1985 Arcana
Hello and welcome to 1985 Arcana! A place where I (Jeremiah) and some of my compatriots work on creating new and interesting rules for DnD 5e. Here we’ll release new playtest material for everyone to download and test out. If you like it, let us know in the comments. If you think we need to make any changes, where happy to hear them! This is meant to be a collaborative project between 1985 Games and our community.
Shield Mechanics 1.1
Create a level of gritty realism with shield combat in this installment of 1985 Arcana. This playtest document presents new ideas surrounding shields and shield combat. You’ll find rules for shield durability, new shield types, fighting styles, feats, and more. These additional rules allow you to use your shield in a more versatile manner, just like they would have been used historically.
We’ll release a playtest survey soon. When we do, please let us know what you think of these options. Your feedback can help us better the rules, and may end up in future products!
This Is Playtest Material
The DnD material in this article is presented for playtesting and to spark your imagination. These game mechanics are in draft form, usable in your DnD campaign but not refined by full game design and editing. They aren’t officially part of the game and aren’t created by the Wizards of the Coast team.
DOWNLOAD THE SHIELD MECHANIC PDF HERE
8 comments
This is great. I am 100% using the shield hp mechanic. I think the HP will end up being too low at high levels. The weakest shield on a Lv 1 Fighter could be as much as 50% bonus HP, but @ Lv 20 could be less than 20%. For V1.2, you might have a sliding scale that multiplies the HP by 1/2 prof bonus. So at Lv 1, all numbers as written, but at level 17 and up we’re looking at HP ranging from 15 to 60, which should make shields viable and interesting at all levels of play
I like your idea for shields.
Would love to see you work out a feat and fighting style to represent the versatile weapons used with two hands. They are so famous widely used in movies and books but there is no benefit to using a versatile weapon with both hands.
I really like the shield durability portion. It feels like it gives some interest to a pretty boring item.