Divine Shield question

[karash]

Divine Shield allows you to use a turn undead attempt to add your charisma modifier as an enhancement bonus to your shield. Does this mean you only get a max of +5 bonus from this feat since it's an enhancement bonus?

Thanks

 

[Artoomis]

Divine Shield allows you to use a turn undead attempt to add your charisma modifier as an enhancement bonus to your shield. Does this mean you only get a max of +5 bonus from this feat since it's an enhancement bonus?

Thanks

No. It's not a magical item, so it does not follow the magical item rules. It more like a spell.

 

[hammymchamham]

Yep, and no limit is placed on it, like Magic Vestment or Greater Magical Weapon.

 

[karash]

Ok, let's see if I understand this correctly.

If I have a +2 Large Steel Shield and use the Divine Shield feat with a charisma modifier of +6, what is the effective AC of my shield then? Do they stack?

Thanks

 

[RigaMortus]

I will take a guess and say the bonus would be +6. The +2 from the Shield and +6 from Charisma are both enhancement bonuses (once it is applied to the shield via Divine Shield). Since like-bonuses do not stack, the higher one overwrites it.

 

[hammymchamham]

+8! +6 from your charisma, as an enhancement bonus. And its a large steel shield, so it would be another 2. Of course the +2 enhancement part of the shield is overlapped by the +6 from Charisma

 

[RigaMortus]

I was in "fight with a shield" mode, not "protect with a shield" mode.

So yes, with the Shield's own AC, it would be +8 to AC total.

If you did a Shield Bash, it would be +6 from the Cha bonus (not counting whatever penalities you may get from using the shield as an off-hand weapon and/or non-proficiency).

 

[Legildur]

I figured that the enhancement bonus would be limited to +5?

Greater Magic Weapon and Magic Vestment are capped to +5. Magic armor and shield enhancement bonuses are capped to +5 (special abilities notwithstanding).

Does Divine Shield override these restrictions? I wouldn't have thought so.

A house rule could be to allow the excess/wasted Cha points to be used to power a special ability for the shield......

 

[Hypersmurf]

Does Divine Shield override these restrictions? I wouldn't have thought so.

It's not clear.

The SRD section on magic items says that "Magic armor bonuses are referred to as enhancement bonuses, never rise above +5, and stack with regular armor bonuses" and "Magic weapons have enhancement bonuses ranging from +1 to +5".

Pre-ELH, I would have said there was a stronger case for saying "Divine Shield caps at +5". Post-ELH, it gets murkier, since +6 or better items do exist.

It's up to how your DM interprets the phrase "enhancement bonuses never rise above +5". If he considers that a limitation of the Craft Arms and Armor feat, you're fine. If he considers that a limitation on enhancement bonuses to weapons and armor, it caps.

-Hyp.

 

[Trine]

Defenders of the Faith wasn't created with the Epic Level Handbook in mind. So I'd ignore all material within the ELH when considering the feat.

The DMG breaks its own "rule" on the limit of the enhancement bonuses with the Sword of Kas. Granted, that is a major artifact, so I guess it's to be expected that it could break some "rules".

That said, it probably should be limited. It seems odd to me that the restriction wasn't written into it, as they made sure to restrict all other effects that give an enhancement bonus to items in the core rules. Bleah.