I try and stay off tabletop RPG forums, because they tend to make me cynical about how much of the game I'm playing is actually broken or breakable and I have zero tolerance for flamewars, BUT I can't seem to find an answer for this anywhere so I decided to suck it up and post.
I'm trying to build a Fighter who balances damage and AC fairly well and supports the party through intimidation (Dazzling Display). Our party is small and consists of a Barbarian, Paladin, Wizard, and myself, and the DM is heavily concerned with RPing. I'm not too worried about optimizing and am just trying to have some fun with this build, BUT because (in my experience) Fighters start to get underpowered around 7th level I want to make sure it's at least somewhat viable.
By fourth level I've taken the feats Bastard Sword Proficiency, Shield Focus, Bastard Sword Focus, Dazzling Display, Intimidating Prowess, and Bastard Sword Specialization. In order to provide some harassment power and defense against spellcasters I'm planing on taking Missile Shield, Shatter Defenses, Disruptive, Ray Shield, Improved Critical, Critical Focus, and then Spellbreaker at 10th Level. I think this build hinges on the effectiveness of Ray Shield to stop one or two Scorching Rays or Acid Arrows if they come my way, or forcing the DM to use cones, which make it hard to him to also flank me. Is Ray Shield at all useful? If I have a Heavy Mithril Shield it has a hardiness of 15 and 30hp per inch of thickness (which I assume is 1, but I don't actually know), so my thinking is that I could shrug off at most two rays before I had to worry about breaking the shield. Thoughts?
AGAIN: I know this build is sub-optimal. I just need it to be functional.
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Mithral has the same Hit Points per inch as steel - so a heavy shield still has only 20 Hit Points (Core book page 175). Each +1 enhancement bonus (from being a magic item) adds another 10 Hit Points (and 2 Hardness), if that helps at all. Adamantine is a better choice for pure toughness, having 20 Hardness and 40 Hit Points per inch (27 Hit Points for a Heavy Adamantine Shield).
Mithral has the same Hit Points per inch as steel - so a heavy shield still has only 20 Hit Points (Core book page 175). Each +1 enhancement bonus (from being a magic item) adds another 10 Hit Points (and 2 Hardness), if that helps at all. Adamantine is a better choice for pure toughness, having 20 Hardness and 40 Hit Points per inch (27 Hit Points for a Heavy Adamantine Shield).
In the CR there is no price modifier for an Adamantine shield. I remember reading somewhere that Adamantine shields are treated as weapons and do not receive the damage reduction benefit (small as it may be).
It seems to me that a change of 17 Hardiness and 30hp to 22 hardiness and 37hp is not worth 2000g (Mithril Heavy Shield +1 --> Adamantine Heavy Shield +1), but I could be wrong. I also am still undecided on whether Ray Shield or any of this build is worth it.|
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Remember that energy attacks (like most rays) deal half damage (before Hardness) to objects - so adamantine's +5 Hardness over Mithral is really a +10 Hit Points per shot net gain. Your average ray would have to do 45 points of damage to inflict 1 Hit Point to a +1 adamantine shield, whereas the same 45 points of damage inflicts 11 points of damage to a +1 Mithral shield. It takes 37 such rays to destroy the +1 adamantine shield, and only 3 to destroy the Mithral shield. You're not taking an adamantine shield for the DR - you're taking it 'cos it's damned tough, and can sunder most other things like a hot knife through butter if you shield bash with it...
... Plus, Captain America has one... sort of... ;)
Remember that energy attacks (like most rays) deal half damage (before Hardness) to objects - so adamantine's +5 Hardness over Mithral is really a +10 Hit Points per shot net gain. Your average ray would have to do 45 points of damage to inflict 1 Hit Point to a +1 adamantine shield, whereas the same 45 points of damage inflicts 11 points of damage to a +1 Mithral shield. It takes 37 such rays to destroy the +1 adamantine shield, and only 3 to destroy the Mithral shield. You're not taking an adamantine shield for the DR - you're taking it 'cos it's damned tough, and can sunder most other things like a hot knife through butter if you shield bash with it...
... Plus, Captain America has one... sort of... ;)
Ah! I did not know the half damage applied BEFORE hardiness (although it seems obvious now). That does make the Adamantine worth it (and also makes Ray Shield look more viable). Thanks!
Most GM's are not going to waste all of their rays spells on a shield. After 1 or 2 gets deflected they will change tactics. After the fight just have the caster fix the shield for you.