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<blockquote data-quote="fearsomepirate" data-source="post: 8245275" data-attributes="member: 7021420">Because shield proficiency is a class feature of fighters. It's not a class feature of wizards or monks. On the flip side, it would be perfectly reasonable for, say, an amulet that allows any wearer to cast Detect Magic and Identify as rituals, an extremely mundane task for wizards, to require attunement. It would be perfectly reasonable for a belt that allows you to take the Dodge action as a bonus action three times per day, something that monks get merely for existing, require attunement.If you're not proficient, no, you can't. The penalties for wearing armor you're not proficient in are severe. You're basically crippled:Bracers of defense don't impose those penalties. This makes them, for the classes that can use them, infinitely better than a suit of +3 plate armor. We might also note that your argument applies to Frost Brand. It's a rather useless item for a typical STR-dumping sorcerer, worse than a cantrip with its 1d8+1d6-1 damage and weak attack...that is, not unlike a Fighter losing AC if he wears the Bracers, a Sorcerer loses damage if he uses Frost Brand instead of Ray of Frost. But, for a Fighter, it's very good. We should also note that, unlike a Ring of Protection, a Fighter is never going to insist that the Bracers of Defense are rightfully his, due to taking most of the hits in battle. A non-armor class will actually get them, for sure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="fearsomepirate, post: 8245275, member: 7021420"] Because shield proficiency is a class feature of fighters. It's not a class feature of wizards or monks. On the flip side, it would be perfectly reasonable for, say, an amulet that allows any wearer to cast Detect Magic and Identify as rituals, an extremely mundane task for wizards, to require attunement. It would be perfectly reasonable for a belt that allows you to take the Dodge action as a bonus action three times per day, something that monks get merely for existing, require attunement. If you're not proficient, no, you can't. The penalties for wearing armor you're not proficient in are [I]severe[/I]. You're basically crippled: Bracers of defense don't impose those penalties. This makes them, for the classes that can use them, infinitely better than a suit of +3 plate armor. We might also note that your argument applies to Frost Brand. It's a rather useless item for a typical STR-dumping sorcerer, worse than a cantrip with its 1d8+1d6-1 damage and weak attack...that is, not unlike a Fighter losing AC if he wears the Bracers, a Sorcerer loses damage if he uses Frost Brand instead of Ray of Frost. But, for a Fighter, it's very good. We should also note that, unlike a Ring of Protection, a Fighter is never going to insist that the Bracers of Defense are rightfully his, due to taking most of the hits in battle. A non-armor class will actually get them, for sure. [/QUOTE]

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