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

[tetrasodium]

It's still only 1 round. If I'm casting Shield, I do want to be pretty unhittable for that round, otherwise it wouldn't be a particularly interesting spell.

Most fights only last like two or three rounds max and many will last less... Its a blue turtle shell or star power for half the track& a first level slot is effectively zero cost given the return

 

[Arilyn]

At my table, Shield gets prepped occasionally but it's not super common. When it is cast, it has never felt particularly overpowering. It's solidly useful. When I play a spellcasters, it's often on my list of potential spells to learn or prep, but usually gets passed over.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

When I think of shield cast as a reaction, I imagine an anime character casually deflecting a blast with a gesture. It's used narratively to show how powerful a character is compared to their attacker.

So, perhaps the spell should scale. As a first level spell, it's +2 AC, but if cast at higher levels provides an additional +1 AC per level.

 

[Yaarel]

My impression is, the Shield spell is balanced at low levels where it must compete with other spells for the slot. But it becomes more concerning at high levels when having more 1st-slots can cast it more frequently and casually. Bounded accuracy keeps the AC bonus from the spell effective at higher tiers.

Oddly, Shield is one of the 1st-slot spells that become more powerful in later levels.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

A reason why I'm thinking of Shield being potentially powerful, is that it's something Bards can get without Magical Secrets. Maybe a Lore Bard won't be going into the fray, but Courage or Sword Bards would. It won't make any type of Bard a primary "Tank", but now those Bards can become a secondary one at least when combined with Medium Armor, Dex and a handheld shield, which I guess is fine for them. Using the Shield spell means they can't prevent a party member from dying with Bardic Inspiration.

But it was something that an Eldritch Knight Fighter could always do (and do it better).

 

[Yaarel]

A reason why I'm thinking of Shield being potentially powerful, is that it's something Bards can get without Magical Secrets. Maybe a Lore Bard won't be going into the fray, but Courage or Sword Bards would. It won't make any type of Bard a primary "Tank", but now those Bards can become a secondary one at least when combined with Medium Armor, Dex and a handheld shield, which I guess is fine for them. Using the Shield spell means they can't prevent a party member from dying with Bardic Inspiration.

But it was something that an Eldritch Knight Fighter could always do (and do it better).

Updated Spell Schools can help here.

The Shield spell is a force construct, and relates to the theme of force, relating to telekinesis, gravity, fly, force damage Magic Missile, and so on. None of these thematic spells belong on the Bard spell list. If they all belong to the same force-theme School, Conjuration, then it is easy for the Bard class to not include any Conjuration spells.

 

[Willie the Duck]

For games where the number of challenges approximate the 6-8 encounters*, Shield is fine for regular ~AC 12** (15 with Mage Armor, an additional expenditure) wizards boosting their ACs to ~17/20 for a round (there are just too many cases where the boost isn't enough that you can't rely upon it), as well as for Eldritch Knights who boost their ~17-21 AC to 22-26 (EKs just never get all that many spell slots, if they spend them all on situational AC boosts it is perfectly reasonable, and if they also have a physical shield they need war caster as well). Also some other straightforward (right out of the book) ways that people get shield (ex: hexblade warlock, where a spell slot per SR becomes a huge expenditure).
*and the whole policing the 5-minute workday is a very real issue, but one I consider larger than just this one spell.
**all ACs with the parenthetical "plus potentially a few more if you have rings or protection or the like'

Where things break down is 1) the aforementioned workday issues, and 2) all the other situations where PCs with relatively large spellcasting pools also have ACs in the 17+ or so range (Cleric or Artificer1/Wizard X-1, various races with armor proficiency or armor-replacement AC, various ways to borrow spells from other classes, etc.). That's where things kinda go off the rails. It also means that various ways to pick up spells can't or shouldn't be included (or at least it will have interesting consequences), and that potentially has constraining issues on the game design -- examples might be how there is no equivalent to Fey Touched/Shadow Touched feats, but for abjuration*; or how one D&D is giving Bards (including presumably the well-armored valor bards) the arcane caster list, but not abjuration (losing them dispels).
*the Dragonlance UA had some, but who knows where that lands

All in all, Shield doesn't strike me as one of the worst offenders in the poorly-thought-through spells, but I would rather the implementation have been different. Mostly because of the constraint in other design aspect. I think workday and MC dips are something that the game overall needs to address (if nothing else move Multiclassing to the DMG and put warning labels around).

 

[beancounter]

It's a decent spell, but is only good for one hit, so IMO, it's not OP.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

My impression is, the Shield spell is balanced at low levels where it must compete with other spells for the slot. But it becomes more concerning at high levels when having more 1st-slots can cast it more frequently and casually. Bounded accuracy keeps the AC bonus from the spell effective at higher tiers.

Oddly, Shield is one of the 1st-slot spells that become more powerful in later levels.

Shield, Charm and Tasha's all work at level 20 as well as they did as at 1st in my experience...

 

[Mistwell]

I've never felt shield was all that great in 5e. Sure you can be super defensive for a round, but then the next round the enemies are still there and now you are one spell down.

A better use of a spell is to prevent the attack in the first place by killing the enemy or keeping the from attacking you entirely.

Shield is a reaction so it's when you're suddenly in trouble not on your own turn. On your own turn you can get away using the disengage action or misty step or thunderstep or whatever.