Dwarf's Sword & Board

[jason.richardson]

Mr. Goodman (or Harley),

The dwarf's sword & board class ability says the shield bash does 1d3 damage. Is this modified by Strength, or is it just a flat 1d3 for all dwarves?

Thanks in advance.

[Colin]

If you only want an official answer, your best bet is to PM or e-mail them directly. If you want other folk's to chip in, here's my tuppence:

It's a melee attack. Strength modifiers apply to melee attack damage. Nowhere does it intimate that you wouldn't add the Strength modifier to the shield bash damage that I can see, either in the Sword & Board rules or in Two-Weapon Fighting rules, both of which are already penalized by using smaller action dice (and therefore being less likely to hit). Ergo, a Shield Bash's damage is enhanced by a Strength modifier like any other secondary attack. An extra attack with a seriously reduced chance of hitting for only 1d3 damage with no Strength modifier would be all kinds of pointless and sucky, and I seriously doubt that's the case here.

Colin

[jason.richardson]

If you only want an official answer, your best bet is to PM or e-mail them directly. If you want other folk's to chip in, here's my tuppence:

It's a melee attack. Strength modifiers apply to melee attack damage. Nowhere does it intimate that you wouldn't add the Strength modifier to the shield bash damage that I can see, either in the Sword & Board rules or in Two-Weapon Fighting rules, both of which are already penalized by using smaller action dice (and therefore being less likely to hit). Ergo, a Shield Bash's damage is enhanced by a Strength modifier like any other secondary attack. An extra attack with a seriously reduced chance of hitting for only 1d3 damage with no Strength modifier would be all kinds of pointless and sucky, and I seriously doubt that's the case here.

Colin

Sounds reasonable, thanks.

[finarvyn]

Yeah, but if he goes directly to da Boss then the rest of us don't get to throw in our two coppers. Way to kill a good discussion.

Colin's answer sounds pretty good to me, though.

[caveman]

I'm not a fan of the Dwarf as two weapon fighter. My first experience was with DMing a guy who was new to rpgs and naturally played a dwarf, but the 2nd attack roll was fiddly and hard to get right. Also, I don't dig the style of it. I like the sword and board dwarf to be more defensive and simple. 2nd Shield attack is a great Mighty Deed though!
Here's my houserule option.

Option for the Sturdy Dwarf: Do NOT get a 2nd Shield Bash attack. Instead:
Dwarves enjoy a +2 AC bonus for using a shield
+2 to Fort Saving Throws


re: the original Q, I would add Str bonuses.