Shield Spell + Magus + Viking Fighter

[rainsinger]

I know... I know... but, still.

Let's assume you have a L2 Magus, L3 Viking Fighter.

If he casts the shield spell:
Shield creates an invisible shield of force that hovers in front of you. It negates magic missile attacks directed at you. The disk also provides a +4 shield bonus to AC. This bonus applies against incorporeal touch attacks, since it is a force effect. The shield has no armor check penalty or arcane spell failure chance.

And has the L3 Viking ability Shield Defense:
Starting at 3rd level, a viking learns the art of fighting with a shield. Whenever she is wearing medium, light or no armor and wielding a shield, the viking's shield bonus to AC increases by 1. (etc)

So... the crux of this is in the "wielding" part of the viking ability, IMO. Does a magus who has the shield spell up (which is defined as a shield of force with no penalties) get the +1 shield defense bonus?

[Xaratherus]

I don't believe that you 'wield' a Shield spell. You can cast a Shield spell and dual-wield and still retain the AC bonus from the spell, because you're not actually holding (wielding) it - it's just a disc of force that hovers around you and intercepts/deflects incoming attacks.

The key word is 'wield' - which indicates that whatever the object\effect is takes up one of your 'hands'.

[Samasboy1]

I agree with Xaratherus, the Shield spell is not a shield. You don't wield it and wouldn't get the bonus.

Now a Ring of Force Shield is "wielded", so I would give you the bonus there.

[LazarX]

If you want to be a Viking magus the archetype you want is skirinir which gives you a shield style.

[rainsinger]

Skirnir's give up too much... the shield thing was actually a totally "extra bonus" type of thing for the build. This is actually a hobgoblin whip magus type build. Was just trying to figure out if there was a non-8500gp way of taking advantage of that +1. :P

Long story short, he likely won't even be using a shield most of the time, but having options is always fun (run out of spells, go all ragetastic and have fun).

LazarX wrote:

If you want to be a Viking magus the archetype you want is skirinir which gives you a shield style.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Note, while you are not wielding a shield, you do still benefit from things that ADD to your shield bonus, like Shield Wall.