Discovering the Ancient Origins of the Pathfinder Magic Shield

The Pathfinder Magic Shield is a powerful defensive magic spell that is used by warriors and adventurers in various fantasy tabletop role-playing games. It creates a mystical shield around the caster, providing them with additional protection against physical attacks. The magic shield is created by channeling mana, the magical energy that exists in the game world, into a manifestation of a shield. This shield is imbued with magical properties that enhance its durability and strength, making it more effective at deflecting blows and reducing the impact of attacks. The Pathfinder Magic Shield is not a static defense, but a dynamic barrier that moves and adapts to the movements of the caster. It can be used to block and parry attacks from multiple directions, providing the caster with a versatile defense against a variety of enemies and combat situations.

Mathematically speaking, the +4 compared to +2 is a minimum of double that amount, so it makes sense to double it to 17,000 gold, yes? But instead, you cut the price in half while doubling the base benefit, which is a joke. It also ignores the hand restriction, and provides Magic Missile immunity. So, it'd reasonably be in the 25,000 gold range, or 50,000 if it didn't take up a slot.

This is in line with the recently errata d Bracers of Falcon s Aim and Feather Step Slippers, which likewise offer once day benefits of Aspect of the Falcon and Feather Step for very limited durations that cannot be split up between. Spells inscribed on armor can be dispelled as if they were separate magic items treat them as scrolls , wholly independent of the suit of armor on which they are etched.

It can be used to block and parry attacks from multiple directions, providing the caster with a versatile defense against a variety of enemies and combat situations. One of the unique aspects of the Pathfinder Magic Shield is that it can also protect against magical attacks. It has the ability to absorb and neutralize spells and other forms of magical energy, making it an invaluable asset for spellcasters who often face attacks from their magical foes.

Shield (Spell) as a Magic item

Okay so as written this would cost (1 X 1 X 2000) X 2 ([Level 1 X Level 1 Spell X 2000] X 2). So 4,000 for a continues +4 Shield Bounce and immunity to Magic Missile.

Now is this balanced considering that ring of Force Shield is 8,500 for a +2 AC and forces you to hold the heavy shield losing out on a free hand. Now technically this would not matter for spells as you can activate and deactivate it as a free action. You can also shield bash with the force ring.

So is the shield item fair? Or is it a case of a constant true strike ability and its just too OP. The big problem is the math for the other bounces dose not work either as it either validates or way over prices.

Fair? I'd give it a resounding no. Consider: A +4 amulet of natural armor grants basically the same thing as Shield (+4 AC to the same AC categories as Shield), doesn't block magic missile, and costs 32k. At 4k you're pricing at half of a +2 nat armor amulet which is frankly absurd.

I wouldn't start pricing at anything lower than 33-34k going strictly off similar item effects.

Obviously it's unbalanced. Also, you're not using the formula for continuous, so what you'd have there is an item that casts Shield (requiring a standard action and lasting 1 minute per caster level of the item).

What you're looking for is an item (assuming a ring?) that provides a +4 Shield Bonus. The formula for that is bonus squared times 2,500, or 16x2500, or 40,000gp, with some amount tacked on for the Magic Missile immunity done ad-hoc.

Obviously it's unbalanced. Also, you're not using the formula for continuous, so what you'd have there is an item that casts Shield (requiring a standard action and lasting 1 minute per caster level of the item).

What you're looking for is an item (assuming a ring?) that provides a +4 Shield Bonus. The formula for that is bonus squared times 2,500, or 16x2500, or 40,000gp, with some amount tacked on for the Magic Missile immunity done ad-hoc.

No I think I'm using it right and yes I want this to cast the spell and the spell to be always on. Your thinking of Command word which is Level X CL X 1,8000 which cast the spell on command.

Use-activated or continuous Spell level x caster level x 2,000 gp2
2 If a continuous item has an effect based on a spell with a duration measured in rounds, multiply the cost by 4. If the duration of the spell is 1 minute/level, multiply the cost by 2, and if the duration is 10 minutes/level, multiply the cost by 1.5. If the spell has a 24-hour duration or greater, divide the cost in half.

