Shield Cantrip - 10 minute wait only if you Shield Block?

[1yellowfish]

p. 255
Duration of Shield is "until your next turn or until dismissed" the wording for Block "After you use Shield Block, the spell is dismissed and you can't cast it again for 10 minutes." It seems like as long as you don't block you can cast it after it ends when your next turn begins. Am I wrong? Or is it a cantrip that you can only use once every 10 minutes regardless of what you do?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

You are not wrong. The cooldown period is only when you block.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

I think Fuzzy is correct.

[Cantriped]

As long as you don't 'pop' the shield by actually Blocking with it, you can cast it every round to maintain the AC bonus just like a Fighter raising a light shield. The exploration tactics even allow this, though be warned casting any spell over and over is fatiguing if you keep it up for 10 minutes or longer. I suggest everyone use fatiguing tactics in five-minute increments, with the following five-minute increment spent on a nonfatiguing activity to avoid suffering fatigue.

Personally I'm sad that the Shield breaks even if the attack doesn't equal or exceed its hardness. It doesn't seem very fair. Otherwise It is probably my favorite cantrip so far.

[1yellowfish]

awesome! thanks for the responses.

[Wowie]

Now I feel like an idiot for never noticing the peculiarities of the wording, thanks. It could be made a little more explicit.

Though I really still would prefer it having a lower hardness but be usable anytime instead of having an artificial restriction that's obviously only there for balance reasons. It stands to reason that a shield made of force in the space of a few words might be less durable than the fighter's adamantine sturdy shield.

[ZaranBlack]

It needs to block all magic missiles and not just some of the damage. It is supposed to be one of the few defenses against the automatic damage from magic missiles.