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Pretty new to the playtest but one thing I'm a little confused on is armor and shield proficiencies on a caster. I see mage armor says you use your unarmored proficiency, and the shield spell says nothing about proficiencies. And you're supposed to get the bigger penalty you have of the two, and being untrained is now a -4 penalty? So if I wanted to get rid of the penalty, I'd have to be at least trained in unarmored, and trained in shields? And if I wanted to boost it to expert, another two skill training sessions. Seems like a bit much just to be able to not go negative and use some cool spells.
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Page 43 is supposed to have "All classes are trained in unarmored defense" added to the proficiencies section.
However, you are correct that the Shield spell doesn't do a thing to how proficient you are with a shield, meaning you would either need to pick up shield proficiency somewhere or use the spell to get a +1 circumstance bonus to AC while taking a -4 penalty.
Good catch! That needs to be addressed.
Hmm well a little good and bad I suppose! I'm assuming most have been playing with the shield spell not being affected by proficiency, I think I might play that way with my friends for now.
That's not a real shield, you aren't even wielding it with your hand.
Proficiency should not apply.
That's not a real shield, you aren't even wielding it with your hand.
Proficiency should not apply.
The text also says the Shield spell works like a shield and allows you the Raise a Shield action and Shield Block action, which requires you to be wielding a shield. I'd call that ambiguous enough that they should spell out that proficiency doesn't apply (and I agree, it shouldn't).
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Proficiency in shields should not apply to the shield spell, but by rules as written it probably does.
Also proficiency in shields should not exist as a separate thing from armor proficiency if it is not going to give either a proficiency bonus to your AC with a shield nor a proficiency bonus to the effective Hardness of your shield when you block. They could just have light armor proficiency come with light shield proficiency, then either:
* Get rid of medium armor as a category, and have heavy armor proficiency come with heavy shield proficiency. Or
* Have medium armor proficiency grant heavy shield proficiency, bring back tower shields, and have heavy armor proficiency grant tower shield proficiency. Or
* The above, but they rename heavy shields to medium shields and tower shields to heavy shields for consistency. Light being things like bucklers and shielded bracers, medium being standard round shields and whatever, heavy being big kite shields and long slabs and whatever.
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Proficiency in shields should not apply to the shield spell, but by rules as written it probably does.
Also proficiency in shields should not exist as a separate thing from armor proficiency if it is not going to give either a proficiency bonus to your AC with a shield nor a proficiency bonus to the effective Hardness of your shield when you block. They could just have light armor proficiency come with light shield proficiency, then either:
* Get rid of medium armor as a category, and have heavy armor proficiency come with heavy shield proficiency. Or
* Have medium armor proficiency grant heavy shield proficiency, bring back tower shields, and have heavy armor proficiency grant tower shield proficiency. Or
* The above, but they rename heavy shields to medium shields and tower shields to heavy shields for consistency. Light being things like bucklers and shielded bracers, medium being standard round shields and whatever, heavy being big kite shields and long slabs and whatever.
I think this is a great idea. Shields are the odd man out when it comes to proficiency currently.