As a history nerd, it has always bothered me that in many fantasy and sword & sorcery games the shield is so consistently boiled down to a mere numerical bonus to defense. So I wanted to create a set of rules for my 1974 table that reflected the reality of why the shield was ubiquitous on the battlefield from the dawn of time up until about 300 years ago, as well as the variety of application that it saw during the High Middle Ages through the Renaissance. The meat of these rules were inspired by Trollsymth’s “Shields Shall Be Splintered” and some of the shield rules found in Pathfinder Second Edition. I might update this article with new values as I find out more about this concept through play.

General Rules and Facing

All types of shield improve a character’s Armor Class (AC) by 1 point with the exception of the Pavise which has its own special rules. This bonus applies to attacks being made from the right flank and front of the character. It will never apply to attacks from the rear of the character but may apply to attacks from the left of the character if they are standing directly to the left of another character who is also wearing a shield.

Damage Absorption by Shield Type

When a character wearing a shield is hit by an attack, they may choose to have their shield take the brunt of the damage from it. To do so, the Damage Reduction (DR) value of the shield is subtracted from the damage done. Then reduce the shield’s Hit Points (HP) by the damage left over and then any other remaining damage is done to the character.

Shield	Cost	HP	DR
Buckler	5 gp	5	2
Round Shield	10 gp	5	2
Heater Shield	12 gp	10	5
Kite Shield	15 gp	15	5
Scutum	20 gp	20	10
Pavise	30 gp	25	10

Special Rules

Buckler: This is the only shield you may wear if you are
wielding a rapier. This shield does not apply its shield
bonus to allies to your left.

Pavise: For use by archers and crossbowmen, takes
one combat round to set up but provides cover from
opposing ranged attacks afterwards.