Shield Slam

Skill Tree	Shield
Cost	100 sp
Requirements	17 Strength
Base Cooldown	40
ID	Shield_Slam

Activated; cooldown 40. You attempt to knock an opponent down and deal (strength modifier)d4 + your shield's AV bonus in damage. Your opponent gets a chance to resist (strength save; difficulty 20 + your strength modifier). Whenever you charge an opponent with a shield equipped, you get a free Shield Slam attack against them.

Shield Slam is a skill belonging to the Shield skill tree.

Shield Slam grants the "Shield Slam" activated ability, which can only be used on adjacent targets while the user has a shield equipped. Creatures who are hit by Shield Slam must make a Strength save to "resist" being slammed, in which case nothing will happen. Failing this save will cause the creature to be knocked prone and take bludgeoning damage.^[1]

If the user's shield is modified with spiked, Shield Slam will deal additional damage equal to the user's Strength modifier, and will deal stabbing damage rather than bludgeoning. Additionally, Shield Slam will cause targets to begin bleeding, taking 1d21-2 (Avg: 1.5) damage every round. This bleeding will have an initial Toughness save difficulty of 20 + the user's shield's AV value.^[1]

Creatures who possess Shield Slam and use Charge will automatically use Shield Slam against targets they charge, provided they have a shield equipped. This will occur even if Shield Slam is on cooldown, and will not set Shield Slam on cooldown.^[2]

If the user is wielding more than one shield, the one with the highest AV is used.^[3]

Formulas

The following formulas are used to determine the save difficulty and damage of Shield Slam. Shield Slam's description does not display the correct damage formula; the one shown here is taken from the game's code.^[1]

Save Difficulty	20 + Strength Modifier
Damage	(Strength Modifier)d2 + Shield AV

In both cases, "Strength Modifier" refers to the attacker's Strength modifer.

Ability Cooldown

Shield Slam's cooldown (CD) in rounds depends on the user's willpower (WI) attribute:

WI	CD	WI	CD	WI	CD	WI	CD
9	54	15	42	21	30	27	18
10	52	16	40	22	28	28	16
11	50	17	38	23	26	29	14
12	48	18	36	24	24	30	12
13	46	19	34	25	22	31	10
14	44	20	32	26	20	32	8

Available Shields

This section is an excerpt from Shield#Available Shields.

Handheld Shields

Shield	AV	DV
gear from the Great Machine	10	-2
flawless crysteel aegis	7	-2
crysteel aegis	6	-2
Va'am's lens	6	-2
burnished fullerite shield	5	-4
fullerite aegis	5	-4
carbide shield	4	-3
eyeless crab shell	4	-3
steel shield	3	-2

Arm-Worn Bucklers

Shield	AV	DV
Stopsvalinn	3	0
steel buckler	2	-1
iron buckler	2	-3
wooden buckler	1	-1

Factions That Teach Shield Slam

Shield Slam is not taught by any of Qud's persistent factions. However, procedurally generated factions such as village factions can teach randomly chosen skills as part of their water ritual.