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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7095801" data-attributes="member: 6787650">No, that's an observation from actual play, where Shield is frequently used (by the AC 21 Paladin/Sorcerer) despite being tactically suboptimal, because of roleplaying reasons as I mentioned (injury hurts[1]). And that is despite the fact that I, as a DM, favor large complicated conflicts over dungeon-crawling Medium-bite-sized encounters. In a 5E-style dungeon crawl scenario where attrition is the primary threat mechanism, Shield would be even "worse" (but would still be used anyway).Only in a highly contrived scenario would Shield x35 [70 spell points] be superior to, say, Shield x3, Expeditious Retreat x2, Find Steed x1, Hypnotic Pattern x3, Extended Aura of Vitality x3, and Quickened Blur x2 [55 spell points]. Maybe against a huge horde of a thousand goblins doing continuous hit-and-run attacks on you in huge Underdark caverns, although even there it would be highly terrain-dependent.I'm pretty sure that between the two of us, I'm not the one thinking in white-room terms.[1] And I suppose allowing injury is also a bit risky from a tactical perspective, because the player, unlike the DM, doesn't know exactly how much damage an attack would do or what conditions it could impose, nor what is lurking in the next room. So I suppose this injury-avoidant, inefficient behavior may be driven by imperfect information as well as roleplaying considerations--but I perceive the roleplaying considerations as primary because it doesn't seem to change even against a known threat of small magnitude, like a couple of Chuuls.</blockquote>

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