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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Satin Knights" data-source="post: 5853226" data-attributes="member: 6666968">I'll take a well thought out argument over capitulation every time.  But since we have covered just about everything on this issue, we are just waiting on the other judges to chime in.[sblock=Mage Armor tangential derailment]And of course I think mage armor wins. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />At first level, you spend 33% of your casting resources on defense that covers 3-4 battles.  Shield requires a casting for each battle. You could possibly squeeze two combats in if you don't bother to loot the bodies or heal after a fight. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f631.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":eek:" title="Eek!    :eek:"  data-smilie="9"data-shortname=":eek:" />  So, you are not covered and out of spells by the fourth fight. If you have used an offensive spell, the tank is empty even sooner. At first level, you cannot afford the wand of mage armor to supplement the castings.At third level you could afford a wand of mage armor.  But is was a tough life to get here by the choosing Shield over Mage Armor path.  And each 15gp burned off of the wand only lasts an hour.  So, it is likely you will spend several charges in a day.  You could burn through the wand in a couple weeks.  By fifth level, two castings of mage armor cover the working day.  That leaves 80% of your spells for offense.You pick up Shield as your forth spell known at fifth level, or fifth known at seventh level.  By this time, you are starting to need both spells to cover you in battle.  If you have a lot of first level spells you like, the Expanded Arcana feat allows you to pick up two of them when taken at fifth level or above.  So, you add Shield in by fifth or seventh level.By tenth level, you can even afford to cast mage armor to sleep in.  At this level, the wand is extremely cheap in comparison, but the duration of the spell off the wand seems as a drawback.   The thought of a wand should be moot at this point if you have both spells by now.  In other words, by the time wands are trivially cheap, they are also superseded.Mage Armor is a "long before combat has started" spell.  Shield is a "as combat is starting spell".  So, you lose a standard action in each fight by choosing Shield.  When many fights only go three rounds, you have wasted a third of your time on a buff prep.  You can circumvent part of this when you choose when the surprise round happens, prebuffing before hand, but you only get to do that 50% of the time.So, my opinion is Mage Armor is greater than Shield, but it is best to have both by fifth level.[/sblock]</blockquote>

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