| Technotheist |
So I really like the idea of a magus who focuses on Shield Bashing. Most of the builds or references I see to the Skirnir seem to focus on the idea of them as a TWF build and I'm trying to figure out why that is the only way people use it. So for the build I was going for he would instead only use a Shield, using it both as offense and defense.
You would be able to enchant your shield both as a weapon and a shield, it would require a round of setup, yes, but still, I'm not going for absolute optimization, I just enjoy making less optimal builds work better. The fact that it's a Bonded Item would also help with the cost of Enchanting the Shield both as a weapon and as a shield. (Having the Bonded Item be a Spiked Shield would help with this I assume)
The Bonded Item would help offset the Diminished Spellcasting, trading away one spell per level, for a single spell that doesn't need to be prepared. It's not a perfect trade off by any means, but it's something.
The money/Arcane Pool, that would go to enhancing both a Shield and a Weapon would both go to enhancing both aspects of the Shield, both as a Shield and a Weapon as it does say Shields Enhancement Bonuses don't help on a Shield Bash, but that they can be enhanced as Weapons on their own. (It's a little vague)
I would be taking the damage hit from not being able to use Spell Combat, this is true, but that's the trade off for the higher AC, so most rounds would be spent either using Spellstrike (Probably mostly with spells that have more than one touch). I'd effectively lose my second attack per round. Until level 8 when I could use Spell Combat just like a regular Magus as long as I'm using my Bonded Shield. It says that using my Shield hand would lose me the Shield Bonus to AC, but if I was only using my Shield to attack anyhow, I would still have a free hand to do my Somatic Components, and not lose my AC while still using Spell Combat to get the extra attack. Basically It'd be Shield Bash, followed by Spellstrike allowing a second Shield Bash.
Once I reach level 7, I can store a spell in my shield, similar to a Spell Storing Shield, one question I had would be if I do enchant my Shield with Spell Storing (Like any other character would), my understanding is that I would in fact be able to store two Spells in my Shield at a time, one from the ability SpellShield and the other from my shield's actual Spell Storing enchantment. Since they aren't the same ability I can see no reason I wouldn't be able to do both.
I was planning on using this character for PFS, so I wanted to get some advice on any flaws in my understanding of the rules, so I don't get cornered later when someone tells me that I can't do it after I've already invested in the character. If anyone needs clarification, please let me know.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated. :)