I have a Whip wielding Shield carrying Bard, he is pretty sweet I must admit. I'm just wondering if whether it would be better to cast Shield the cantrip or Raise Shield and use my wooden shield? Any feedback appreciated.
Well, my concern would be about if you need to provide any somatic components for spells. I'm not sure if the bards spell require anything besides verbal components, but if you need your hands for something besides your shield or weapon your going to have a (minor) problem.
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Well, my concern would be about if you need to provide any somatic components for spells. I'm not sure if the bards spell require anything besides verbal components, but if you need your hands for something besides your shield or weapon your going to have a (minor) problem.
You can use somatic components with stuff in hand, what you can't do is use material componentes.
But anyway, Bard with a shield work, just remember that you will have to spend gold coins to make them keep up with the damage at higher levels if you want to block stuff.
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Somatic
A somatic component is a specific hand movement or gesture that generates a magical nexus. The spell gains the manipulate trait and requires you to make gestures. You can use this component while holding something in your hand, but not if you are restrained or otherwise unable to gesture freely.Spells that require you to touch the target require a somatic component. You can do so while holding something as long as part of your hand is able to touch the target (even if it’s through a glove or gauntlet).
Somatic components aren't an issue, here.
If I have a material component spell would I just drop the shield? Is dropping a shield an action? And would it be another action the following round to pick up the shield?
It's a fine cheap way to get an AC bonus w/o using the Cantrip slot, but the Cantrip's better because it can block w/o getting Shield Block, it will ramp up w/o investment, it doesn't take Bulk, and you can have a free hand (which gives options, like catching your fall or Combat Climber or even MCD for Fighter free hand feats).
Many of my builds take a feat (and sometimes even an Ancestry to qualify for that feat) to get Shield. It proved that good in the playtest.
That said, after you've blocked w/ Shield, having an actual shield can serve as a backup. If it's in your hand, you save having to draw it.
On the flip side, if you want to go all out w/ the feat & gold, shields are great, and Shield could be the backup.
Is there any reason why I would use a wooden shield instead of a steel one?
Well, my concern would be about if you need to provide any somatic components for spells. I'm not sure if the bards spell require anything besides verbal components, but if you need your hands for something besides your shield or weapon your going to have a (minor) problem.You can use somatic components with stuff in hand, what you can't do is use material componentes.
But anyway, Bard with a shield work, just remember that you will have to spend gold coins to make them keep up with the damage at higher levels if you want to block stuff.
Sorry, still getting used to edition changes. Somatic components used to be something you couldn't do with your hand full.
Still I suspect there aren't a lot of bard spells with Somatic or Material components, so I guess it's not a big deal.
Sorry, still getting used to edition changes. Somatic components used to be something you couldn't do with your hand full.Well, my concern would be about if you need to provide any somatic components for spells. I'm not sure if the bards spell require anything besides verbal components, but if you need your hands for something besides your shield or weapon your going to have a (minor) problem.You can use somatic components with stuff in hand, what you can't do is use material componentes.
But anyway, Bard with a shield work, just remember that you will have to spend gold coins to make them keep up with the damage at higher levels if you want to block stuff.
You can thank the Church of Gorum for that particular change; any caster with a 2-handed weapon was absolutely miserable to play in the playtest and required tax feats that did nothing other than remove the somatic restriction on spells to even be possible. Far better for everyone to just remove the restriction entirely and free up a class feat.