the first results.

I ask for this seems so multi-functional that I haven't figured out all the things you can do with it.

For example


Blocks Line of Effect thus stopping certain types of spells that target until the shields are destroyed.
Shields are effectively Damage Reduction of IL+Ability Modifier+1 and if the attack is weaker than IL+Ability Modifier you do not lose a shield, and you can layer a number of shields onto each other up to your Ability Modifier + Essence *2, furthermore investing 2 essence in here (you get 5 essences for free) increases the damage reduction / hardness by 6 (2 essence times 3 hardness.)
Flight for you and or allies. You can move all your shields as a move action up to your land movement speed and thus you can fly with the shields. (They can be shoot out from underneath you though.)
3 shields in a triangle fashion plus the ground is all you need to block line of effect from all angles? Can you see through the shields? Does this block line of sight and grant you cover? Wall of Force allows you to see on the other side but all this word of light and sunlight is misleading to me.
Your attacks and abilities like magic spells or psionic powers ignore the shields and you can choose your allies abilities to also be bypassed by the shields.
Just choosing this 5th level stance, so earlier availability is 9th HD, gives you 5 essence. Stuff you can feed into the shield but also other things like Armory of the Conqueror (boost your weapon damage), or other Radiant Dawn Maneuvers, Akashic Veils, and so on.


What am I missing? :smallsmile: I ask for there are so many things you can do with it, I am doubting my creative abilities to figure all those things out.

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Sidenote it is a wonderful thing for the BBEG's secondary allies to have to protect the BBEG.

[Segev]

It is odd that there is no mention made of the shields shedding light nor their opacity. They are said to me made of light. By the RAW, however, they are treated as walls of force, which are transparent by default (unless somebody can point to a rule that says otherwise; the spell certainly seems to treat them so.)

A DM who house rules some measure of light being shed and opacity would not be out of line, to my mind.

That said, they permit you to pick a number of aloes whose abilities are not impeded by them; this would mean they could see through them. It’s unclear if “ability to move” qualifies; they may or may not be able to pass through your shields. If they can, they would also likely not be able to stand on them. Ask your DM. Personally, I’d say they’re solid as terrain and walls for movement, but can be shot and seen through by those allies unimpeded by them. I would also rule that they are transparent, and shed bright light to five feet and dim light to ten feet (so low light vision could see to twenty feet from a shield). But that’s house ruling, wrt the lighting.

Since they’re terrain, if terrain would not fly out from under you when it moves (e.g. a boulder under telekinesis), then these wouldn’t, either. But it would be reasonable to demand a balance check not to fall as they move without the riders’ input. Maybe a Fly check on your part to keep them steady for those riders, instead.

You want to be careful, too; they’re not hard to destroy, and breaking a flying platform isn’t great for the riders.

Being an inch thick is interesting. Walls of force usually are 2D. Likely this just is there to quell any “infinitely sharp blade” stunts. With no rules for attacking with them, you can’t bludgeon anybody, nor shove, either.

[Ramza00]

Moving through them I think is a no go. Shooting arrows, throwing javelins, casting spells I think is the intent.

Also they scale real well the higher your Initiation Modifier.

12 Cha or Int or Wis
Ability Modifier = Yields Total Effective Hitpoints after Hardness and layering all the shields in one direction = THP (Ability Modifier Num of Shields*(Initiator Level + Ability Modifier + 1 Hitpoint))


12 Cha/Int/Wis=_11 Effective Hitpoints=1*(9+1+1)
14 Cha/Int/Wis=_24 Effective Hitpoints=2*(9+2+1)
16 Cha/Int/Wis=_39 Effective Hitpoints=3*(9+3+1)
18 Cha/Int/Wis=_56 Effective Hitpoints=4*(9+4+1)
20 Cha/Int/Wis=_75 Effective Hitpoints=5*(9+5+1)
22 Cha/Int/Wis=_96 Effective Hitpoints=6*(9+6+1)
24 Cha/Int/Wis=119 Effective Hitpoints=7*(9+7+1)
26 Cha/Int/Wis=144 Effective Hitpoints=8*(9+8+1)

If you invest 2 essence and have 26 in your ability modifier at HD 9 it is 288 Effective Hitpoints=(8+2+2)*(9+3+3+8+1)

I stopped at 26 for that is effectively the highest at HD 9. 18 base, +2 race, +2 HD, +4 item.

Of course this amount of protection is the best case scenario at 9th HD. Really they are movement mode assistances, and preventing line of effect targeting from spells that do not damage. If they do damage the shields are going to break but it is free Hitpoints.

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They also work great to slow movement inside restricted spaces.

At IL 9 the shields can be up to 45 feet away and you can put a shield in each square / hex to slow movement. That said larger monsters will have reach and attack multiple shields at once by targeting the furthest square if they know what is happening. Regardless you can reduce movement similar to solid fog.

If the enemy sees through the stances perfectly they would not know they are there. If they shed some light they would try to avoid them / be more efficient. This movement tactic works better in tight spaces, with darkness, concealment, fog, etc.