Please Evaluate this Spell

[The_Warlock]

Interesting spell...

I stick with mithral - all around, it's a cheaper component for a 6th level spell, but still costly, and the hardness is good, without being overwhelming.

Keep it at 6th for 1 hour/level or make it 5th at 1 or 10 minutes per/level (ie, a 6th level version is a daily prep version, a 5th level version is "Where did that pit fiend come from" version).

To be precise, the shield doesn't have damage reduction - it has hardness. Make sure that is spelled out in the text of the spell - certain attacks or energy types ignore or reduce the effectiveness of hardness of an item - adamantine for instance. Thus this spell, like stoneskin, is fantastic right up until a guy with an adamantite sword or some unique creature ability walks up and attacks - half the damage is transfered to the shield - but if the damage from the attack type ignores hardness, you can have it ignore the shield's hardness. This is a more consistent implementation, and gives you the DM a way to have NPCs interact intelligently and strategically against the mage in question.

I agree with the concept that stoneskin, if in effect, would apply first.

Generally people don't wear a shield on their back - they carry it off their backpack (I've worn a shield on my back - unconfortable, and my arms were restricted from full movement). So, either he needs to change the spell to carry the shield on their person (ie, not in an extradimensional space) or wear it - and the proper way to wear a shield is on one's arm - thus suffering the arcane casting penalties. If he wants to "wear" it incorrectly (ie, on his back) he should still suffer the penalties since it will interfere with his movement.

I'd probably also state that this spell cannot be in effect at the same time as Shield Other, or any other beneficial damage transference spell, and that only the highest level one remains in effect (if only to avoid a potential HP bookkeeping nightmare of who suffers what hit points in which order).

The spell states that the shield can be repaired. One thing to think about is, are there spells in your campaign that repair objects hit point totals (a la -repair minor/light/etc damage- from the 3.0 Tome and Blood splatbook). Because then, repairing the shield costs NOTHING but any spell components for the repair spell. Welcome to the cheap, endless loop of repair, unless the shield loses all hit points - at which point, you have your cleric cast Make Whole on the chunks, and the shield is good as new. So, repair costs are not a limiting factor for this spell if the characters are already of high enough level to cast item repair spells. At the very least, the shield should not be repairable while the damage transference spell is in effect. If you "heal" the shield of it's current damage, the damage transference spell immediately ends.

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Make Whole
Transmutation
Level: Clr 2
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One object of up to 10 cu. ft./ level
This spell functions like mending, except that make whole completely repairs an object made of any substance, even one with multiple breaks, to be as strong as new. The spell does not restore the magical abilities of a broken magic item made whole, and it cannot mend broken magic rods, staffs, or wands. The spell does not repair items that have been warped, burned, disintegrated, ground to powder, melted, or vaporized, nor does it affect creatures (including constructs).
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Given that "physical" attacks hardly ever warp, burn, disintegrate, grind to powder, melt or vaporize - your mage never needs to spend money after purchasing his first shield simply due to the damage absorption of this spell.

Also, you should be very clear on "physical" attacks. It might be better to reference the stoneskin spell with its "stabs, cuts,..." definition, so that he doesn't finagle the concept of "well acid is defined as an energy but really it's a physical substance and so it's doing physical damage to me, so I should be able to have the shield soak the damage from Melf's Acid Arrow - and if I can do that, I should be able to have it soak other acid spells - and hey, acid spittle and breath weapons...etc, etc, etc."

That's all I can think of at the moment...

The One Warlock

 

[Cheiromancer]

First of all, a light steel shield has an Arcane Spell Failure of only 5%, and mithral reduces ASF by 10%. No armor check penalties either; the -1 penalty is reduced by 3 (to a minimum of 0) by the mithral. So the wizard can and should wield the mithral shield normally for the spell to work.

Second, the shield is a material component, not a focus; it is consumed by the spell. Unlike a normal material component, the shield seems to hang around for the duration of the spell, but it should still disappear. Remember that stoneskin has a material component of 250 gp, gives DR 10/adamantine until it absorbs a maximum of 150 points of damage, and lasts 10 minutes per level. If the proposed spell is substantially better than this, it should have a correspondingly more expensive material component, maybe 1000 gp or so: in other words, it is balanced and appropriate that the mithral shield disappear at the end of the spell's duration.

How effective the spell is, is difficult to say. A light steel shield has only 10 hp, and so effects which bypass the hardness will quickly destroy it. A single blow (of 20+ hp) by an adamantine weapon could do it. But against non-adamantine attacks a character who receives blows doing 30 hp or less will not have to worry about the shield (the half that the shield takes would be absorbed by its hardness). If he takes 50 hp of damage (or more) from an attack, however, the shield is instantly destroyed. But the wizard will probably live, since he took only half of the 50 hp damage; effectively he benefited by a DR of at least 25/- against that single attack. I think that DR 25+/- against a single big attack is worth 1000 gp and a sixth level spell slot.

My recommendations:

1. The 24 hour duration is fine. It is the cost of all day protection against a single big attack. 1/2 damage against other smaller attacks is just gravy.
2. A stoneskin spell acts on the incoming damage (before it is split); ie. a 40 hp incoming attack is reduced by 10, and wizard and shield both take 15 damage
3. A shield other overlaps with this spell. The wizard takes 1/2 damage (which is what he normally gets- no benefit to the wizard), and the caster of shield other also takes 1/2 damage (as per the shield other spell description). And the shield also takes half damage (by the description of the KET). So the shield other is entirely useless.
4. The shield can be magically repaired during the spell duration. But if it is entirely destroyed the spell ends.
5. The mithral shield disappears when the spell expires.

Good spell. I don't like the name, but it seems to be balanced.

 

[fourthmensch]

Second, the shield is a material component, not a focus; it is consumed by the spell.

You know, that never even crossed my mind. That makes the spell seem much more reasonable--preventing it from being a permanent doubling of the wizard's hp for a very reasonable outlay of cash.

Thing is, I don't think the wizard thought of this either. I have a feeling that he's going to be disappointed once he remembers that material components are consumed by the spell.

To be precise, the shield doesn't have damage reduction

Good catch. I'll make a note of that.

So the basic consensus seems to be that the spell is all right, but the name sucks

 

[Gustave Arcanus]

Time To Make My Mark... Again.

Okay, I've been playing spellcasters for some time now, and have posted at threads here before (including Khaalis's new Sorcerer variant).

Now that we've been properly introduced, let's get down to business. I do agree with Vrecknidj about the 5th-level tagging. It's not good enough to be a 6th-level spell (come on, does it really stand up to disintegrate?). And don't require a given type of shield, either. Let the character use steel or even bronze if they have to. It just won't hold up as well as adamantine, cutting the duration short. And as expensive as the mythril and adamantine shields are to begin with, I'd allow the shield use as a focus, not a material component. Lots of 5th-level and higher spells are riddled with expensive focus components.

And if you're really concerned about PC abuse with spells such as the Repair series (which works only on Constructs), Mending (which is valid, if it hadn't taken too much, I'd say 1d6 HP per casting isn't bad for repairs, and require them to have the material with them), and Make Whole (which any object taking more than half its HP in damage would require IMHO), then give the spell an XP cost. Considering its level, it shouldn't be too much, say 10 XP per casting. And make it last 10 min/level. That's as long as Invisibility, and how many rogues complain that it doesn't last all day?

And yeah, change the name.