Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="WalterKovacs" data-source="post: 5566359" data-attributes="member: 63763">At the same time, if you have the prereqs for the shield spec, you could take chain or scale spec instead. For Plate and Hide, you may not have that option, but for all the armor ones, the side benefit is minor (aside from scale ... +1 movement speed is pretty snazy ... +1 to skills, less so). While both of those benefits are equal to heroic tier feats (so having it line up with lightning reflexes would be consistent) I think most would agree that the defense boosting feats see more play that the "ignore speed penalty/skill check penalty with heavy armor" feats. And it is possible someone when with the Fort and/or Will boosting feats instead of Improved Defenses, in which case they'd benefit from shield spec (but it would still be weaker by comparison). There are still other feat bonus things like that running around (like the +1 to all defenses against ranged, close and area attacks) which easily get outstripped in all but their AC bonus.</blockquote>