[RPG] When using a tower shields total cover ability, do you lose its AC bonus

armor-classequipmentpathfinder-1e

One of my players raised an interesting observation about how the tower shield is worded.

In most situations, a tower shield provides the indicated shield bonus to your Armor Class. As a standard action, however, you can use a tower shield to grant you total cover until the beginning of your next turn.

He feels that when using the total cover feature of the shield, the normal AC bonus disappears. After reading carefully I find myself in agreement but still unsure as its vague to me.

Could someone clarify if using the tower shields total cover ability does make you lose its AC bonus?

Best Answer

By RAW you are correct, using a tower shield for cover negates its AC bonus.

As you said, the item description is ambiguous, but if you go to the tower shield entry in the armor and shield table, you see the following footnote attached:

A tower shield can instead grant you cover. See the description.

That makes these sentences,

In most situations, it provides the indicated shield bonus to your AC. As a standard action, however, you can use a tower shield to grant you total cover until the beginning of your next turn.

Pretty unambiguous.

Side note: The tower shield entry from Paizo's SRD has the following:

When using a tower shield in this way, you must choose one edge of your space. That edge is treated as a solid wall for attacks targeting you only. You gain total cover for attacks that pass through this edge and no cover for attacks that do not pass through this edge (see Combat).

However, KRyan IS right about the tower shield being super weak. Es lo que hay.

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