5e hates shields/shield based warrior

[Fistimus Maximus]

the lack of depth this edition has for using a shield is a joke. +2 to ac doesnt really cut it and the shield mastery feat is a joke and is even worse in this game. Look at 3.5 where you could form a shield wall(bonuses if other people with shield nearby) shield bash etc.

[Ci(v)ilian]

+2 AC is huge, especially in the early levels where monsters don't have really high to-hit modifiers.

[Fistimus Maximus]

we are talking about depth mate, shield sizes feats blocking range attacks etc its almost child like in its simplicity, also applies to alot of weapons that do d6/d4 damage, why would you ever use them? never even more so now that changing weapons doesnt require anyform of action and everyone is ranged so throwing weapons are pointless.

[TheBlueFox]

Why are you saying "This Edition" when you mean "The current state of Early Access Baldur's Gate 3".

Protection Fighting style
When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield. (SRD, p. 24)

Dueling fighting style works with a shield, allowing you to add +2 to all damage with one handed weapons when using a shield for the +2AC

Shield Master, available at level 4. (All granted)
If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to try to shove a creature within 5 feet of you with your shield.
If you aren't incapacitated, you can add your shield's AC bonus to any Dexterity saving throw you make against a spell or other harmful effect that targets only you.
If you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you can use your reaction to take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, interposing your shield between yourself and the source of the effect.

Arrow Catching Shield (Well known 5e shield)
You gain a +2 bonus to AC against ranged attacks while you wield this shield. This bonus is in addition to the shield's normal bonus to AC. In addition, whenever an attacker makes a ranged attack against a target within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to become the target of the attack instead.

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.

Animated Shield (Well known 5e Shield)
While holding this Shield, you can speak its Command Word as a Bonus Action to cause it to animate. The Shield leaps into the air and hovers in your space to protect you as if you were wielding it, leaving your hands free. The Shield remains animated for 1 minute, until you use a Bonus Action to end this Effect, or until you are Incapacitated or die, at which point the Shield falls to the ground or into your hand if you have one free.

[Hobocop]

Weapon and Shield is pretty well supported in 5e, so dunno what you're talking about. Dueling keeps you up to speed in damage (Protection is a meme past the very early levels as multiattack gets more common) and +2 AC means a lot under Bounded Accuracy for much of the game's level range. Generic +X shields also don't require attunement, so that's another potential 1-3 AC on top of the normal shield bonus if you can get your hands on them.

[larhtas]

I don't understand the complain here...
- In 3.5 the most commun shield in the medium shield which give +2 AC (like here).
- The tower shield is only usable by the fighter without loosing a feat in 3.5.
- The maximum BAB in 3.5 is +20 here it's +6. So your +2 AC is far more usefull here than a tower could do at mid-level.
- Your shield can also get a +3 magical bonus at most and feats around the shield are more interesting in the 5ed too (as @TheBlueBox as shown).

My conclusion : people which are hating 5ed think that 5ed hates shields/shield based warrior.

[R3sistance]

In 5E shields can get very powerful, shield walls are dumb tho, that's military tactic rather than adventuring party. A Shield +3 for example adds 5 AC and anybody that thinks that +5 AC isn't extremely powerful woefully under-estimates it, there are also alternatives like the animated shield that let's you still use 2 handed weapons or the spellguard shield that helps protect you against magical effects. Even the most basic shield gives 2AC which means taking significantly less hits.

The main reason 5E has done so well is it has cut out the vast majority of unnecessary complicate mechanics and having multiple different mechanics for the shield is just one of those. You can in 5E easily implement shield bashing rules but most of the time why do it, if shield bashing beats weapons then why ever have a weapon instead of two shields? The only way around that is to make it unnecessarily complicated which is the type of junk 5E has done away with and what makes it so popular.

[dolby]

well some of us don't care how it is in 5e or in 3e...

After all it's a video game....
As long as they can make interesting shields i'm fine i with it, whatever but if 90% of the loot will be the same shield well then it's kinda off, gonna get boring fast...

[Panic Fire]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6IlEUm_Eo4

[Metallicus]

5e is extremely weak for character development and for creating unique, niche type characters. It isn’t Larian’s fault the 5e ruleset blows. I run 5e for my younger pen and paper players, but my older players hate 5e. I don’t mind running 5e as a DM simply because I don’t have to make a cookie cutter character lacking depth.

[Extraordinary Gentleman]

Is the damaging version of shield bash still a thing? That looks like the only mechanic that's missing from TheBlueFox's list. Shield Master is basically the "tower shields as cover" mechanic, but now it applies to any shield. The purpose of buckler's and light shields seem obsolete with the bounded numbers and simplified penalties. There's plenty of places where 5E can feel lacking compared to 3.5, but this doesn't look like one of them.

[TheBlueFox]

Extraordinary Gent, Shields are part of the Armor table in 5e, so they don't qualify as weapons. However, there IS one way of doing this... Unfortunately it takes a fairly heavy investment.

Firstly, you'd have to consider the shield as an "Improvised Weapon" This turns your shield into a 1d4 + Strength bludgeoning weapon. However, it is not Light, so in order to attack with it, you'd need the Two Weapon Fighting feat.

You won't be proficient with Improvised weapons unless you take the Tavern Brawler feat as well, sadly.

So, with those two feats, you can make bonus action Damaging Shield bashes, WHILE getting your +2 AC for using a shield. However, you would not be able to get the +1 AC for Dual wielding weapons, as your shield cannot qualify as both armor and a weapon at the same time.

You either get the +1 AC for using a shield as a weapon OR +2 for using it as a shield, I forget which takes precedence... I think on the turn you use it as a weapon you get +1 AC until your next turn... I could be wrong

[Extraordinary Gentleman]

Sadly, I don't think BG3 provides a way to wield improvised weapons outside of throwing them. Oh well. Doesn't seem like that hard of a feature to mod in at least.

[Fistimus Maximus]

Originally posted by Extraordinary Gentleman:

Is the damaging version of shield bash still a thing? That looks like the only mechanic that's missing from TheBlueFox's list. Shield Master is basically the "tower shields as cover" mechanic, but now it applies to any shield. The purpose of buckler's and light shields seem obsolete with the bounded numbers and simplified penalties. There's plenty of places where 5E can feel lacking compared to 3.5, but this doesn't look like one of them.

shield bash is a build yes, optimized possibly not but viable aswell as historicly a well known use for shields. I can understand 5e trimming down abilities but there are builds that no longer exist because of this and despite previous posts it doesnt fill alot of niche builds, +2 ac is good but not enough to base a build around. Probably why everyone goes polearm instead which shares similar bonuses. Also weapon choice is a big problem with 5e, You can choose to gimp yourself using a weapon that uses lower dice but there should be reasons. dagger, spears just to name a few also alot of weapons that dont have rules and you have to use as ..