Shield Bash

[Midnight]

I want to try shield bash build this time around but the big question is are there any bashing shields in the game? Also, are there any cold iron shields to overcome DR because otherwise shield bash build is even worse than in Kingmaker.

[CHAO$$$]

There are spiked shields that add damage to shield bash but thats hardly useful.

Let me recommend trickster mythic path + sneak attack class + bashing finish.
Bashing finish is a mid/later game feat that allows you to get a free shield bash everytime you crit with your mainhand. Trickster has lategbame spells and early game abilities that massively increase your chances to crit or guarantee crit. Shield bash procs sneak attack.

I think with a class that gets "combat style feats" you might be able to get bashing finish even earlier but im not quite sure - I think slayer gets combat style feats which could be very good. Other sneak attack classes work just fine as well tho.

[Midnight]

My concern is more with DR bypass on shields because sneak attack dice are kinda pointless when they just get eaten up by 5-10 DR and I'm not sure if DR bypass mechanics (cold iron, alignment, etc.) work on shields.

[Cutlass Jack]

I had a shield bashing Cleric/Rogue of Cayden in Kingmaker I just adored. So many sneak attacks per round it didn't overly matter what shield she had.

I haven't recreated her in Wrath yet though.

[CHAO$$$]

Originally posted by Midnight:

My concern is more with DR bypass on shields because sneak attack dice are kinda pointless when they just get eaten up by 5-10 DR and I'm not sure if DR bypass mechanics (cold iron, alignment, etc.) work on shields.

From my understanding of the ruleset if your shield has a certain +X bonus it automatically ignores certain types of DR but im not sure what the correlations are.

Anyway i think DR is way less of an issue after the very start of the game since you get a bunch of feats and other stuff that let you ignore DR or deal with it in other ways.

In general i think by midgame enemies would have to have DR50 or sth for it to really make a difference.

[JonWoo]

A +3 shield should bypass silver and cold iron DR.

[mbradtke]

i know this is old but is there a way in wraith to overcome DR with a shield?
there wasnt one in kingmaker i belive, and no a simple +X shield does not work, nor does the shield master feat, all they do it add attack bonus and dmg to the shield but it doesnt have any effect on DR, so unless this is a bug and was fixed in wraith, i belive it still works like this

[hilburnashua]

Originally posted by mbradtke:

i know this is old but is there a way in wraith to overcome DR with a shield?
there wasnt one in kingmaker i belive, and no a simple +X shield does not work, nor does the shield master feat, all they do it add attack bonus and dmg to the shield but it doesnt have any effect on DR, so unless this is a bug and was fixed in wraith, i belive it still works like this

If a shield has shield spikes (and I know there are two at least) the enchantment bonus will apply towards defeating DR. But the easiest, and most common, is simply to have the Covenant of the Inheritor which allows you to overcome DR/Good, which is every demon.

[pete3great]

Originally posted by hilburnashua:

But the easiest, and most common, is simply to have the Covenant of the Inheritor which allows you to overcome DR/Good, which is every demon.

It's a must-have item, and you don't even really need to give it back to the Queen unless you think you're doing a bad job of wooing her.

[canuck250]

Can not overstate how good the spell bless weapon is. Low level and cheap in potion form.

A little trick I found was the perfect storm heavy armour, it adds the highest weapon enchantment to shield ac when dual wielding, which shield bash counts as. This is nice for using lower ac spiked shields, for example instead of the +2 ac +5 enchantment from a shield, your weapon enchantment replaces the shield ac but you still get it's enchantment, meaning you can get max +10 ac from that shield instead of +7.

[mbradtke]

ah, cool, thx for letting me know (:
so spiked shields overcome DR they are the exception? so this will prolly work in kingmaker as well i guess?
and there is a buff you can get, not sure if bless weapon spell or potions will work on shield, probably not but who knows....

[canuck250]

I used the potion, I was using the holemaker, which is listed as heavy shield but works with spiked feats (I got the crit feat and 1 level of trickster crit trying to proc passive more), it overcame good dr. I did not get auto confirm crits tho but the enemies in IE have so many buffs not sure if it had something to do with that.