Shield Champion ... is it worthwhile

[Balin]

I am about a week away from starting a new character, and was thinking of using a shield champion brawler.

Has anyone used one, and what are your opinions on them. As one of the only melee characters that will be in the group, can they hold up?

Any advise on how to play/ make them?

[Eltacolibre]

they can hold on their own, the problem is, it take a long time for them to go online but here's my captain america build:

Captain America

NG Human Shield Champion [Brawler] 12

Abilities: Unarmed Damage or Shield damage (2d6), Brawler Cunning, Martial Flexibility (Immediate action), Martial Training, Brawler's Furry, AC Bonus+2, Knockout 2/day, Throw Shield, Returning Shield.

Feats:Improved Unarmed Strike (b), Exotic weapon proficiency: Throwing Shield (1), Improved Shield Bash(b), Shield Focus(b), Power Attack(3),Combat Expertise(5), Weapon Focus (Medium Shield)(b), Greater Weapon (Medium Shield) (7),Shield Slam(b), Weapon Specialization (Medium Shield) (9), Greater Weapon Specialization (medium shield) (11), Shield Master(b), Improved Critical (Medium Shield)(b)

Notes:

-Put all your gold into your shield...seriously with the lack of brawler's strike, you'll need to make your shield magic asap, preferably a +3 shield as soon as possible to bypass most damage reduction. Making it Adamantine is very thematic. Making the shield deflecting is optional and would only do it when my shield is a least a +3 adamantine.

-Shield damage power spike at level 12, when you can use your unarmed strike damage for your shield damage.

-Use martial flexibility when you actually need to gain a maneuver, like improved grapple/trip etc...don't forget Equipment tricks (Shield), very great use of martial flexibility in general. In early levels (level 1-2), I would recommend to use it for deadly aim or power attack depending of your needs.

-If you can retrain, I'll get rid of throwing shield as soon as you hit level 3, since it's when shield champion ability kicks in.

-Still not very clear if brawler qualifies to some of the shields feats without TWF since it technically only works when you are using Brawler's furry if that's not the case, drop missile shield, you can always access it with martial flexibility.

[Rushley son of Halum]

I will warn you that calculating damage gets .... weird at about level 8. The combination of close weapon mastery, shield spikes and a bashing enhancement boosts your damage beyond what the damage table allows for.

But it's somewhere in the vicinity of 3d6 by level 12.

Other tips. Don't be married to your shield. It's a great aspect of the class, but if you need to put it away to grapple then do it.

Put together a few martial flexibility combos that you can pull out in special situations. You'll need to be very familiar with combat feats to use the character effectively.

Shield Slam is amazing. Coupled with greater bullrush it gets just amazing.

I've discovered in playing mine that your character is not there for damage. Not primarily, and not at first. You're much better at being exactly what your class feature says. Flexible. You exist to fill gaps. Your role is to punch things when needed, be reasonably tough to hit yourself, and then walk up to the bad guys and just say no. You can't do that. No.

You have access to dirty trick and every combat maneuver feat in the game on demand. Make use of the and ruin peoples days.