Shield, Energy (Holtzman)
An experimental energy shield, or Holtzman shield, is a complete body shield made of energy. Shields are impact- and energy-activated, meaning that they
automatically engage when their field is compromised by a kinetic or energetic force of a certain magnitude.
Activating energy shields: When hit, the energy shield wearer makes an activation check.
For melee attacks, the DC is 17.
Ranged weapon fire DC is 15.
The damage delivered by the attack acts as a positive modifier to the roll. For instance, if a heavy revolver does 7 points of damage, that number is added to the result of the roll. If the check is successful, the shield activates and provides its damage reduction and/or resistance against the attack.
Example: A heavy autofeed slug gun hits Gurney Halleck for 12 points of damage.
He is wearing an activated energy shield, so he makes his shield check, adding 12 to the roll. He rolls a 10, which makes tor a total result of 22.
The DC for ranged weapon fire is 15, so the shield activates and blocks 15 points of damage (the amount of its damage reduction).
Old Gurney doesn't suffer a scratch and cackles as he lets loose with his own maula pistol.
Features: Because of the wide use of shields (designed to defend against firearms and melee weapons), a dueling culture has arisen, where swords are the main method of attack. The skill in fighting is to attack an opponent slow enough to penetrate the shield, but fast enough that he cannot evade it—the more damage delivered (the faster the blow), the more likely the shield will activate and deflect the attack.
Shield cores are small devices that are most commonly a belt-mounted device, but some Nobles prefer gilded brooches or amulets. The devices are usually bulky and obvious to all who know what to look for, although some models are concealable in a small piece of jewelry or wristwatch.
Shields use medium-sized fusion cells. Since they are activated only when field integrity is breached, the are rated by the number of hits they can take. Each time a shield blocks damage, mark it; when it takes more hits than it has, its battery is dead and the field is shut down until a fresh cell is placed in the device (a standard action).
Burn Out: Shields are designed to activate for direct impacts in a small area—a bullet, sword point or even an axe blade, for instance. The force field hardens only at the point(s) of impact. When confronted with a broad-are impact—such as hitting the ground after leaping off a building—the shield may burn out. Roll the activation check normally to see if the shield activates to reduce damage, but also make a burn out check. This is a Reflex save against DC 20. Modifiers maybe added for shield quality (+1 for masterwork, +2 for exemplary, +3 for supreme).
If the burn-out check succeeds, the shield works (and will continue to work) as normal. If it fails, the shield will work for this impact only and then burn out for 10 rounds, after which is can be used again. If the roll is a natural “1,” the shield burns out immediately (fusion cell dead) and will not even block this impact.
Nadion-Shield Interaction: Defensive shields react explosively upon contact with nadion-energy beam weapons.(Pulse weapons not included) When such a Beam weapon impinges upon a planar-effect field from either surface, all pseudo-matter bound in the shield is instantly converted to real matter. This converted matter then converts explosively to pure energy. Fortunately the actual mass of a planar field is quite small, on the order of .005g for a personal shield. Thus, a typical personal defensive
shield if touched by a Nadion beam, would result in an atomic blast with a power of 0.1 kilotons.
The center of this blast is quite erratic, sometimes originating within the shield, sometimes within the Nadion weapon's blast chamber, sometimes both, with no way to determine it beforehand, making the tactic of using Nadion weapons to take out Holtzman shields explosively suicidal.
Table 6-5: Energy Shields
*Only padded, leather, synthsilk and civilian polymer knit armors can be worn with these shields.
Any other armor type will prevent the shield from activating (no check allowed).
**Most light & medium armor may be worn with an assault shield; won’t prevent activation.
***Most light, medium, & heavy armors may be worn with a battle shield; won’t prevent activation.
“The slow blade penetrates the shield...”
As the Holtzman Personal Shield dominates the modern battlefield, intimate knowledge is essential to those whose chief concern is warfare. Personal shields have made almost all forms of projectile weapons completely ineffective for man-to-man combat. Therefore, a return to the ancient palman melee fighting styles has come about.
Activating the shield requires a move action (though some feats may reduce this to a free action), presuming a hand is free. The standard form of the Holtzman Shield provides full-body defense, permitting objects to pass through them, albeit only slowly. An object attempting to pass through a planar field at a right-angle vector
speed of more than the strike speed is faced with resistance; which grows more intense as the fourth power of the velocity. When the speed is sufficiently high, the field becomes essentially solid to the impinging object. Shields have varying strike speeds—the speed at which a normal object can pass a planar Holtzmann field—that
depends upon the electromagnetic admissions spectrum of the planar field. It is never less than 5.8 cm/s for one-angstrom fields, and increases only to 9.3 cm/s for all-absorptive fields. Typical shields have a strike speed of about 7 cm/s admitting most visible light, x-rays and gamma rays. Standard shields have only one setting, certain unique shields have other settings—for example the demi-shield, and the expensive concealable shields of certain House Major nobles.
In hand-to-hand combat, most hand-to-hand attacks are carefully timed impaling attacks with fencing-style weapons like the foil or the knife. Those not rigorously trained in shield fighting may take -4 on an attack to attempt to bypass this protection. Those properly trained suffer no penalty to hit those ensconced in a personal shield.
Bludgeoning attacks are very ineffective, but locks, holds and throws are just as effective against shielded opponents as against unshielded opponents. Against such attacks shields provide no defense. The shield can also be used as an active defense like its medieval counterpart.
However, because of its full coverage, it can be used not only to block incoming attacks but also to parry them. A skilled fighter can use his shielded arms to parry an incoming weapon attack without fear of being injured in the attempt.
Proficient shield users can parry with the whole body. This grants an effective +2 Defense bonus, similar to that granted by the Dodge feat against a single target (stacks, both must be directed at same target).
They can also use the shield in attack. Even disarmed, the shielded warrior is always considered armed—suffering no penalty against an armed opponent.
However, the Holtzman planar field is not impermeable, and several shield-fighting styles have developed to exploit this weakness. Moreover, a very skilled combatant is familiar with the workings of a shield, and can compensate in such a manner, as to make the shield's defensive value less than optimum. The focus, over-specialisation
infact, required to defeat the shield leaves wielders at a disadvantage in certain circumstances.
The conditioning demanded of the expert shield fighter leaves them some-what at a disadvantage against those not so protected. Those who have dedicated their lives to fighting with the full body shield suffer -2 to hit those not similarly equipped