And they specifically list the types of bounces and Shield is not among them.

Okay so as written this would cost (1 X 1 X 2000) X 2 ([Level 1 X Level 1 Spell X 2000] X 2). So 4,000 for a continues +4 Shield Bounce and immunity to Magic Missile.

Now is this balanced considering that ring of Force Shield is 8,500 for a +2 AC and forces you to hold the heavy shield losing out on a free hand. Now technically this would not matter for spells as you can activate and deactivate it as a free action. You can also shield bash with the force ring.

So is the shield item fair? Or is it a case of a constant true strike ability and its just too OP. The big problem is the math for the other bounces dose not work either as it either validates or way over prices.

It's obviously broken.

Mathematically speaking, the +4 compared to +2 is a minimum of double that amount, so it makes sense to double it to 17,000 gold, yes? But instead, you cut the price in half while doubling the base benefit, which is a joke. It also ignores the hand restriction, and provides Magic Missile immunity. So, it'd reasonably be in the 25,000 gold range, or 50,000 if it didn't take up a slot.

Even that's too low of a price since melee can use a two-handed weapon with it, and spellcasters don't need to expend spell slots, spells known, and so on to benefit from it, which means you'll need to jack up the price more to keep it in balance with how strong of a boon it is for characters who can use it without the typical drawbacks. At best, you'll just double it again, making it 50,000 (or 100,000 if unslotted). At worst, it may just be a minor artifact that no sane GM would give to their PCs unless the plot requires it.

For the original price you proposed, it'd be a once/day item functioning for one minute before winking out of juice for that day. This is in line with the recently errata'd Bracers of Falcon's Aim and Feather Step Slippers, which likewise offer once/day benefits of Aspect of the Falcon and Feather Step for very limited durations (that cannot be split up between activations), items that have a similar function for similarly level spells.

But, it's your game. If you want to introduce these kinds of items for players to use, go for it. Just don't say you weren't warned of the kinds of shenanigans that could arise from this sort of stuff.

And they specifically list the types of bounces and Shield is not among them.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/Magic-items/#TOC-Magic-Item-Creation

It would be a 'Bonus (other)', obviously.

And they specifically list the types of bounces and Shield is not among them.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/Magic-items/#TOC-Magic-Item-Creation
It would be a 'Bonus (other)', obviously.

AC bonus (other)1 Bonus squared x 2,500 gp

1 Such as a luck, insight, sacred, or profane bonus.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/Magic-items/#TOC-Magic-Item-Creation

If it was that simple I would not be asking

Okay so as written this would cost (1 X 1 X 2000) X 2 ([Level 1 X Level 1 Spell X 2000] X 2). So 4,000 for a continues +4 Shield Bounce and immunity to Magic Missile.

Now is this balanced considering that ring of Force Shield is 8,500 for a +2 AC and forces you to hold the heavy shield losing out on a free hand. Now technically this would not matter for spells as you can activate and deactivate it as a free action. You can also shield bash with the force ring.

So is the shield item fair? Or is it a case of a constant true strike ability and its just too OP. The big problem is the math for the other bounces dose not work either as it either validates or way over prices.

It's obviously broken.

Mathematically speaking, the +4 compared to +2 is a minimum of double that amount, so it makes sense to double it to 17,000 gold, yes? But instead, you cut the price in half while doubling the base benefit, which is a joke. It also ignores the hand restriction, and provides Magic Missile immunity. So, it'd reasonably be in the 25,000 gold range, or 50,000 if it didn't take up a slot.

Even that's too low of a price since melee can use a two-handed weapon with it, and spellcasters don't need to expend spell slots, spells known, and so on to benefit from it, which means you'll need to jack up the price more to keep it in balance with how strong of a boon it is for characters who can use it without the typical drawbacks. At best, you'll just double it again, making it 50,000 (or 100,000 if unslotted). At worst, it may just be a minor artifact that no sane GM would give to their PCs unless the plot requires it.

