Most suits of armor include shoulder protection, but specially-designed shoulder guards can be helpful
in defending against critical attacks – particularly to the head – at the expense of extra weight and
reduced mobility. The prerequisite armor proficiency is required to wear shoulder guards – with the
exception of Cloth Shoulders, which may be worn even without armor proficiency.
Shoulder guards offer a shoulder bonus to AC that only applies when determining whether a critical threat
is in fact a critical against the wearer. That is, if a warrior’s AC is 14, and he is hit by a natural
20, the attacker rolls again to see if it’s a critical. If the warrior is wearing leather shoulder
guards (AC +2 vs. critical), then his AC is treated as 16 when making the roll to check for critical.
As with other masterwork armor, masterwork shoulder guards have their Armor Check Penalty reduced by 1,
and they cost 150 gp more than the base cost for the listed shoulder guard type.
Shoulders require a minute to put on properly or remove, regardless of type. They can be donned
hastily, taking just 5 rounds, but the shoulder bonus and armor check penalty are each 1 point worse
than normal.
Armor |
Armor Type |
Cost |
Shoulder Bonus vs. Critical |
Armor Check Penalty |
Arcane Spell Failure Chance |
Weight |
Cloth Mantle |
Robes* (Cloth) |
1 gp |
+0 |
0 |
+0% |
1 lb |
Leather Spaulders |
Light (Leather) |
10 gp |
+1 |
0 |
+5% |
2 lb |
Heavy Bone Shoulders |
Medium (Bone) |
15 gp |
+2 |
-2 |
+15% |
2 lb |
Mail Shoulders |
Medium (Mail) |
20 gp |
+2 |
-1 |
+10% |
3 lb |
Plate Pauldrons |
Heavy (Plate) |
150 gp |
+3 |
-2 |
+15% |
5 lb |
* Note: Cloth Shoulders are listed as "Robes" rather than having an armor type; they do not require
any armor proficiency to wear, and may be worn by any character capable of wearing robes. They are,
in essence, nothing more than ornamentation, unless some sort of enchantment were put upon them.