Goodman Games

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.

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

Colin wrote: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.

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.

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.