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<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7162906" data-attributes="member: 12731">The harder the opposition, the more value of defense.That is, as long as your offense defeats the foes before they destroy you, you don't need a better defense. In fact you're better off increasing your offense as the optimal way to end the fight less damaged. Only if you would end up dead before your offense finishes off the enemy do you need to sacrifice offense for defense.Now, the sad reality is that D&amp;D isn't geared toward fights difficult enough to grind you down from healthy to dead in one fight, so offense will always trump defense.Put bluntly, it is an error to focus on defense under these circumstances. Choose offense instead, since ending the fight earlier is the best way of not taking any more damage.With this in mind, it should be easy to see how the shield is undervalued in 5e. Even without feats.But crucially: there's a reason for this! Fights where both sides go on the offensive are fast and fun.So I'm really not suggesting defense gets a boost. It's better for players to realize it's there mostly as a world-building prop for NPCs to use.As a player character, you mostly don't need it, and you shouldn't reduce risk even if you did, since that reduces excitement and combat speed.Apologies for telling such frank truth bombs, but there you have it.Sent from my C6603 using <a href="http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=93205" target="_blank">EN World mobile app</a></blockquote>

[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 7162906, member: 12731"] The harder the opposition, the more value of defense. That is, as long as your offense defeats the foes before they destroy you, you don't need a better defense. In fact you're better off increasing your offense as the optimal way to end the fight less damaged. Only if you would end up dead before your offense finishes off the enemy do you need to sacrifice offense for defense. Now, the sad reality is that D&D isn't geared toward fights difficult enough to grind you down from healthy to dead in one fight, so offense will always trump defense. Put bluntly, it is an error to focus on defense under these circumstances. Choose offense instead, since ending the fight earlier is the best way of not taking any more damage. With this in mind, it should be easy to see how the shield is undervalued in 5e. Even without feats. But crucially: there's a reason for this! Fights where both sides go on the offensive are fast and fun. So I'm really not suggesting defense gets a boost. It's better for players to realize it's there mostly as a world-building prop for NPCs to use. As a player character, you mostly don't need it, and you shouldn't reduce risk even if you did, since that reduces excitement and combat speed. Apologies for telling such frank truth bombs, but there you have it. Sent from my C6603 using [URL=http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=93205]EN World mobile app[/URL] [/QUOTE]

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