D&D (2024) Is Shield to strong of a spell? Should and how would it be changed for OneD&D?

[ECMO3]

That isn't my experience. PCs do not waltz through all fights unharmed, and I am absolutely able to apply resource pressure -- it just doesn't happen continuously in every case, which exacerbates the effectiveness of casters in general.

My party is at level 15. They have access to the kinds of magic items you would expect them to have at that level. The characters in my game who have access to shield have an AC of 15 (poorly-optimised single class), 18 (well-optimised single class), and 22 (multiclass). They generally face enemies with an attack bonus of +7 (minion, CR ~6) to +15 (CR >20), with +11 (normal for CR 15 or for a standard GMM leveled enemy) being the most common. I use both official enemies and those made with Giffyglyph's much more accurate and powerful Monster Maker.

A +7 bonus hits AC 15/18/22 exactly 65/50/30% of the time. With shield, this becomes 50/25/5%.

With a +11, this becomes 85/70/50% without shield, or 60/45/25% with.

At the rare and extreme +15, it's 100/85/70% without, or 80/65/45% with.

I don't think shield is a problem with the 15 AC character; it's clearly too powerful on AC 22 (not hard to do, with plate + a shield + 1-2 magic items). On AC 18, it is observably very strong.


This is incorrect:


As an aside:

This means that shield only needs to be cast in those situations when a character has actually been threatened, then hit, and then the player has decided that they don't want to take damage. Whether or not damage is rolled first is not particularly important, since you generally know whether a monster is going to hit hard or not, and whether your health is low.

As I said before: it's not game-breaking. Like most things in 5e, it's poorly designed but can be finessed with a bit of work.

I don't agree it is "too powerful" and there are plenty of ways to damage PCs without relying on attack rolls. There are also plenty of ways to steal reactions so they can't use shield.

Having a super high AC is very beneficial and the numbers you quoted can be buffed even further with spells like protection from evil and good or blur. I played a bladesinger that went multiple levels without being hit with an attack at all in combat (like level 4-8 or something like that) and she was the primary front liner in the party taking more attacks than anyone. It was not uncommon for enemies to need double twenties (20 with disadvantage) to hit her. At 13th level my bladesinger went toe-to-toe with Bel in melee 1-v-1 and was very effective.

That said a CR6 Vrock would take her to the cleaners with their scream and her weak con save.

 

[pnewman]

Change it for One D&D by making it at +PB to AC, not +5. This keeps it weaker at most levels and follows the "everything is tied to PB in some way" fetish of WOTC's.