Shield (3.5e Creature Ability)
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Shield (Ex or Su)
Shield is a protection unique to certain creatures, most of which are constructs. A shield defends the creature it envelopes and has the ability to soak damage of most any kind. For every HD a creature has, the shield that protects it has 5 hit points. Shield hit points are regained at a rate of 1 hit point per HD per minute.
Shields that are technological in nature, such as those belonging to constructs are most often extraordinary in nature, whereas the shields of magical creatures and those granted by magic items such as shield talismans are considered supernatural, and can be suppressed in an antimagic field.
As long as a shield has hit points remaining, any damage done to the protected creature is dealt to the shield instead. A shield can absorb damage of virtually any kind, from physical damage types (bludgeoning, piercing, slashing) to energy damage types (acid, cold, electricity and fire), to force damage, to even most typeless forms of damage. Shields are even effective against touch attacks. A shield can never absorb more damage than that it has hit points remaining, and any damage over that amount is dealt to the protected creature.
Only certain damage dealing effects can pass through a shield without being absorbed, such as a sonic effect, a gaze attack or psionic effects that allow a Will save, such as ultrablast. Line of sight and line of effect are unaffected by a personal shield. Nonstandard and conditional forms of damage such as from the reduced effect of a destruction spell or the corrosive effect of a rusting grasp aren't reduced by a shield.
An active shield with 1 or more hit points grants immunity to critical hits to any creature or object it protects.
Kinetic Shield (Ex)
Kinetic shields are shields that only stop high-speed physical projectiles. The stopping power of a kinetic shield is dependent on the speed of the object hitting it, providing a degree of deflection correspondent to the momentum of the object. The result is a shield that stops fast moving objects like weaponsfire but has no effects on slow moving objects, allowing the creature to interact with its environment without deflecting it.
Objects stopped by a kinetic shield include high speed objects and projectiles. Weapons such as handguns and rifles, cannons and particle beams are stopped, but lasers, energy effects and other massless or incorporeal weapons are not. Melee attacks are not stopped by a kinetic barrier, nor are slow-moving ranged attacks such as arrows or thrown projectiles.
Kinetic shields are a usual staple of science-fiction and are always extraordinary in nature.
Spell Shield (Su)
Spell shields are shields that absorb incoming spells, either in addition to or instead of regular damage. Whenever a creature or object protected by a spell shield is targeted by a harmful spell, the spell is reduced to its base components upon touching the shield, converting it to raw energy that deals 5 damage to the shield per converted spell level. Spells that create area effects are only suppressed within the area that a spell shield protects, and the spell shield takes damage only once.
Spells absorbed by a spell shield deal 1 extra point of damage per spell level if the spellcaster has the Spell Penetration feat, and 2 extra points of damage per spell level if the spellcaster has the Greater Spell Penetration feat.
Spell shields are always supernatural in nature.
Perimeter Shield
Certain creatures and objects possess shields that protect an area around them. As long as the shield has hit points remaining, it stops objects and energy outside it from passing through, like a wall of force, decreasing its hit points by the appropriate amount. Objects and energy coming from inside the perimeter shield can pass through unimpeded. Effects that can pass through shields can also pass through perimeter shields (like sonic energy).
If the damage caused to the perimeter shield by an area effect breaks through it, the area effect may continue beyond the perimeter shield if the area permits; otherwise its expansion is stopped at the edge of perimeter shield. In the case of an area effect caused by an explosive effect, like a fireball or an acid flask, the explosive projectile detonates upon impact with the shield. Regardless, the center of an explosive effect lies outside the perimeter shield.
The effective AC of the perimeter shield itself is 15 plus the deflection bonus it grants. Attacks originatig from outside the perimeter shield cannot directly target a creature inside it until the shield is down. Such attacks are resolved with the shield itself as the target.
Perimeter shields are projected as a spherical field around their source. A perimeter shield does not extend into floors or walls. The radius of the shield is listed in the object or creature's description. A perimeter shield blocks line of effect (except that of sonic effects) provided it has at least 1 hit point, but not line of sight.
Hard Shields
A few special creatures and objects have very powerful shields that can absorb a certain amount of damage from an attack without weakening, making even shields with a low amount of hit points hard to break through. These shields have a set hardness, subtracting that number from any damage the shield takes, to a minimum of 0. This particular property can be added to any type of shield.
Special
A creature with any type of shield may benefit from the Augment Shielding feat, granting it 2 extra hit points per shield HD.
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