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The best known way being the Phalanx Shield from the Armor Master's Handbook (Adamantine). 31 Fame required but for Adamantine it came as a surprising find with an extra, possibly unintended, benefit. The regular wooden tower shield weighs 45 pounds while this Adamantine one weighs only 30 pounds.
And the far less useful Force Tower from Ultimate Equipment which requires 49 Fame to purchase. One foot already through the door to character retirement.
Is there a third legal way?
In case you are wondering why anyone would care, consider there is an archetype called Tower Shield Specialist. Also when you use the tower shield for 100% cover in a dungeon the first thing most GMs will have a monster do is start Sundering.
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The Spellbane Shield is "iron-covered", whatever that means.
Wow, at 59 Fame you very well may already be retired before getting one of these unless you find one on a Chronicle.
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PFS goes to 20, so if you get 100% Fame every scenario you can use this for the 2nd half of your career.
Have you considered a Fortifying Stone? I usually get one for my melee characters (and one Archer, but I stuck it to his flying carpet).
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Folding, for reference.
Wow! That would do it. Just start with a Mithral Light Shield and you've got every type covered.
Good find!
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I use the Fortifying Stone and otherwise depend on my CMD and the enchantment bonus of the shield. I carry a scroll of make whole should it ever only be damaged and not destroyed (the scroll does not have a high enough caster level to fix it if destroyed).
Folding looks like a great find.
My Phalanx Soldier is at level 8 now (half of that being GM credit) and no-one has tried to sunder his shield yet.
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As a side note... folding cannot do light shields. So starting with a quick draw mithril light metal shield covers a lot of bases for cheap.
Why would anyone ever want a Light Shield? Buckler is same AC, lighter and leaves hand free for shenanigans. Heavy shield is better AC and shield bash damage.... And Tower Shields are Tower Shields. Why would I want worst shield in game?
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As a side note... folding cannot do light shields. So starting with a quick draw mithril light metal shield covers a lot of bases for cheap.Why would anyone ever want a Light Shield? Buckler is same AC, lighter and leaves hand free for shenanigans. Heavy shield is better AC and shield bash damage.... And Tower Shields are Tower Shields. Why would I want worst shield in game?
Because you want a quickdraw shield, which you can only get as a light shield.
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Why would anyone ever want a Light Shield?
On the contrary, the majority of my shield-using characters wield Light Shields.
Each shield has a combined set of benefits that no other offers:
Buckler:
• +1 AC
• Cannot Threaten
• Can Hold Items
Light:
• +1 AC
• Can Threaten
• Can Hold Items
Heavy:
• +2 AC
• Can Threaten
• Cannot Hold Items
Tower:
• +4 AC
• Cannot Threaten
• Cannot Hold Items
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Honestly, I never use quickdraw with the shield... why lower my flat footed AC? TWF penalties on a heavy steel shield are a bit harsh, until you get Shield Master, or you just take the Gorum faith trait that makes Heavy Shields a light weapons for TWF. Honestly, despite what Nefreet has written, I feel Light Shields lack a purpose in Pathfinder. The base armors and equipment should have unique rules or flavor to make them interesting to have.
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Nefreets list sums it up very well, but to add more points. Light shield for two-weapon fighting finesse rogue/paladin. Light shield keeps the hand free for a cleric that is always managing the number of items held (wands, scrolls, rods), while still providing a flanking bonus.
The light shield is mechanically unique and it's presence expands the number of concepts possible in the game.
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Nefreets list sums it up very well, but to add more points. Light shield for two-weapon fighting finesse rogue/paladin. Light shield keeps the hand free for a cleric that is always managing the number of items held (wands, scrolls, rods), while still providing a flanking bonus.
The light shield is mechanically unique and it's presence expands the number of concepts possible in the game.
Plus the Folding enchantment includes every type of shield except Light Shields... so only by applying it to a Light Shield do you have access to every category of shield (and their respective benefits and drawbacks) on demand. Which Is for me the lure of the enchantment.
Plus the Folding enchantment includes every type of shield except Light Shields... so only by applying it to a Light Shield do you have access to every category of shield (and their respective benefits and drawbacks) on demand. Which Is for me the lure of the enchantment.Question: once you transform that folding light shield into another form, how do you change it back? There's no duration listed, so presumably it's a permanent transformation, and the only thing the enchantment defines is how to change it into the listed forms.
Common Sense (and the RAW IIRC) dictates that you can command the shield to return to it's original form by turning off the ability allowing it to take the form of another shield (I.E. the enchantment).
I would also be willing to guess that Light Shield's were simply omitted from the description by mistake, or that relevant paragraph was cut&pasted from a unique light-shield scrapped in favor of a generic enchantment, and that bit was missed during editing.