How would you go about using a buckler as an offhand weapon?

[MonkeySage]

According to the rules, using a longsword and a buckler together, with the buckler as an offhand weapon, would incur a -8 penalty to attacks with the buckler, and -6 to attacks with the longsword.

RAW doesn't even list damage for the buckler(I made some weapon edits and gave it a d6 to damage, d4 for small creatures).


With two weapon fighting, I think these penalties could be mitigated, but that just doesn't feel very satisfying... In fact I was strongly considering a two weapon fighting overhaul, some of the penalties seem utterly ridiculous...

One of my players fought his father in a recent practice session. His father is a dead baron, and a former knight. He is supposed to be highly trained... and he can't even use his buckler to so much as scratch his opponent because of the ridiculous penalties, hard enough landing a hit with the sword.

I think this counts as a shield bash, but the rules don't even address using bucklers to shield bash.

This is a pathfinder question, but I'd like to see what solutions other games came up with.

[TheThan]

It’s called a shield bash.

In dnd 3.5 a light shield does 1d3 points of damage; with shield spikes it increases to 1d4 (for medium sized creatures). A heavy shield does 1d4, and with shield spikes it deals 1d6, (again for medium sized creatures).

You cannot shield bash with a buckler or tower shield, and you cannot apply shield spikes to them. although I have no idea why.

I also can't see why you couldn't two weapon fight with a sword and shield, applying the appropriate penalties as necessary. i would rule that if you are twfing with a shield you have to give up your shield bonus to AC since you're using it as a weapon.

[TheCountAlucard]

Exalted just treats shields as low-damage, high-Defense weapons. If you're wielding a sword and a shield, you'll take attack penalties for attacking with both, but no moreso than with two swords, or two shields, or one sword a bunch of times.

[Straybow]

Same as a gauntlet. You punch with it, using the edge to increase the reach and concentrate the blow. It's a follow-up attack to the face or neck after using the main weapon attack to draw the opponent's defense away, or a disarm attack striking the wrist after blocking the opponent's blow.