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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cognomen's Cassowary" data-source="post: 6872863" data-attributes="member: 6801445">Well, looks like we've got a good, old-fashioned time-travel paradox on our hands.I haven't read through the entire thread, but here's how I would reason this out: Shield is a really unusual reaction, in that it has the ability to undo its own trigger. Logically, that should be impossible, but I don't think that it's intended to be an unusable Catch-22 spell. Rather, I think that its specific (in the game sense) function is to preempt effects which occur "on a hit" by turning that hit into a miss. That's the first reason that I think shield could be used to prevent a shocking grasp.I agree with Uller that shocking grasp's wording is not specific; if you look at most any attack spell, you will see the wording, "On a hit, the target takes [dice] [type] damage. . . . " The ellipsis here leads into whatever other effects the attack might have, if any. Those other effects thus would presumably happen concurrently with dealing damage, and I think it's generally understood that damage is dealt only after an attack is determined to succeed. Though shield does reverse the hit, it doesn't reverse the damage and the other effects; it intercedes before they occur. I don't see anything specific in shocking grasp to suggest that its anti-reaction effect happens earlier. Looking at it from the other side, would you allow the wizard to see how much damage the great-axe hit will do before he or she decides to cast shield? Probably not, because the success or failure of the attack is determined before the damage is rolled. "When you are hit" happens before "on a hit." That's the second reason I think shield could be used, and also why I think uncanny dodge could be.Even if you feel that "when you are hit" and "on a hit" are interchangeable, you are left with the shock effect and the shield happening at the same time, not the shock happening first. To resolve this, I would look at the reaction rules, which make it clear that reactions can "interrupt" [verb 1. stop the continuous progression of] another character's turn. I would therefore say that the reaction effect occurs first, interrupting the attack. That's the third reason.In sum, I would rule that a reaction triggered "when you are hit" happens before spell effects which resolve "on a hit." Shield and uncanny dodge could thus be used as reactions to shocking grasp, but something triggered by damage, absorb elements for example, could not.</blockquote>

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