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. 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.