For the original price you proposed, it'd be a once/day item functioning for one minute before winking out of juice for that day. This is in line with the recently errata'd Bracers of Falcon's Aim and Feather Step Slippers, which likewise offer once/day benefits of Aspect of the Falcon and Feather Step for very limited durations (that cannot be split up between.

For the price your listing you could literally buy a mythral buckler and enchant it to give a total +4. And frankly how often are you going to see magic missile? I'm not defending the item really (I've long since shrugged and written down the Ring of Force shield) but I think doubling and doubling is a little extreme

A few items to use as comparisons:

Cloak of the Hedge Wizard (Abjuration): Shield spell 1/day as command word activation plus other effects, 2,500 gp
Vibrant Purple Prism (Cracked) Ioun Stone: Can store Shield spell 1/day as command word activation, 2,000 gp

Generally speaking for custom magic item creation, an item that duplicates a spell exactly should never be continuous use. If one of my players asked for something like a permanent set of Shield bracers, I'd point at the above two items and tell them to go buy those instead. There's a reason this spell isn't available on the list of spells suitable for Permanency. Using custom magic item creation rules to bypass this for even cheaper than the cost of a Permanency spell is just extra cheesy.

In terms of action economy, the Shield spell is originally balanced to add +4 AC to low AC classes at the cost of a standard action. It's also personal range specifically to bar access by high AC classes.

Of course, with time and bloated sourcebook access, we've got classes like the Alchemist that can create this spell as an extract for martial melees like the greatsword wielding fighter. The overall limiter, as always, is the action cost to gain the benefits.

I'd honestly never allow a permanent Shield item to be played at my table, except in one very specific circumstance: as a major reward for a long and difficult quest arc. It would be some form of minor artifact whose creation is long lost to the ages, and not just some bauble able to be whipped up by any two-bit hedge wizard.

For the price your listing you could literally buy a mythral buckler and enchant it to give a total +4. And frankly how often are you going to see magic missile? I'm not defending the item really (I've long since shrugged and written down the Ring of Force shield) but I think doubling and doubling is a little extreme

Yes, you could. But Bucklers still take up a Shield slot, and depending on what actions you take or your build, simply using a Buckler (such as Dervish Dance Magi) may not be an option to use. Also note that using a hand that a Mithril Buckler attaches to outright blocks the AC bonus, a restriction not shared by the hypothetical Ring of Shield, and that +4 AC is fairly frontloaded in the earlier levels where it is commonplace.

I stated that it was strictly from a mathematical standpoint from what you're comparing it to, so if we extrapolated from that ideal, then it would be worth about that much, and based on how much cheese can be dealt with it, that even that price isn't low enough.

As for Magic Missile, people use it as a means of interrupting spellcasts all the time because they cheese the mechanics of the spell by consolidating all the damage from each missile into a check. I've also seen it used across all levels of play, whether for this purpose, or for just raw damage, so it's a lot more commonplace than you think it is.

Ultimate Campaign contains the following:

Example: Patrick's wizard wants to create bracers with a continuous mage armor ability, granting the wearer a +4 armor bonus to AC. The formula indicates this would cost 2,000 gp (spell level 1, caster level 1). Jessica reminds him that bracers of armor +4 are priced at 16,000 gp and Patrick's bracers should have that price as well. Patrick agrees, and because he only has 2,000 gp to spend, he decides to spend 1,000 gp of that to craft bracers of armor +1 using the standard bracer prices.

The same general idea would also apply to an item of shield. It is worth 16000gp minimum. Immunity to magic missiles should also cost something. A brooch of shielding costs 1500gp and protects from 101 points of magic missile damage (average 28-29 missiles). Outright immunity would cost more than that.

