What thinkest thou? New Item: Buckler

[SilverStud]

Buckler
Shield

Weight: 2 lbs

This small, center-grip shield is light and built for parrying. It can be donned or doffed using your free Use Object on your turn.
Additionally, while wielding it you gain the following Reaction:

Parry
When you are hit by a melee attack from a creature you can see, you may use your reaction to add +2 to your AC against that attack.
If you cause that attack to miss in this way, you have advantage on your next attack against that creature.

[JeenLeen]

Critical hit has synergy with half-orc racial feature (and I think some other stuff.) Advantage has synergy with rogue sneak attack.
I'd think that giving advantage would be less open to abuse, since it's more common than auto-crits, but I'm not sure about that.

Rules note: as is, you could potentially have a lot of foes in 'target' with the shield, such as if on turn 1 goblin A attacks you and you parry, you don't attack it, then goblin B attacks you and you parry, and so on. Maybe add that the advantage/crit only lasts until you next use your reaction or until the end of your next turn?

Usage: if your main focus is a potential +2 AC at a cost, I'd recommend saying the hand wielding it counts as a free hand (but cannot wield a weapon or other shield) and remove the advantage/crit boon. When I think of buckler (from 3.5 days), I think of use by a caster who wants a free hand for somatic/material components. If your main focus is the bonus given when you parry, feel free to disregard.

[SilverStud]

It uses your reaction, so you can only parry once in a round. And since most combat really only lasts a few rounds, it isn't really feasible to "build up" the bonus on a bunch of different enemies.

On the synergy with rogues: that really is what I'm going for. Traditionally this kind of shield (only useful for skilled parrying) isn't for armored dudebros. It is for sly sneaksters who need to end combat quickly.

Also note that the bonus only comes when the parry turns a hit into a miss. So if your AC is 16, and the enemy rolls a seventeen, you can Parry for the +2. That turns the hit into a miss and triggers the advantage/autocrit. If the enemy rolls a 15, you can parry all you want, but you don't get the bonus because it was never going to hit.

[eleazzaar]

This is just supposed to be a normal piece of equipment?

It seems unnecessarily complicated for 5e, and powerful for what presumably doesn't need a shield proficiency.

[SilverStud]

This is just supposed to be a normal piece of equipment?

It seems unnecessarily complicated for 5e, and powerful for what presumably doesn't need a shield proficiency.

So yeah the idea was that it might be available in specialty armories, but not expressly magical.

But how is it complicated? I basically just lifted the Parry feature from MM (like Bandit Captain) and added a ribbon.

Also, I thought that since it was a shield it would be assumed that shield proficiency is required.

[Dill Raulnor]

The critical hit after a parry seems a bit too OP imo. I like the first effect where you get advantage on a successful parry. However a +2 to your AC every reaction is a bit OP as well. Even spell casters need to burn a spell slot to use Shield. I would impose disadvantage as a Parry reaction. I think that would be a bit more balanced.

[SilverStud]

So I am definitely leaning toward the advantage rather than autocrit. I'm with you there. However, I'm not really sure what you mean by "+2 AC every reaction is OP."

You only get one reaction per round, and the +2 AC only works against a single melee attack. Objectively that is infinitely worse than a regular shield, which grants you +2 AC against any attack, always. This downgrade is balanced by the Parry feature it comes with.

[JeenLeen]

As someone who plays a rogue and loves to gain AC, I like the idea of a viable alternative to dual wielding as a use for your off-hand. Most rogues would need to burn a feat or take a level dip to get the shield proficiency, but that seems fair.

To make it explicit about how the mechanics work, I recommend lifting the text from Shield, since it also retroactively can turn a hit into a miss.

[SilverStud]

Ok, so I edited the OP. I've decided that advantage is better than autocrit, and I reworded the Parry to sound a bit more like the Shield spell.