What is the point of applying shield spikes to a one-handed weapon?

Question

I was looking over the weapon-creation chart towards the end of this page, and saw that one of the options available to you is making the weapon count as a light shield with spikes. However, when I looked at the shield spike rules and the shield bash rules, it said you had the option of trading the AC bonus to make an attack with the shield. So considering this, would a weapon that is considered a shield have the option of increasing its damage by 1d6, or is this a useless feature?

Answer 1

Your weapon can be a shield. And that shield can have spikes on it as well. It smells of stupid at first as trading a weapon attack for a shield AC bonus which in turn is traded for a shield bash attack sounds ridiculous.

I can't find a rule that says adding spikes on your handaxe-shield-thing makes it deal extra damage through regular handaxing. When I think about it, if such a feature existed, it would just allow you to spikify your weapon without the shield nonsense anyway.

But you may have some cool shield-related feats, especially useful if your spiky-shield-weapon is on your off-hand!
Improved Shield Bash allows you to trade your off-hand weapon for a weaker shield bash attack and a shield ACbonus.
Shield Slam lets you perform a free bull rush maneuver with every shield attack
Bashing Finish gives you a free shield bash if you score a critical.

Now, assuming you really want to have a two weapon fighting character that has shield-based options but you don't want to let go of your desired weapon, you can turn it into a shield. Adding spikes would just let you be a bit more dangerous when in defensive mode.

Answer 2

Note the bolded text:

Shield (1 DP): The weapon counts as a light shield made of wood or metal and can have armor spikes (your choice). Add the gp price of the shield and any armor spikes that the weapon gains from this quality to the weapon's gp price. This quality can be added only to one-handed melee weapons.

Armor spikes are different from shield spikes and they interact with your franken-weapon differently. Whereas a spiked shield would let you do 1d4 dinstead of 1d3 (since it counts as a light shield) of martial piercing damage with a shield bash, spiked armor lets you do 1d6 martial piercing damage.

So you would be able to:

• use your weapon as a weapon

• use your weapon as a shield and shield bash (losing the bonus to AC) for 1d3

• use your weapon as armor and attack with armor spikes for 1d6

It is ambiguous whether option 1 or 3 would cause you to lose your shield bonus to AC. On light shield it says:

Shield Bash Attacks: You can bash an opponent with a light shield. See “shield, light” on Table: Weapons for the damage dealt by a shield bash. Used this way, a light shield is a martial bludgeoning weapon. For the purpose of penalties on attack rolls, treat a light shield as a light weapon. If you use your shield as a weapon, you lose its Armor Class bonus until your next turn

So RAW using the shield as a weapon under any circumstances might lose the AC bonus, or it could be referring to just shield bash attacks.

---

As per HeyICanChan's suggestion, here is my take on the 'choice' in the 'Shield' quality:

I think the 'choice' is between having armor spikes or not (the 'Can'). I parse it as: Weapon counts as a light shield (metal or wood, it doesn't matter, since they have the same properties except for material, and material is dependent on the weapon you are creating anyway) + Optional armor spikes. I think this is supported by the later 'any' referring to armor spikes, just like certain abilities add your ability modifier (if any) as a bonus to something. Ie. if [it] exists, apply it, otherwise don't, which fundamentally implies the option for it not to exist.

Answer 3

It might be a useful feature for tanks, who use heavy shields (not tower shields).

With the feat Improved Shield Bash, they keep their armorclass unchanged.

Benefit: When you perform a shield bash, you may still apply the shield's shield bonus to your AC.

Still might look poorly, because you get penalties on all attacks. However if you get 2 more feats that are:

Two weapon fighting

Shield slam

Any opponents hit by your shield bash are also hit with a free bull rush attack, substituting your attack roll for the combat maneuver check (see Combat). This bull rush does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Opponents who cannot move back due to a wall or other surface are knocked prone after moving the maximum possible distance. You may choose to move with your target if you are able to take a 5-foot step or to spend an action to move this turn.

You can see that it is pretty nice. If you are willing to increase two-weapon fighting, you can get lots of free bull rushes that might give you strategic advantages.

Answer 4

I would imagine giving a weapon a shield designation lets you treat it the same as a light shield for armor(and all) purposes. I.e. you get +1 AC.

Note however, it only says you can create a light shield,

Shield (1 DP): The weapon counts as a light shield made of wood or metal and can have armor spikes (your choice). Add the gp price of the shield and any armor spikes that the weapon gains from this quality to the weapon's gp price. This quality can be added only to one-handed melee weapons.

so one damage category up would be 1d4, not 1d6. There is nothing indicating you can make it a heavy shield, per RaW on this page.

It's damage output would be the shield bash and not be separate from a regular attack with a different output. It could only be used as a shield bash. You could spend points to up the damage output though by buying increased damage to 1d6 as it counts as a light weapon.