Shields

Shields are pieces of personal armor held in the Off-hand. Other things that are held in the off-hand are Orbs and Rune Arms.

Proficiency

Not all characters are proficient with shields. However, the penalties for using a shield you are not proficient with are fairly low. You take a penalty on attack rolls equal to the shield's Armor Check Penalty (this penalty is 0 for all bucklers and any magic light shields).

• The General Shield Proficiency feat allows a character to use any of the following shields (except tower shields) without incurring a non-proficiency penalty. General shield proficiency is also a prerequisite for Shield Mastery line of feats.
• The Tower Shield Proficiency feat allows a character to use tower shields without incurring a non-proficiency penalty.
• Master's Touch spell can make you proficient with any shield.

Benefits

• Armor class: Shields grant Shield bonus to AC.
• Shield bashing: You can use shields to attack your enemy. Larger shields have higher damage dice.
• Unique, non-scaling bonus to PRR and MRR (stacking with all other sources)
  

Shield type	PRR and MRR
Bucklers/Orbs	0
Small shields	5
Large shields	10
Tower shields	15

• PRR and MRR multiplier: Wearing a large or tower shield double your effective PRR and MRR vs effects that require a Reflex saving throw.
• Extra damage reduction while actively blocking, increased by shield size.
• Extra gear slot that can be used for various enchantments.
• Increased benefit of Intimidate for shield users.^{[Unverified"Increased benefit of Intimidate for shield users." has not been verified in-game. Please verify it!]}
• Shield Deflection feat becomes more powerful the larger your equipped shield.
• Certain trees such as Stalwart or Sacred Defender gain additional effects while equipped with a shield.

Penalties

Wearing a shield might also cause a few penalties for your character:

• Armor check penalty
• Arcane spell failure
• Cannot use Evasion (large / tower shield only)
• (tower shield only): Dodge cap, attack penalty -2

Often, the increased defense granted by shield use can also reduce your DPS.

Types of shields

• Buckler
• Small
• Large
• Tower

Basic shields overview

The following table lists the basic shields in the game. Note that random-gen Bound to Account shields from chain end rewards (or quest end rewards in The Sharn Syndicate quests) use an older algorithm and do not match these stats.

Table: Basic Shields
Name	Cost	Absolute Minimum Level	Damage*1	Shield bonus to AC	Shield addition to PRR/MRR*2	Added blocking Damage reduction	Max Dexterity bonus to AC	Armor check penalty*3	Arcane spell failure chance	Weight
Buckler	15 gp	1	[1d4]	1	0	1	—	0	0%	5 lb.
Buckler, Darkwood	15 gp	4	[1d4]	1	0	2	—	0	0%	5 lb.
Buckler, Densewood	15 gp	10	[1d6]	2	0	3	—	0	0%	5 lb.
Buckler, Spiritcraft	15 gp	16	[1d6]	3	0	4	—	0	0%	5 lb.
Buckler, Celestial	15 gp	22	[1d8]	3	0	5	—	0	0%	5 lb.
Light Shield	3 gp	1	[1d4]	2	5	2	—	-1	10%	5 lb.
Light Darkwood Shield	3 gp	4	[1d4]	3	5	3	—	-1	10%	5 lb.
Light Densewood Shield	3 gp	10	[1d6]	4	5	4	—	-1	10%	5 lb.
Light Spiritcraft Shield	3 gp	16	[1d6]	5	5	5	—	-1	10%	5 lb.
Light Celestial Shield	3 gp	22	[1d8]	5	5	6	—	-1	10%	5 lb.
Heavy Shield	7 gp	1	[1d6]	3	10	3	—	-2	15%	10 lb.
Heavy Darkwood Shield	7 gp	4	[1d6]	4	10	4	—	-2	15%	10 lb.
Heavy Densewood Shield	7 gp	10	[1d8]	5	10	5	—	-2	15%	10 lb.
Heavy Spiritcraft Shield	7 gp	16	[1d8]	7	10	6	—	-2	15%	10 lb.
Heavy Celestial Shield	7 gp	22	[1d10]	9	10	7	—	-2	15%	10 lb.
Tower Shield*4	30 gp	1	[1d8]	4	15	4	2	-10	50%	45 lb.
Battle Shield*4	30 gp	4	[1d8]	6	15	5	2	-10	50%	50 lb.
Magecraft Shield*4	30 gp	10	[1d10]	8	15	6	2	-10	50%	50 lb.
Mountain Shield*4	30 gp	16	[1d10]	10	15	7	2	-10	50%	50 lb.
Planeforged Tower Shield*4	30 gp	22	[2d6]	12	15	8	2	-10	50%	50 lb.

*1 Shields can get +1[W] as an enchantment, which overrides the AML to 20, even if the AML was higher; note that this currently applies to all lootgen shields (as of U15.2) Seems fixed with U18.1.
*2 Note that shields don't raise the MRR Cap
*3 This is for disjuncted shields. If the shield is enchanted, reduce this value by 1
*4 invokes a -2 penalty to attack rolls

• See also: Armor