10

It takes an action to don and to doff a shield (See Pg 146 of the PHB).

Does that action need to be the PC's action, Or, could another member of the party (another PC), or even a familiar with opposable thumbs (eg. Imp, Sprite), spend their action to remove a willing player's shield?

Example: P1 is wedged under a boulder. P2 needs P1's shield. Can P2 remove P1's shield as an action?

Kirt
  • 50,327
  • 7
  • 121
  • 276
Ærvard
  • 109
  • 5
  • 1
    "spend their action remove a player's shield (willingly or unwillingly)" - you probably mean "remove a shield from a willing/unwilling creature", not "willingly/unwillingly remove a shield". If that was the case, I suggest editing the question. – enkryptor Jul 12 '21 at 05:59
  • 5
    Willing and unwilling are two separate cases. Unwilling involves an opponent, willing involves an ally or helping NPC. I suggest that you confine this question to the willing case, and that you ask unwilling as a separate question since it will be related to contests, improvising and action, and or disarming (in terms of the kinds of game mechanics involved) – KorvinStarmast Jul 12 '21 at 10:32

1 Answers1

9

The short answer is that it is up to the DM. I couldn't find any supporting rules specifically about getting help into or out of armor. However.... Climb onto bigger creatures

As an alternative, a suitably large opponent can be treated as terrain for the purpose of jumping onto its back or clinging to a limb.

This rule allows small creatures to climb onto you and at least attempt to buckle the shield in place.

Doff and Don armor Says:

Don. This is the time it takes to put on the item. You benefit from it's AC only if you take the full time to don it.

Doff. This is the time it takes to take off the item. If you have help removing armor, reduce this time by half.

So at the very least they can help.

KorvinStarmast
  • 143,146
  • 34
  • 471
  • 760
Sam Lacrumb
  • 10,954
  • 6
  • 47
  • 126
  • 2
    You say you couldn't find any rules about getting helped into or out of armor...but you actually cite the "If you have help removing" rule. What there are not rules for is having armor put on or taken off of you without your help, which is what the OP is asking. – Kirt Jul 12 '21 at 01:58
  • It was my fault for wording the question poorly. This is a great response! Still, I imagine the Doffing rules were intended for something that takes longer than 1 action. Presumably, if doffing only requires 1 action, the familiar's action would suffice, so long as the Character were willing. – Ærvard Jul 12 '21 at 02:23
  • 3
    I meant I couldn't find any direct rules that apply to the question. Did my best. – Sam Lacrumb Jul 12 '21 at 02:57
  • Is half of an action a reaction or bonus action? – Ærvard Jul 12 '21 at 15:34
  • 1
    Shieds and Armor are two different things (see here for an example.) As the language is specific for help in removing armor, why do you think it applies to shields? – NotArch Jul 12 '21 at 16:10
  • Shields confer Armor Class and are technically categorized under armor: http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/armor – Ærvard Jul 12 '21 at 16:23
  • 1
    @Ærvard You cannot reasonably split an action into parts, so the rounding rule comes into play here: The time reduction is truncate(1/2) = 0 actions, so even with help you'll need one action to doff the shield, if you take the cited rules as basis of the decision. There may be features like disarming which may or may not provide alternative options though... – fabian Jul 12 '21 at 17:42
  • Reasonably, actions fall into a category of behaviors that corresponds to some fraction of time and attention used in a player's turn. And, both time and attention can be divided. Notably, a given turn allows enough time for an action, a bonus action, a free item interaction, and a reaction. Also, reasonably, an 'Action' demands the greatest span of time and energy in a given turn, and some division of it might be equivalent to a bonus action or free item interaction.

    Perhaps this is not what the rules intended. But, certainly it's reasonable to imagine a bonus action is half of an action.

     – Ærvard Jul 12 '21 at 18:16
  • 1
    @fabien I don't think you can really apply that rule. Since you could say the amount of time it takes is halved, reducing the time required to half an action which rounds to zero time which makes no sense. I think it's just that the rules on removing armor are assuming the armor takes an amount of time longer than 1 action – Exempt-Medic Jul 12 '21 at 21:45
  • See Quickened Spell: When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting. – Ærvard Jul 14 '21 at 02:37