Magus: Shielded Tome Feat question

[LordChronos]

One of my players is entertaining the idea of making a Magus with a defensive build. They approached me with an unusual question. If they were to meld a Tower shield with their spellbook, with the Shield Tome feat, would there be any adverse effects, aka, would the Tower shield's speed penalty be persistent or only be present when in the shield form and not in the book form. Personally, I'm partial of making the penalty (-5 spd) persistent in all forms while the book is melded with the Tower shield. What say you?

Additionally, would the melded tome take on the weight of the tower shield or would it be a combination of the Tome and the Tower shield?

[HumbleGamer]

I say it doesn't get neither the speed penalty nor the shield "Weight".

The text says

Quote:

During your daily preparations, you can magically fuse a shield into your favorite book, where it appears as an elaborate bookmark

Also, consider that Bulk and Weight are quite different ( and because so, having the dimension of a bookmark wouldn't affect speed or bulk ).

[The Raven Black]

The description also says "While the two are fused, the book shares the Hardness, Hit Points, and Broken Threshold of the shield". And that is all the book gets from the shield. No speed penalty and no bulk.

Your book just becomes a sturdier but not heavier book that can change into a shield.

[aobst128]

I don't understand these couple of magus feats. It's fun and flavorful, but you're spending 2 class feats to have a shield that gives you a +1 on recall knowledge. Am I missing something?

[CaffeinatedNinja]

aobst128 wrote:

I don't understand these couple of magus feats. It's fun and flavorful, but you're spending 2 class feats to have a shield that gives you a +1 on recall knowledge. Am I missing something?

No. They are flavorful but useless class feats.

[aobst128]

CaffeinatedNinja wrote:

aobst128 wrote:

I don't understand these couple of magus feats. It's fun and flavorful, but you're spending 2 class feats to have a shield that gives you a +1 on recall knowledge. Am I missing something?

No. They are flavorful but useless class feats.

I was thinking that you could use it with the new fancy grimoires, but you don't need to be holding them to gain their benefits. Dang. Best case scenario, you are a sparkling targe, you have access to a library of creature knowledge and you know what you'll be fighting for that day, you'll get a +2 on your recall knowledge. But the 2 class feats that support recall knowledge, compete with raise a tome and shielded tome. magus's analysis and raise a tome are both 1st level and shielded tome and knowledge is power are both 6th level feats. Might as well just go with the recall knowledge route with another subclass.

[Cordell Kintner]

Unless they want to actually use it as a tower shield, and only want to merge it so it's hidden, using a tower shield is useless. Steel Shields have the exact same Hardness, Hit Points, and BT, and cost 1/5 the price.

The benefit of a Tower Shield is to Take Cover behind it, which you can't do when it's melded into a book.

What you should do is meld a Sturdy Shield into your book, that way it won't be destroyed by a single hit at higher levels.