This skill allows the player to use a Tower Shield in combat. The Shield skill is needed to activate any magical abilities a Shield may have.

Tower shields are defined as any shield where one dimension is longer than 36”. For safety reasons, a tower shield may not have a width that exceeds 36", a longest dimension that exceeds 48”, or an area that exceeds 1600 in^2

Just as a weapon, a shield must pass a safety check and may only be of a certain size for safety purposes. A shield must be of either all foam construction or of wood construction with a padded edge of no less than ¾”.

A Tower Shield may be used to block physical damage in melee, and tagline effects that are direct attacks suck as a packet thrown for “10 fire”. The shield must intercept the attack to block it, simply wearing a shield does not grant its protection; one must be actively holding and trying to use it.

The Tower Shield will protect the user against area of effect Tagline effects such as “20 Fire 10-foot radius” when the originating attack strikes the users Tower Shield. Not when it strikes elsewhere.

This benefit obviously does not protect against area of effect attacks centered on the attacker such as a Phoenix Maiden’s Inferno, or Lethal Strikes 10ft Radius.

For more on Taglines and their effects please refer to the chapter on Combat in this book.

A shield will not block spells in fact if a spell strikes a Shield then it counts the same as if the packet had struck the player.

There are certain spells which are combined with Shield use, as well as various Runes which can only be used with a Shield. These spells and Runes require the bearer have skill in their shield to use and may require additional skills as well to activate. See the Chapter on Spells and Magic for more information regarding Spells and Runes.