Ways to get Shield Bonus to Touch AC

[The Shaman]

Hi, I am considering trying out a shield user, probably a fighter, once I get the Armor Master Handbook. I was hoping to find a way to get the shield bonus to my touch attack (or at least against some spells such as rays) and I thought there might have been feats for that, but I cannot find them. All I can find are the shielded fighter and tower shield fighter archetypes, and I am not particularly fond of either. Am I missing something, like maybe a particular feat, enhancement for shields or a named magic item?

[Imbicatus]

Armor Master's Handbook has two ways to do this.

Knight of Arnisant (Cavalier Archetype): Deflective Shield at 4th level .

Mobile Fortress (part of Mobile Bulwark Style): Half Tower Shield AC bonus to touch AC. Tower Shield only.

[Ignotus Advenium]

Here's a feat and a shield special ability:

Ray Shield: Ray Shield's prerequisites are substantial and the shield may be damaged, so I imagine the feat is rarely taken. It doesn't boost your AC, but you can negate ranged touch attacks, including rays, up to one per round.

Mirrored: This ability primarily deals with gazes, but does increase your touch AC versus rays.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

There is also the Armor Master archetype.

Ultimate Combat wrote:

Deflective Shield (Ex): At 2nd level, an armor master specializes in using his shield to deflect attacks. He gains a +1 bonus to his touch AC, and this bonus increases for every four levels beyond 2nd (to a maximum of +6 at 20th level); however, this bonus cannot exceed the sum of the armor and enhancement bonus to AC provided by the shield that the armor master is currently carrying. This ability replaces bravery.

[Hubaris]

In addition to the ones above, are you opposed to 3PP?
There is Defensive Expertise from Dreamscarred.

[The Shaman]

Hmm, not too much, but if I was DMing I´d be a bit wary of a feat that both adds your shield armor bonus to AC and the enhancement to the reflex saves.

[Syrus Terrigan]

If you're making use of the PF/DnD 3.5 reverse compatibility, there's a feat in, IIRC, PHB2 called Shield Ward that adds your shield bonus to touch AC. By WotC's RAW, you have to take the prerequisite Shield Specialization feat (+1 shield bonus with chosen type of shield); I would be willing, as DM/GM, to use it in a Pathfinder game as a second-in-chain feat -- you'll probably have to rework a couple of feat names, or somesuch.

[Jack of Dust]

The Shaman wrote:

Hmm, not too much, but if I was DMing I´d be a bit wary of a feat that both adds your shield armor bonus to AC and the enhancement to the reflex saves.

For what it's worth, the book it's from is dedicated to increasing the power and combat versatility of martial characters to a level similar to casters. If you think it's more powerful than the feats published by Paizo, chances are it's by design. Mind you, it's nice to have options that give creatures a decent touch AC for a change.

[Blackwaltzomega]

The Shaman wrote:

Hmm, not too much, but if I was DMing I´d be a bit wary of a feat that both adds your shield armor bonus to AC and the enhancement to the reflex saves.

Eh, I feel like that feat is A-OK.

It's rare to see a shield with more than a +2 enhancement bonus so it's not like it's a gigantic boost to your reflex saves, and Touch AC only exists in this game to #@%* over heavily armored characters who suddenly find their often very EXPENSIVE investment in AC worthless against most attack spells and non-weapon attacks. It was removed entirely in 5th edition and I honestly feel it was one of the easiest elements of the game to do without; it bothered me that you could have a guy with 40 AC from all his armor and investment and something like 15 or so touch AC just so that we don't hurt the feelings of the sorcerer who wants to shoot him with rays or the cleric who wants to suck out the life from him with a touch.

If a martial character is using a shield, they have already forsaken both the high touch AC of dexterity-to-damage builds and the raw offensive power of two-handed weaponry, and since all the reach builds use two-handed weapons that's off the table too. Their offensive presence has taken a significant hit in exchange for some better defense; I think it's completely fair for there to be a feat that rewards the guy who decided they wanted a shield more than the ability to two-handed power attack by ALSO giving him a fighting chance against touch attacks and AoE reflex save blasts, two things that otherwise completely ignore his AC.

[swoosh]

Well, 5e also removes BAB and caps attribute bonuses, which removes a lot of the theoretical need to have touch AC in the first place. So it's not quite that simple.