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I have one hand free for casting spells with somatic components and I wield a shield in my other hand.

Do I threaten squares in my melee range for the purposes of providing the flanking bonus to my allies? Perhaps the shield could be considered as an improvised weapon?

If not, is there a way for me to provide the flanking bonus while still being able to cast somatic spells and use the other hand effectively (shield/wand)?

Petr Hudeček
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  • I'd like to see answers address what the Shield, Light or Heavy entry means by using it as an off-hand weapon. – Hey I Can Chan Oct 19 '22 at 14:20
  • @HeyICanChan It means nothing, the original author of that line explicitly stated that it was meant purely as description of how he thought you’d want to use it and it was never meant to imply any kind of limitation on how you use such a shield as a weapon. I believe we have a question about it here.... Hm, can’t find it. – KRyan Oct 19 '22 at 14:29
  • @KRyan I know intuitively that it means nothing, but I couldn't prove it, and if the GM says, "No, you can't threaten with just a shield," the GM might point to that as why. If you can dig up something, add it to your answer. – Hey I Can Chan Oct 19 '22 at 14:38
  • @HeyICanChan I mean... reconsider playing with that DM? But anyway, even in that case, a madu (with proficiency) or Dwarven war-shield would not be covered by that line; those are just weapons. – KRyan Oct 19 '22 at 14:55
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    @KRyan I totally get it, but, I personally feel that an answer is incomplete if it doesn't address that. It's Core Rulebook stuff, after all. Permission granted to totally not care about how I feel. :-) – Hey I Can Chan Oct 19 '22 at 15:40
  • @HeyICanChan Actually, it is not incomplete, because errata removed that clause from Pathfinder. I knew there was a question here that addressed it. I also found a source for the claim that the 3.5e authors were only making an assumption when they wrote “off-hand” in the first place—that’s found in the 3.5e FAQ. – KRyan Oct 25 '22 at 15:40

1 Answers1

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Many types of shields are actual weapons, nothing improvised about it, with their own weapon descriptions:

  • Light or heavy shield “You can bash an opponent with a shield,”

  • Klar “A […] klar counts as a light […] shield with armor spikes.” Light shields can bash, so klars can also. “Armor spikes” is presumably a mistake here, since shields get shield spikes (or become “spiked shields”) rather than armor spikes.

  • Madu “If you are proficient with the madu, you may use it to fight […] If you are not proficient with the madu, treat it as a light spiked shield.” Very weird wording, but whether you’re proficient or not, it counts as something that can be used as a weapon.

  • Snarlshield “The snarlshield is a heavy shield […] When used as a weapon to bash an opponent,”

  • Dwarven war-shield “If you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat and are wielding two dwarven war-shields,” plus the entry has damage and critical hit descriptions, and the Dwarven war-shield appears in the Weapons table.

Other types of shield are not weapons and cannot be used as weapons while worn. You could use them as improvised weapons, but you’d have to unequip them to do that, so you wouldn’t be able to get any of their defensive benefits.

  • Buckler “You can’t make a shield bash with a buckler.”

  • Tower shield “You cannot bash with a tower shield,”

Note that heavy shields, light shields, klars, and snarlshields are considered martial weapons, and madus and Dwarven war-shields are exotic weapons. This doesn’t matter for flanking purposes. Flanking requires that you threaten an opponent, and even if you aren’t proficient in the weapon you’re holding, you’re still armed and still able to threaten that opponent. So even a wizard can use a light shield for this purpose.

Also note that a light mithral shield has 0 armor check penalty, and 0% arcane spell failure. Since these are both 0, the shield has no drawbacks even for a nonproficient, arcane-spell-casting wizard, and would still be usable for flanking. (A mithral buckler has the same 0 ACP and 0% ASF, and a hand with a buckler can still hold things so that can be useful, but it cannot bash. Singing steel can also be used to achieve these properties, but is much more expensive.)

KRyan
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    I usually try not to comment about house rules on Qs/As that aren't specifically about them, but I find myself doing it twice recently.... but I have seen fairly common houserules about threatening/flanking/AoOs that require you to be proficient with the weapon. Usually something something "if you don't know how to use the weapon normally you aren't able to spot the opportunity/threaten effectively". I'm not commenting on if its a good rule or not, simply that I see it often enough. As far as the rules as they are, KRyan is exactly correct, +1. – gatherer818 Oct 19 '22 at 14:52
  • One could argue that you only count as armed and can threaten sqares with a light or heavy shield if you "use your shield as a weapon“. But that makes you „lose its AC bonus until your next turn“. – Peregrin Oct 19 '22 at 17:48
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    @PeregrinTook One could argue that, but then that one would be wrong. If that were the case, it would also mean you wouldn’t threaten with a dagger if you decided to cast a spell that turn, which would be nonsense. – KRyan Oct 19 '22 at 17:51
  • Okay, I see... fair enough. – Peregrin Oct 19 '22 at 18:03