Shield cantrip

[Charlaquin]

There are plenty of ways for a wizard to get shield proffeciency with RAW, and I'm fine with all of them. I'm also fine with house-ruling, if you feel like it. But I still really don't understand what any of that has to do with a cantrip that either shields the caster to increase ac, or as I suggested; blinds an enemy to reduce his attack value

What it has to do with it is that shield proficiency gives you the same benefit that this hypothetical cantrip would give, and doesn’t cost a reaction to use. So, if you think shield proficiency is fair for a wizard to be able to access, why would you not think this hypothetical cantrip would be fair for a wizard to be able to access as well?

First of all I don't see any reason for that cantrip when Shield already exists. It's already a super good spell that fills it role. Second, though I agree there could be more choices when it comes to cantrips that use reactions or bonus actions I also think they should be relativly limited in their power, so there is still a choice that has to be made and not push other options out the window. They are also going to be pretty much free at lower levels, as far as action-economy is concerned, so you can almost always expect a wizard to pop this cantrip every round below lvl 5. That's just to much, I think, unless you are also going to think up a a whole bunch of special martial techniques that give the poor fighters\ monks and barbs some more options.

I don’t know why the OP wants to make such a cantrip either, but it doesn’t much matter. If it’s something someone wants in their game, fine. You seem to be hung up on it “doing too much” for a cantrip, which was the point of my comparison to shield proficiency. It’s evidently not “doing too much” for a shield to give +2 AC at-will, so why does the fact that it’s a cantrip make it too much?

 

[Staffan]

Let me see what kind of defensive reactive abilities there already are in the game:

* Spirit Shield (Barbarian - Ancestral Guardian): reduce damage. Only while raging.
* Cutting Words (Bard - College of Lore): reduce attack roll. Uses resource (bardic inspiration).
* Combat Inspiration (Bard - College of Valor): allows recipient of bardic inspiration to increase AC against a specific attack. Uses resource (already granted bardic inspiration).
* Sentinel at Death's Door (Cleric - Grave domain): turn a critical hit into a normal hit. Usable Wismod times/long rest.
* Warding Flare and later Improved Flare (Cleric - Light domain): Inflict disadvantage on an attack against you and later against someone else. Usable Wismod times/long rest.
* Dampen Elements (Cleric - Nature domain): give an ally resistance against a particular type of elemental damage for the instant of that attack. Highly situational.
* Protection fighting style (Fighters and Paladins with the fighting style): Inflict disadvantage on an attack directed at an ally within 5 ft. Requires a shield, and highly situational.
* Parry maneuver (Fighter - Battlemaster): Reduce damage by one superiority die. Uses resource (superiority dice).
* Warding maneuver (Fighter - Cavalier): Increase AC against one attack directed at self or adjacent ally by 1d8. Usable Conmod times/long rest.
* Deflect Missiles (Monk): Reduce damage from a ranged attack by 1d10+Dexmod+level. Highly situational.
* Aura of the Guardian (Paladin - Oath of Redemption): Transfer damage from ally to self.
* Shadowy Dodge (Ranger - Gloomstalker): Inflict disadvantage on one attack that doesn't have advantage. Very high-level ability.
* Spectral Defense (Ranger - Horizon walker): Gain resistance to damage from one attack. Very high-level ability.
* Uncanny Dodge (Ranger - Hunter or Rogue): Gain resistance to one attack you can see. Very high-level ability for ranger.
* Bend Luck (Sorerer - Wild Mage): Add/subtract from (among other things) an attack roll made nearby. Uses resource (sorcery points).
* Tomb of Levistus (Warlock invocation): Adds 10 temp hp/level but at the cost of your next turn. Once per short rest.
* Entropic Ward (Warlock - Great Old One patron): Impose disadvantage on one attack. Once per short rest.
* Armor of Hexes (Warlock - Hexblade patron): 50% chance to negate an attack by cursed foe. Only works on target of Hexblade's Curse, which is once/short rest.
* Instinctive Charm (Wizard - School of Enchantment): Might redirect an attack to another foe. Once foe successfully saves, that foe is immune to this ability until a long rest.
* Illusory Self (Wizard - School of Illusion): Negate one attack per short rest.
* Arcane Deflection (Wizard - School of War Magic): +2 AC or +4 to a save vs one attack/spell, at the cost of not being able to cast non-cantrips during your next turn.
* Shield spell: +5 AC until the start of your next turn. Uses resource: 1st-level spell slot.
* Absorb elements spell: Resistance against an element until the start of your next turn. Uses resource: 1st-level spell slot.

