EN Armory 2- Shields is 33 pages of shield related goodness for your D&D campaign.
It comes as a 3.8 megabyte zipped file in PDF form. It is well bookmarked (always a plus) and nicely edited. Unfortunately all the borders and text box color make it a real a chore to print. Honestly though the layout is quality it could have used a printer friendly version
The first chapter simply entitled Shields covers the real world history of shields, a nice stat blocks (including a variant rule set for low tech shields) and bits on races and their likely preferences. It is complete concise and sweet.
The next chapter variant includes a wide range of new types, Discus, Great Shell, Shield Knife, Steel Sleeve and more. These are stated out and are highly compatible (with little or no changes) with most standard D&D games. I especially like the new mastercraft type rule to increase durability hardening and lightness. It is nice to see some new non magic options especially ones that include cost and craft DC.
The third chapter fighting and feats include a few new basic options (including using a shield to dazzle, to slide on ala Legolas, and even afore mundane uses such as a utensil or firewood and a load of feats. It is very complete and even the variant shields are included which I thought was a nice touch I was a surprised though that only one feat to increase armor class (shield Parry) was included. This seems to me to be the primary roll of a shield and it was just ignored. The list of feats includes Buckler Strike, Improved Shield Dazzle, Improved Shieldbearer, Raging Power Attack (to encourage barbarians to use shields instead of 2 handed weapons I guess), Shield Parry, Shield Rush, Shieldbearer, Stalwart Shield and Tower Shield Mastery
Chapter 4 is the obligatory Prestige Class chapter.
The first class the faith warden is very spiffy function ing as a kind of low powered holy warrior/Paladin type that can lay on hands, use some domain abilities and spells and has some defensive powers as well. Its not especially powerful or shield related but it looks fun
The next class, the Knight Herald is rather strong having some defensive mind effecting abilities, 6 levels of spell Progression and full BAB. Its only real flaws are that it also is only vaguely shield related (relating more tot he concept of shielding rather than the use of shields) It requires either cleric or bard levels to take and is rather flavorful
The ramshield berserker is a your basic shield gnawing charging berserker class. It allows all sorts of shield basj and charge related abilities and would be a great addition to a barbarian. It might be a tad focused on charging tough and for some reason has a good reflex saves. It should probably replace that with a D12 hit die too but it is playable right out of the box and is just the thing for that Half Orc charge monkey in the party The shield mage is a dwarf centric prestige class that swaps 2 levels of casting for the ability to use Light or Medium shields made by the caster and some abilities to manipulate abjuration spell. It is a slightly weak class (with only a d4 hit die) with so so abilities that aren't made up for with a good fortitude save. It isn't worth the cost of 2 caster levels
The Tower Legionnaire is a light weapons/tower shield centric PRC with a very decent number of defensive abilities (including gaining night vision and the ability to make a single light weapon or thrown attack while using the shield as total cover) It is a playable class but probably a little focused for dungeon centric or city centric games. It would work great with some of the feats and such from WOTC's builder books however and in the right game would be fun to play. It would also make a great NPC encounter. This class is marred by the chart however. The chart list the abilities of the Knight Herald instead. At least the body of the text if complete, so the class is suable
The last Chapter shielded magic includes 2 new spells, The Shields of Belisar which creates offensive defensive shields (and is a might weak for a ninth level spell) and a very cuthuliod spell called Summon Shield Spawn which would fit far realms caster types quite nicely The shield enhancements include a psionc options (Resonating) that can be used as a magic option (a very thoughtful tough) and Hideous, Impaling, Lifewood and Transforming Properties to add to your campaign items. These seem balanced and playable
4 specific shields are included (3 magic, 1 psionic) The basalt Tower, Jakurby’s Marvel, the Shields of the Desert Kings and the psionic (with instructions for non psionic games) Lens of Ra’nok.
There is also an alchemical item (Glimmersheen which is basically shield polish for use with shield dazzle attacks) a deity of shields and a shield domain to round out the book.
All in all the book is very complete and ready to use in any core assumptions game
I would have liked to have seen some alternate rules that make shields more realistically useful combat for grim and gritty campaigns and of course the stat block on the Tower Legionnaire should have been fixed but these things are fairly minor. Its a good supplement and for $4.95 there is bound to be something for use in you game.
I rate it a 4 for content and a 3 for style (because of the editing mistake and the ink hungry document)
