Wizard with Shield Block?

[mcintma]

Seems like no Prof is required for Raise Shield, and a Human Wiz can easily get Shield Block Gen Feat.

A wizard can use a shield with 1 free hand to cast, using Raise Shield (+2AC) then a 2 action Cast, then Shield Block as a reaction. Seems pretty good for staying alive?

Am I missing something? I've only quickly skimmed my brand-new CRB ;)

[Xenocrat]

mcintma wrote:

Seems like no Prof is required for Raise Shield, and a Human Wiz can easily get Shield Block Gen Feat.

A wizard can use a shield with 1 free hand to cast, using Raise Shield (+2) then a 2 action Cast, then Shield Block as a reaction. Seems pretty good for staying alive?

Am I missing something? I've only quickly skimmed my brand-new CRB ;)

It works fine. But you'll need to invest in a magical shield if you Shield Block very often, otherwise it's going to get destroyed. And you'll need to invest time in repairing your shield that you can't then use swapping spells or restoring Focus.

The Shield cantrip solves these issues if you can accept 1 less AC bonus and only one shield block per fight but also get your hand free and no maintenance or expense involved.

[mcintma]

Xenocrat wrote:

The Shield cantrip solves these issues if you can accept 1 less AC bonus and only one shield block per fight but also get your hand free and no maintenance or expense involved.

Riiight, didn't get to reading Shield yet - Cantrip now? And Clerics get it ;)

Seems like a good deal, and makes what I was suggesting less appealing, although 1 shield block per 10 min. is a significant limit.

Good point on the maintenance of shields!

[Bardarok]

Repairing a shield also takes 10 minutes so in general you will get maybe two to three blocks with a physical shield between needing repairs. Just to compare to shield cantrip.

[Ventnor]

It’s a little more appealing if you want to use a shield on a Sorcerer, since they don’t need to be doing anything in particular to recover focus.

[lordcirth]

I wonder if it would ever be worthwhile to cast Shield until hit, block with it, then Raise a Shield after that. It would get you one more block, if you find yourself limited by shield HP. Most sorcerers don't really need the extra hand for anything. However, I suspect that shields won't generally get broken in a normal fight unless you get crit, or you weren't able to repair since last time.

[Xenocrat]

Ventnor wrote:

It’s a little more appealing if you want to use a shield on a Sorcerer, since they don’t need to be doing anything in particular to recover focus.

And they also don’t need a hand free for material components, so shield plus weapon works well for them.

[Xenocrat]

lordcirth wrote:

I wonder if it would ever be worthwhile to cast Shield until hit, block with it, then Raise a Shield after that. It would get you one more block, if you find yourself limited by shield HP. Most sorcerers don't really need the extra hand for anything. However, I suspect that shields won't generally get broken in a normal fight unless you get crit, or you weren't able to repair since last time.

A steel shield has hardness 5 and breaks at 10 HP of damage. Past the first couple of levels I would expect damage to accumulate at a decent pace if you block 2-3 times.

[lordcirth]

Xenocrat wrote:

lordcirth wrote:

I wonder if it would ever be worthwhile to cast Shield until hit, block with it, then Raise a Shield after that. It would get you one more block, if you find yourself limited by shield HP. Most sorcerers don't really need the extra hand for anything. However, I suspect that shields won't generally get broken in a normal fight unless you get crit, or you weren't able to repair since last time.

A steel shield has hardness 5 and breaks at 10 HP of damage. Past the first couple of levels I would expect damage to accumulate at a decent pace if you block 2-3 times.

Yeah, I think it's great at level 1, but then there's a gap until you can get a Sturdy Shield. Champions get a nice buff there with Shield Ally.

[shroudb]

lordcirth wrote:

Xenocrat wrote:

lordcirth wrote:

I wonder if it would ever be worthwhile to cast Shield until hit, block with it, then Raise a Shield after that. It would get you one more block, if you find yourself limited by shield HP. Most sorcerers don't really need the extra hand for anything. However, I suspect that shields won't generally get broken in a normal fight unless you get crit, or you weren't able to repair since last time.

A steel shield has hardness 5 and breaks at 10 HP of damage. Past the first couple of levels I would expect damage to accumulate at a decent pace if you block 2-3 times.

Yeah, I think it's great at level 1, but then there's a gap until you can get a Sturdy Shield. Champions get a nice buff there with Shield Ally.

Shield Ally is amazing, but i think even without it you can deal with is somehow.

a steel shield is hardness 5 and BT is 10, so you can block 2 somewhat big and quite a few small hits before it passes the BT.

looking at level 2 mobs, that's like 8-8.5 average damage per hit, meaning you'll be able to block 3-4 of them before needing repairs, that's 15-20hp saved right there.

even at level 3 mobs, it seems the average is like 11 give or take, it can still take 2 blows (and 1 level 3 creature is the average encounter for a level 3 party, you shouldn't be able to take it all by yourself with your level 0 shield ^^)

then at level 4 you start having access to the first sturdy shield, with hardness 8 and BT 32 it can take quite a beating before needing repairs.

ofc, if we compare it to the paladin that makes even the simple steel shield have a hardness of 7, meaning blocking most of the damage of level 1-2 creatures without even taking a single point of damage, and having 15 BT meaning that it can easily block like 5 attacks from level 3 creatures, the difference is huge, but that doesn't devalue that an early level shield can potentially double+ your HP as a wizard/sorc

[mcintma]

Yeah I was indeed looking at this as a way for the Wiz to survive early levels, for those (hopefully rare) occasions that foes break through the front line.

BTW, this is the 1st version of D&D to accurately mechanically represent Eric from the D&D Cartoon! I mean, my hypothetical Wiz character would be whimpering from behind his shield as the ogre strikes in exactly the same way ;)