So, I got a little situation in my group, where one of my two number crunchers (the one who doesn't understand the concept of "don't overdo it") has built himself a neat little concept, where he ends up with a +14 enhancement bonus on his shield slam.
It goes like this: Get a +5 Defiant (something) shield and a +5 Defending Bane (something) weapon. As per the feat Shield Master, your enhancement bonus to AC adds "to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus". Now you transfer as a free action through the Defending quality the enhancement bonus of the weapon (including the Bane bonus) "to your AC as a bonus that stacks with all others".
The wording would suggest that this is possible. The only thing I could think of is saying that the transferred enhancement bonus now is an untyped bonus and therefore would not work with Shield Master.
Any thoughts?
Add your shield’s enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls made with the shield as if it were a weapon enhancement bonus.
A defending weapon allows the wielder to transfer some or all of the weapon’s enhancement bonus to his AC as a bonus that stacks with all others.
The Defending quality adds to A.C. but not the shield's enhancement bonus. As such, it isn't taken into account for the purpose of Shield Master.
Too late to edit my message above:
« The Defending quality adds to A.C. but not to the shield's enhancement bonus. »
He has an ability to use the shield's (defensive) enhancement bonus to hit and damage. That ability does not actually change the shield's (weapon) enhancement, which is what the defending property keys off of.
On a different note, has he paid for the shield properly? It is enchanted separately as a shield and a weapon. That means separate masterwork costs. So as a shield you do things normally. To put defending on it, it must be a +1 weapon (not shield) first. So a +1 defending shield costs 8300 gp more than whatever defensive abilities the shield has.
I think the 8300 GP are not the issue here, at the level they are at.
And thanks to you both, this is a very reasonable interpretation of the wording. Now to get to the massive amount of whining when I clarify his trick out of existance. ^^
Please note the following:
The original text for Shield Master says you add "the enhancement bonus to AC from the shield" to the attack made with it. Not the AC bonus itself. So, a +3 heavy shield, which normally grants +5 to AC, would only give you +3 to your attack.
Edit: Since the "Defiant" ability (for a shield) grants +2 to the enhancement bonus itself, that can be included in the calculation, yes.
However, I recall that some game developers said in forums that the intended meaning of Shield Master was to take into account the inherent shield bonus, NOT the enhancement from magic. So, in the above example, the heavy shield would give you "only" +2. That's because heavy shield base AC bonus is +2: it would be +2 whether your enhancement is +5 or +1... or even if it's nonmagical.
Not sure it has been errata'd, though.
In addition, as thorin0001 mentioned, if you enchant your shield as a weapon, the enhancement bonuses to attack don't stack. You'll quickly attain a higher value than +2, making that part of Shield Master worthless (if you choose to apply the second paragraph above).
Speaking of worthless, if you apply the rules-as-written (first paragraph), you can use weapon enchantment on a shield, but it must be enhanced with a +1 (as a weapon) first. And this +1 has no value for a Shield Master if the shield has +1 or better (as a enhancement bonus to AC)
Edit: When searching the topic "shield master" in the forum, there are tons of posts (mostly on the now-FAQ'd fact that only TWF penalties are removed). Some imply that the printing of the rules has changed, and that individual developers' insight is not always correct, rules-wise.
Thanks for the further clarifications.