Blessed Shield


Rules Discussion

Scarab Sages

For the Champion Blessed Shield ability, does it apply only to one shield, like Armament, or to every shield that you pick up?

Blessed Shield wrote:
In your hands, a shield gains the minor reinforcing rune. As you go up in level, the shield gains the reinforcing rune of your level (lesser at 7th level, moderate at 10th level, greater at 13th level, major at 16th level, and supreme at 19th level). If your shield already has the appropriate reinforcing rune for your level, or if it’s a sturdy shield of the same level as the appropriate reinforcing rune, the shield’s Hardness instead increases by 1.

Because this doesn't say Choose one shield like Armament says Choose one weapon, I initially read it as affecting any shield your are wielding. However, I've just seen Shield Paragon:

Shield Paragon wrote:
Your shield is a vessel of divine protection. When you're wielding your chosen shield, it is always raised, even without you using the Raise a Shield action. If the shield would be destroyed, it vanishes to your deity's realm instead, where a servitor of your deity repairs it. During your next daily preparations, the shield returns to you fully repaired. While the shield is gone, you can spend 1 minute to infuse a different shield with your blessed shield benefit until your true shield returns.

That seems to be written assuming it is a single, chosen shield.

If that is true, then there are some issues with Blessed Shield. It doesn't tell you to select a shield. It also doesn't provide any way to change your selected shield, like Blessed Armament does for a weapon.

So, are you stuck with the same shield for the life of the character, except for brief periods of time at 20th level? What happens if it's destroyed before level 20 and Shield Paragon? What happens if you lose it?

Or, does this work for whatever shield you are wielding?

Or, does this only work for one shield that you choose at the start of the day?

It is a huge difference if it's only one shield/day or one shield ever than if it is whatever shield you are wielding. It becomes just a gold saver, or you can pay hundreds or thousands of gold to get 1 extra hardness.

At least it scales without an additional feat, unlike Blessed Armament and Blessed Swiftness.

Also, if it is just a gold savings, it's still significantly more gold than Blessed Armament saves you. It can save you up to 32,000gp. Blessed Armament (without another feat) saves you at most 225gp for Shifting..


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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I've seen it argued both ways and could see it goin either way. I suspect the intent is that you're to choose a single shield at a time (probably as part of daily prep).

Scarab Sages

If that’s true, then it’s fine. It’s still probably better than Blessed Armament at least before considering additional feats. But it needs errata to explain how it is supposed to work.

I see that Shield Ally was also lacking that language, so I’m going to assume it’s meant to work the same way. It’s just a little confusing, and by RAW there’s no way to select/change the shield, or it works for all shields.


Still no official clarification on this? Because however I read this, with just the 3rd level wording it would work on any shield instantly and my champion would be carrying spare shield to use mid encounter if necessary.

Scarab Sages

I haven’t seen anything new.

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