Shield spell

[Rycke]

The verbiage in the shield spell says "This counts as using the Raise a Shield action". Then in the sidebar it says , "You can use these actions while shield is active". One of these actions is Raise a Shield. This would seem to imply that you need to cast Shield, then use an action to raise a shield, but I don't think that's the case.

My question, which of these is "more specific" and so overrides the other?

[Blave]

Pretty sure casting shield will also raise it with the same action. That's how they handled it in the glass cannon podcast. And anything else would make shield terribe.

[Asuet]

The raise a shield action is already covered by the spell. Technically you can't use that action because you already used it. They didn't phrase that properly. The shield block is what you can use.

[John Teixeira]

Rycke wrote:

The verbiage in the shield spell says "This counts as using the Raise a Shield action". Then in the sidebar it says , "You can use these actions while shield is active". One of these actions is Raise a Shield. This would seem to imply that you need to cast Shield, then use an action to raise a shield, but I don't think that's the case.

My question, which of these is "more specific" and so overrides the other?

Neither overrides the other. Casting the shield spell activates the "Raise a Shield" action when it is cast, it then allows you to shield block as a reaction until your next turn or until you use the shield block once. The Shield Actions table lists the actions the Shield Spell gives you access to, you just wouldn't want to use "Raise a Shield" a second time as it would be redundant, but there could be additional splat material where it's important the shield spell gives access to the "Raise a Shield" action.

Honestly I'm glad it's there and think more things like it should be done, it would be annoying to look up shield then go look up what actions shields give me in the equipment section or w/e to figure out what the hell to do like the rest of this book.