I know you can only benefit from one shield even if holding two, but I'm curious if anyone had ruled that holding two shields would be deemed as half cover?
I once had a player who wanted to use dual shields and i decided to rule that they count as improvised weapons with proficiency and that the second adds a plus one. The reason for that being a fire giant can have 2 shields with a +3 bonus. I think it was the dreadnaught.
I know you can only benefit from one shield even if holding two, but I'm curious if anyone had ruled that holding two shields would be deemed as half cover?
There are many ways you can house-rule shield mechanics, although I don't have a handle on relative popularity. From a balance perspective, having a second shield provide half cover would be, in general, more powerful than letting shields stack, because you'd get +2 AC from the second shield on top of +2 to Dexterity saves - what you might want to contemplate is letting the second shield count as half cover for Dexterity saves only. If you want to instead copy the rules for two-weapon fighting (where the second weapon provides a bonus action attack that deals less damage than a normal attack), you could have the second shield provide a bonus action that provides +1 AC.
I know you can only benefit from one shield even if holding two, but I'm curious if anyone had ruled that holding two shields would be deemed as half cover?
Wielding a shield already effectively provides you with half cover minus the saving throw bonus (which you can get in various cases via the Shield Master feat already). Rules As Written multiple shields explicitly provide no additional bonus to your defence:
Shields. A shield is made from wood or metal and is carried in one hand. Wielding a shield increases your Armor Class by 2. You can benefit from only one shield at a time.
I would say that the fire giant dreadnought is a highly specialised exception; they are an immensely strong CR 14 creature doing something that a player cannot normally be expected to do, and I would say that the AC benefit is more from the specialised shields they use (and train extensively with all the time) rather than having two of them.
When you think about it, having two shields doesn't really mean you're twice as protected, the benefit is that you can always be presenting a shield while attacking, no matter which arm you attack with; letting a pair of shields count as improvised weapons in this case is reasonable, but I don't think there's any need for boosted protection. Just tell them to take the defence fighting style and/or the Shield Master feat if they want to get more out of it.
Lastly I would say that it's not a good idea to indulge players fishing for ways to gain absurd defensive bonuses; if you take away the danger from combat it will stop being fun. The same thing happens when DMs are too generous in handing out magic items and don't scale up enemies accordingly. However if you scale up enemies to account for the twin shield player, you will only end up punishing the other players for not having as high an AC.
If you're determined to add a defensive house rule, considering that Medium creatures can already provide half cover to one another, you might instead allow the twin shielder to provide three quarters cover (as they already can for Small allies), so it's a defensive bonus to allies rather than yourself.
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I know you can only benefit from one shield even if holding two, but I'm curious if anyone had ruled that holding two shields would be deemed as half cover?
I once had a player who wanted to use dual shields and i decided to rule that they count as improvised weapons with proficiency and that the second adds a plus one. The reason for that being a fire giant can have 2 shields with a +3 bonus. I think it was the dreadnaught.
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I never had shield provide any cover no matter how large it is or how many are equipped
I would allow someone to buy/build a "Tower Shield" type item that does this. Would not allow it with just 2 normal shields.
There are many ways you can house-rule shield mechanics, although I don't have a handle on relative popularity. From a balance perspective, having a second shield provide half cover would be, in general, more powerful than letting shields stack, because you'd get +2 AC from the second shield on top of +2 to Dexterity saves - what you might want to contemplate is letting the second shield count as half cover for Dexterity saves only. If you want to instead copy the rules for two-weapon fighting (where the second weapon provides a bonus action attack that deals less damage than a normal attack), you could have the second shield provide a bonus action that provides +1 AC.
Wielding a shield already effectively provides you with half cover minus the saving throw bonus (which you can get in various cases via the Shield Master feat already). Rules As Written multiple shields explicitly provide no additional bonus to your defence:
I would say that the fire giant dreadnought is a highly specialised exception; they are an immensely strong CR 14 creature doing something that a player cannot normally be expected to do, and I would say that the AC benefit is more from the specialised shields they use (and train extensively with all the time) rather than having two of them.
When you think about it, having two shields doesn't really mean you're twice as protected, the benefit is that you can always be presenting a shield while attacking, no matter which arm you attack with; letting a pair of shields count as improvised weapons in this case is reasonable, but I don't think there's any need for boosted protection. Just tell them to take the defence fighting style and/or the Shield Master feat if they want to get more out of it.
Lastly I would say that it's not a good idea to indulge players fishing for ways to gain absurd defensive bonuses; if you take away the danger from combat it will stop being fun. The same thing happens when DMs are too generous in handing out magic items and don't scale up enemies accordingly. However if you scale up enemies to account for the twin shield player, you will only end up punishing the other players for not having as high an AC.
If you're determined to add a defensive house rule, considering that Medium creatures can already provide half cover to one another, you might instead allow the twin shielder to provide three quarters cover (as they already can for Small allies), so it's a defensive bonus to allies rather than yourself.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.