The correct way to price an item is by comparing its abilities to similar items (see Magic Item Gold Piece Values), and only if there are no similar items should you use the pricing formulas to determine an approximate price for the item. If you discover a loophole that allows an item to have an ability for a much lower price than is given for a comparable item in the Core Rulebook, the GM should require using the price of the Core Rulebook item, as that is the standard cost for such an effect. Most of these loopholes stem from trying to get unlimited uses per day of a spell effect from "command word" or "use-activated or continuous" descriptions.

The item most similar to a continuous shield spell is a +4 suit of armor/shield. So it costs roughly the same as that.

A Shield bonus is harder to get than an Armor bonus. You can get +4 AC from Mage Armor pretty easily (a 50gp potion lasts for an hour). But getting +4 to AC that stacks with full plate mail and a greatsword is harder - 32,000gp for a Ring of Protection +4, for example.

So I'd price this at around 40,000gp.

I'd also ballpark the 32000-40000gp range:
A +4 shield bonus should be 16k if it takes up a hand; making it effectively slotless doubles the cost to 32k. tack on about 2k for the magic missile immunity and call it 34000 gp.

Always on shield bonuses are balanced as the tradeoff for not using two hands to attack. Getting around that tradeoff should be costly.

Okay so as written this would cost (1 X 1 X 2000) X 2 ([Level 1 X Level 1 Spell X 2000] X 2). So 4,000 for a continues +4 Shield Bounce and immunity to Magic Missile.

Now is this balanced considering that ring of Force Shield is 8,500 for a +2 AC and forces you to hold the heavy shield losing out on a free hand. Now technically this would not matter for spells as you can activate and deactivate it as a free action. You can also shield bash with the force ring.

So is the shield item fair? Or is it a case of a constant true strike ability and its just too OP. The big problem is the math for the other bounces dose not work either as it either validates or way over prices.

You should use the formula for AC bonuses and compare that instead.

"Bonus squared × 1,000 gp"
4(squared) x 1000=16 x 1000=16000

then ad-hoc the magic missile immunity.

Edit: Whether this item is slotless or not would also matter.

For the price your listing you could literally buy a mythral buckler and enchant it to give a total +4.

That's the point. Items that provide similar benefit should cost roughly the same thing. The table is the last thing you're supposed to use to figure out the price of a custom magic item. The first thing you're supposed to do is compare it to existing items. The tables are there for guidance while in uncharted territory, not to enable cheap shortcuts.

The closest match I can think of would be a +3 animated mythril buckler, which would cost 25,000 gp, but even that has the limitation that it can only work hands-free at the cost of a move action every eight rounds and only actually functioning that way half the time. So there'd be markup from there too. I'd allow it for 50,000 gp.

I've often said before, in dozens of threads like this one, is that what the magic item creation rules lack is a much-needed order of operations, something like:

1. If the item provides a numerical bonus, ALWAYS use the numerical bonus pricing rules (and then they'd list every possible numerical bonus type and what they can apply to).

2. For non-numerical continuous spell effects, the cost is 2,000 gp* x spell level x caster level x duration multiplier (x4 for 1 rd./level, x2 for 1 min./level, x1.5 for 10 min./level, 1x for 1 hr./level).

3. For items that neither provide a numerical bonus nor duplicate a spell effect, look harder for an analogous spell, because spells in PF can do anything and I guarantee there's one out there.

*I'd actually argue that half that would be more reasonable.

The correct way to price an item is by comparing its abilities to similar items (see Magic Item Gold Piece Values), and only if there are no similar items should you use the pricing formulas to determine an approximate price for the item. If you discover a loophole that allows an item to have an ability for a much lower price than is given for a comparable item in the Core Rulebook, the GM should require using the price of the Core Rulebook item, as that is the standard cost for such an effect. Most of these loopholes stem from trying to get unlimited uses per day of a spell effect from "command word" or "use-activated or continuous" descriptions.

