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<blockquote data-quote="Staffan" data-source="post: 7546656" data-attributes="member: 907"><p>Not unless your AC is low enough that attacks autohit.</p><p></p><p>First, let's look at a novice mage. They have Dex 14, <em>mage armor</em>, and not much more, for a total AC of 15. Most things you fight have about a +4 to hit, so they hit on 11+. With <em>shield</em> up, they hit on 16+ instead. So +5 blocks 25% of the attacks made (and about 50% of the hits that would otherwise have hit).</p><p></p><p>Then, let's look at a 12th level mage. Let's say they have Dex 16 (because at that point they probably maxed Int already and started working on secondary stats), and they use <em>mage armor</em> and have either a <em>cloak of protection</em> or <em>ring of protection</em>, for a total AC of 13+3+1 = 17.</p><p></p><p>Now let's look at some monsters in the CR 9-12 range. I didn't do an exhaustive search, but it would appear most have an attack bonus of about +10. Some have less, some have more, but +10 seems about right for monsters that are about hitting you. So they hit on 7+ - or 12+ if you have <em>shield</em> up. That's <strong>still</strong> 25% of attacks made that get blocked, though it's a smaller percentage of attacks that would have hit (about 35%).</p><p></p><p>So whether or not <em>shield</em> loses effectiveness with level depends on your perspective. It will block one attack out of every four made regardless of level, but it will go from reducing damage taken by about 50% to about 35% from 1st to 12th level.</p><p></p><p>That calculation is fairly conservative about high-level mage AC, though. You could instead have a <em>robe of the archmage</em> and <em>bracers of defense</em> for 15+3+2 = 20 AC, in which case the required attack roll goes from 10 to 15, which is pretty much the same as at 1st level.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Staffan, post: 7546656, member: 907"] Not unless your AC is low enough that attacks autohit. First, let's look at a novice mage. They have Dex 14, [I]mage armor[/I], and not much more, for a total AC of 15. Most things you fight have about a +4 to hit, so they hit on 11+. With [I]shield[/I] up, they hit on 16+ instead. So +5 blocks 25% of the attacks made (and about 50% of the hits that would otherwise have hit). Then, let's look at a 12th level mage. Let's say they have Dex 16 (because at that point they probably maxed Int already and started working on secondary stats), and they use [I]mage armor[/I] and have either a [I]cloak of protection[/I] or [I]ring of protection[/I], for a total AC of 13+3+1 = 17. Now let's look at some monsters in the CR 9-12 range. I didn't do an exhaustive search, but it would appear most have an attack bonus of about +10. Some have less, some have more, but +10 seems about right for monsters that are about hitting you. So they hit on 7+ - or 12+ if you have [I]shield[/I] up. That's [B]still[/B] 25% of attacks made that get blocked, though it's a smaller percentage of attacks that would have hit (about 35%). So whether or not [I]shield[/I] loses effectiveness with level depends on your perspective. It will block one attack out of every four made regardless of level, but it will go from reducing damage taken by about 50% to about 35% from 1st to 12th level. That calculation is fairly conservative about high-level mage AC, though. You could instead have a [I]robe of the archmage[/I] and [I]bracers of defense[/I] for 15+3+2 = 20 AC, in which case the required attack roll goes from 10 to 15, which is pretty much the same as at 1st level. [/QUOTE]
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