Shielded fighter archetype

[Belloque]

A player of mine picked this archetype - Shielded fighter - and is wondering about some abilities.

Shield fighter at lvl 5 and Shield mastery at lvl 19 seem like they are both worse than the regular fighter abilities. Could anyone explain how these differ from the original abilities. Especially Shield mastery.

[Belafon]

They are "worse" than the original. However it's deliberate, and is because the thematic focus is on the shield.

Shield Fighter essentially says "You get Weapon Training, but only with shields." However, here's these other abilities you get in place of WT 2, 3, and 4.

Shield Mastery has narrower options than the base fighter's Armor Mastery, but gets to the same place. A shielded fighter wielding a shield gets DR 5/-. A regular fighter wielding a shield OR wearing armor gets DR 5/-. In combat the outcome is the same (DR 5/-) for both.

There have been much more powerful shield-focused archetypes released since the APG. But it is a thematic archetype that doesn't lose too much.

[Belloque]

Belafon wrote:

They are "worse" than the original. However it's deliberate, and is because the thematic focus is on the shield.

Shield Fighter essentially says "You get Weapon Training, but only with shields." However, here's these other abilities you get in place of WT 2, 3, and 4.

Shield Mastery has narrower options than the base fighter's Armor Mastery, but gets to the same place. A shielded fighter wielding a shield gets DR 5/-. A regular fighter wielding a shield OR wearing armor gets DR 5/-. In combat the outcome is the same (DR 5/-) for both.

There have been much more powerful shield-focused archetypes released since the APG. But it is a thematic archetype that doesn't lose too much.

Ok thanks! This is kinda what I figured but started trying to read something into the wording "wielding" a shield.

Since he's playing a dwarven (not very dexterous) fighter, all thematic, what would be an alternative to TWF to make his shield even more useful?

[*Thelith]

Enlarge+tower shield and give cover to his entire group/block hallways with an 8ft shield.
:)

[Lelomenia]

I would look at Mobile Bulwark Style. Yes, Shielded Fighter archetype fighters tends to be much worse than unarchetyped fighters are at shield builds.

[avr]

The shield brace feat & a dwarven longhammer or longaxe can work. Or vanguard style can aid adjacent allies, I'd recommend 12+ dex for that path.

It's also possible to switch dexterity prereqs to intelligence via the artful dodge feat if that helps, or even to constitution with the same + a dip in kinetic knight kineticist.

Note, don't try all of those on the same character. Just one most likely.

[Chell Raighn]

To make the most of shield fighter, I’d either have them pick up a pair of dwarves warshields or take a klar as their main hand weapon... both give them a second shield that they can use purely as an offensive weapon so that they will always get the benefits of weapon training. They can build two-weapon fighting and take the shield master feat to remove the penalties for their shield bash (which with either of the above mentioned duel wielding shield options is all attacks)

Another fun option is to build into upsetting shield style and use a buckler as the main hand “weapon” with a more substantial shield in their offhand... upsetting shield style let’s them shield bash with the buckler and applies penalties to their target after doing so.

Perhaps even suggest level dipping into shield champion brawler...