Example: Rob's cleric wants to create a heavy mace with a continuous true strike ability, granting its wielder a +20 insight bonus on attack rolls. The formula for a continuous spell effect is spell level × caster level × 2,000 gp, for a total of 2,000 gp (spell level 1, caster level 1). Jessica, the GM, points out that a +5 enhancement bonus on a weapon costs 50,000 gp, and the +20 bonus from true strike is much better than the +5 bonus from standard weapon enhancement, and suggests a price of 200,000 gp for the mace. Rob agrees that using the formula in this way is unreasonable and decides to craft a +1 heavy mace using the standard weapon pricing rules instead.

Example: Patrick's wizard wants to create bracers with a continuous mage armor ability, granting the wearer a +4 armor bonus to AC. The formula indicates this would cost 2,000 gp (spell level 1, caster level 1). Jessica reminds him that bracers of armor +4 are priced at 16,000 gp and Patrick's bracers should have that price as well. Patrick agrees, and because he only has 2,000 gp to spend, he decides to spend 1,000 gp of that to craft bracers of armor +1 using the standard bracer prices.

Some new items are really existing magic items with a different weapon or armor type, such as a dagger of venom that is a rapier instead of a dagger or a lion's shield that's a wooden shield instead of a metal shield. For these items, just replace the price of the nonmagical masterwork item with the cost of the new type of item. For example, a rapier of venom has a price of 8,320 gp instead of the dagger of venom's price of 8,302 gp.

The correct way to price an item is by comparing its abilities to similar items (see Magic Item Gold Piece Values), and only if there are no similar items should you use the pricing formulas to determine an approximate price for the item.

OP: You used the formula before looking at similar items, then used the wrong formula.

But what is my total Shield Bonus?

Furthermore, this magic shield can be enhanced and improved through various means. It can be enchanted with additional magical properties, such as elemental resistances or the ability to reflect a percentage of the damage back to the attacker. These enhancements make the shield even more formidable and increase the resilience of the caster. To cast the Pathfinder Magic Shield, the caster must possess a certain level of magical proficiency and knowledge. They must be able to harness and manipulate mana effectively, as well as perform the necessary incantations and gestures required to summon the shield. In conclusion, the Pathfinder Magic Shield is a potent defensive spell that provides a significant boost to the caster's defense. Its ability to protect against physical and magical attacks, as well as its versatility and potential for enhancement, make it a highly sought-after spell among adventurers in the Pathfinder role-playing game and similar fantasy tabletop games..

Reviews for "The Pathfinder Magic Shield in Popular Culture: A Look at its Influence"

1. John - 1/5 stars - The Pathfinder magic shield was a complete disappointment for me. First of all, the quality of the materials used was subpar. The shield felt cheap and flimsy, more like a toy than a functional piece of equipment. Additionally, I found that the shield did not provide enough protection during battles. It was easily pierced by even the weakest of attacks, leaving me vulnerable and unprotected. Overall, I do not recommend the Pathfinder magic shield to anyone looking for a reliable and durable protective gear.

2. Emily - 2/5 stars - I was really excited to try out the Pathfinder magic shield, but unfortunately, it did not meet my expectations. The shield's design appeared promising, with intricate patterns and a unique shape. However, the practicality of the shield was lacking. It felt heavy and cumbersome, making it difficult to maneuver in battle. Furthermore, the shield's magical abilities were underwhelming. It did not offer any additional defense or special abilities that would have justified the higher price. Overall, I felt let down by the Pathfinder magic shield and would not recommend it to serious adventurers.

3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I purchased the Pathfinder magic shield with high hopes, but it ultimately fell short of my expectations. The shield's enchantments were weak and did not provide any noticeable advantages in combat. I also experienced difficulty in properly using the shield due to its awkward size and weight distribution. It seemed to hinder my movement rather than enhance my defense. Additionally, the shield's cost was much higher than other similar products on the market, making it even more disappointing. Overall, I regretted my purchase of the Pathfinder magic shield and would advise others to explore alternative options.

Setting the Standard: The Role of the Pathfinder Magic Shield in Medieval Warfare