Already got a Dusty Rose Ioun stone and Ring of Force Shield. Anything that will increase my Shield Bonus specifically?
Can I replace these items with better ones?
Rings of protection and amulets of natural armor are pretty much the most basic items to boost your AC though they can get costly at higher bonuses. Have you had your armor magically enhanced at all? If not 4,000 gp will get you a +2 bonus Also you could fight defensively or use the feat combat expertise to get an AC bonus at a penalty to attack rolls. A defending weapon also isn't a bad idea if you are really concerned about AC.
Just going for Shield bonus...
Instead of that Ring of Force Shield that cost 8500gp, you could buy an "animated darkwood heavy wooden shield" for 757gp more.
It gives you an +3AC and has no armor check penalty, and Unlike the ring you dont have to "wield it" to get the bonus.
The only real down side (besides a 15% arcane spell failure chance that fighters dont care about) is that it only stays up for 4 rds and you must wait an additional 4 rnds before you can release it again.
just curious what 2h weapon were you planning on using?
Bec de Corbin
Bec de Corbin
Your character isn't the primary "tank" is he/she? What kind of roles are your teammates filling? What class are you playing and are your concerns only for AC or are you just looking to give it a little boost?
You can pick up Quickdraw and a Quick shield. Then you can get enhancements for it boosting shield AC that way.
Free action to both wield and put away. You can't use your twohander for AoO, though.
DPS fighter. I'll explore the Quick Shield since I do have Quickdraw already. But that would mean I couldn't use my Reach weapon to AoO as you mentioned.
So when I need to "tank" I could pull out this Quick Shield (free action) and then drop the reach weapon and pull a 1-handed weapon (free action) and then do a full-attack action.
I'm been brainstorming some new rings in this thread if anyone wants to comment.
As far as I know, you can't use the Ring of Force Shield while wielding a two-hander, as all it does is conjure a disc of force that you can wield like a heavy shield, without armor check penalties but with all the normal rules involving the usage of a shield.
Oooh.. just thought of something.
Quickdraw Animated shield. Quickdraw and loose the shield as a move action, then you have 4 rounds of a floating shield with your hand free, then on the last round grab the shield and quick store it. Downtime on that is 4 rounds (so 4 on, 4 off).
You'll have a free-floating shield for a few rounds at a time in combat.
It's a +2 enhancement though, so a +1 Animated Quickdraw shield (+2 AC) is starting at 9k gp item before you even started getting into further enhancements. It does have a higher potential to increase AC by another +4 through straight enhancements, and alternative defenses like Fortification, Resistance or Invulnerability (DR 5/magic).
Already got a Dusty Rose Ioun stone and Ring of Force Shield. Anything that will increase my Shield Bonus specifically?
Can I replace these items with better ones?
Some options:
1) As others have mentioned, an animated shield.
2) Take three levels of the phalanx soldier fighter archetype (unless already a fighter with a different archetype), allowing you to use a two-handed polearm one-handed with a shield. Combined with a quickdraw shield, this lets you switch between damage (two-handed polearm) and defense (polearm and shield) as circumstances require.
3) Take one level as a cleric with the Defense sub-domain (shield as a 1st-level domain spell) and invest in a 750 gp wand of shield; if using the Golarion setting, a cleric of Abadar, Nethys, Shelyn, or Torag.
4) If custom items are allowed, commission a wondrous item that creates a shield spell effect X times per day (command word, lasts 1 minute) for (X * 360 gp). A more powerful version would be activated as a swift action (Quickened shield lasting 9 min for X * 16,200 gp).
Use magical device on a Shield wand (don't feel like dipping into a class), until I can afford the animated shield.
Use magical device on a Shield wand (don't feel like dipping into a class), until I can afford the animated shield.
Be aware that in Pathfinder (unlike 3.5), an animated shield animates for four rounds, then can't be animated for four rounds, like a dancing weapon. (It's a move action to activate.)
If your combats are over before four rounds are up, though, it may not matter much.
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I've been getting very solid results (currently level 9) using a Falcata with an Animated Heavy Mithral Shield. I enter combat with the shield equipped and wielding the Falcata in one hand: decent damage with solid defenses (although the build isn't really focused at all on AC...). If something needs to be beat down quickly, I spend a move action to drop the shield, then haste myself (Boots of Speed) for a couple of rounds of heavy damage output. Falcata crits from high STR fighter wielding the blade in two hands are NASTY.
;)
The Quick Draw feat and quick draw shield combo is OK, but I didn't have the feats to spare -- and I think he free action stow then free action equip at the end of your turn is extremely cheesy.