Notched Shield (Feat)

You have learned to brace your polearm against your shield instead of your off hand.

Prerequisites: Level 6, Shield Focus (Feat), proficient in both weapon and shield

Benefit: A person trained in the use of a notched shield may wield a two-handed polearm reach weapon in their main hand while wearing a large, war, or tower shield in their off-hand, using the notch in the shield to lever and brace the polearm. You must still be proficient in the polearm and shield being used.

Even with this feat, a 2-hand reach polearm and notched shield combo inflicts a -1 penalty to all attack rolls and a -1 penalty to the shield's AC bonus (which effectively negates the Shield Focus bonus). If the wielder does not make any attacks during their turn, they retain all of the shield's AC bonus, but would still take a -1 to-hit penalty on any attacks made outside of their turn.

Special: Any large, war, or tower shield may have a notch added by a skilled smith. The DC for this work is a Hard DC for the Caster Level of the shield. Failure destroys the shield. Notched shields are identical in properties to their non-notched counterparts.

Special: If the weapon being used has adaptive reach or inclusive reach, it is treated as a normal reach weapon while being used with a notched shield.