So what we can see from these examples is that almost all examples of reactive defensive abilities are limited by some resource, either by having its own counter or using some other resource (e.g. spell slots or inspiration dice), or they are highly situational (e.g. only against ranged attacks, only protects adjacent allies). The exceptions to this are either high-level abilities, only reduce but not negate damage, or limit your future actions.

I think the best model of these to use for a cantrip-level shield-type spell would be Arcane Deflection: +2 AC versus the triggering attack, and you can't cast non-cantrips on your next turn.

 

[BacchusNL]

so why does the fact that it’s a cantrip make it too much?

Because shield proffeciencies on casters ussualy costs either feats or multi-classing (ussualy both or several feats since you almost always need warcaster aswell). The shield spell costs spell slots. A cantrip is free...Pretty big difference and obvious stuff, my dude.

 

[LordEntrails]

Yea, I don't like this. All it does is something the Shield spell already does.

How about 'Deflection' cantrip. Uses a reaction with self as the target and deflect a magic missile attack away making it harmless?

 

[cbwjm]

If all it does is deflect magic missiles then it would be a little too weak for a cantrip and would be a waste of a cantrip slot.

 

[Charlaquin]

Because shield proffeciencies on casters ussualy costs either feats or multi-classing (ussualy both or several feats since you almost always need warcaster aswell). The shield spell costs spell slots. A cantrip is free...Pretty big difference and obvious stuff, my dude.

See, this would have been a better argument to start with, rather than pretending you didn’t know why I was bringing up shield proficiency. And it’s a fair argument. Personally, I feel the opportunity cost of the cantrip slot would be cost enough, but I’m happy to agree to disagree about that if you are.

 

[BacchusNL]

See, this would have been a better argument to start with, rather than pretending you didn’t know why I was bringing up shield proficiency. And it’s a fair argument. Personally, I feel the opportunity cost of the cantrip slot would be cost enough, but I’m happy to agree to disagree about that if you are.

Fair enough. Something else I probably should have mentioned aswell is that I ussualy try to get custom feats or spells on a level that could see print in an official book. I think there is a good reason there are no reaction or bonus action cantrips in RAW atm, and if we ever see them they will probably be quite limited in use. Even if it just affects a single, non-magical, melee attack as a reaction it's a very quick inclusion for every cantrip caster that doesn't care much about fluff like presidigitation and co. because there is just nothing that it competes with atm.

I kinda run into the same problem whenever I think about wether True Strike should be a bonus action or not. On the one hand it would pretty much fix all the issues of the spell, on the other I think it would become such an obvious choice that it really starts to outshine a lot of other classes and options.

 

[LordEntrails]

If all it does is deflect magic missiles then it would be a little too weak for a cantrip and would be a waste of a cantrip slot.

Sounds perfect to me. Or at least better than being too powerful. I err on the side of less useful rather than more useful for homebrew.

As mentioned by another, it would be the only reaction cantrip.

 

[cbwjm]

Sounds perfect to me. Or at least better than being too powerful. I err on the side of less useful rather than more useful for homebrew.

As mentioned by another, it would be the only reaction cantrip.

Which wouldn't be howbrew worth introducing if all it did was block magic missiles. Defending against a single spell isn't worth the cantrip slot.

 

[LordEntrails]

Which wouldn't be howbrew worth introducing if all it did was block magic missiles. Defending against a single spell isn't worth the cantrip slot.

Agreed. But better than replacing an existing ability/spell with something more powerful than RAW.