Ring of Force Shield?

[danielxcutter]

The Ring of Force Shield (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#forceShield) costs 8,500 gp, and grants +2 shield AC.

I have a few questions.

1) How does it work? When it's activated, it "can be wielded by the wearer as if it were a heavy shield (+2 AC)" - can you still use a two-handed weapon freely? It does mention that it can be activated and deactivated as a free action...

2) Is it worth it? It's 500 gp more expensive than a Ring of Protection +2, and the latter also adds to your touch AC. On the other hand, a Ring of Force Shield and a Ring of Protection +2 together are only slightly more expensive than half the cost of a Ring of Protection +4... at the cost of another ring slot, I guess, but still.

[Crake]

The Ring of Force Shield (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#forceShield) costs 8,500 gp, and grants +2 shield AC.

I have a few questions.

1) How does it work? When it's activated, it "can be wielded by the wearer as if it were a heavy shield (+2 AC)" - can you still use a two-handed weapon freely? It does mention that it can be activated and deactivated as a free action...

You can wield the ring, then at the start of your turn, deactivate it, swing your sword, then wield the ring again, but you won't be able to take attacks of opportunity with your 2 hander, nor provide flanking. The ring is still wielded, so it does take up your hand.


2) Is it worth it? It's 500 gp more expensive than a Ring of Protection +2, and the latter also adds to your touch AC. On the other hand, a Ring of Force Shield and a Ring of Protection +2 together are only slightly more expensive than half the cost of a Ring of Protection +4... at the cost of another ring slot, I guess, but still.

This just comes down to what you can afford. +2 AC for 8500gp isn't terrible, but unless you have money floating about, it's not great value, and you can probably find something better to spend your money on. Upgrading your armor from +1 to +3 for example costs 8000gp, or hell, from masterwork to +2 is 4000gp. After that, as you said, a ring of protection +2 is also 8000gp, an amulet of natural armor is likewise 8000gp, a +1 mithril animated heavy shield costs 9115gp, for +3 AC, and no ACP, that's 1AC better than the ring for 615gp more, and without eating up your ring slot.

[Fizban]

Personally I see it as the pre-emptive counter to the "continuous Shield spell" item. An example of a magic item that grants a shield bonus to AC without being a shield, with a price that clearly indicates this is a bonus formula, not a "spell formula" effect. The shield version of Bracers of Armor, and with no given scaling so it's clear that's as high as it should go. As such, I'd let it work without causing problems at all- a monk could use it just fine at all times and I'm not going to make you specify when you're turning it on and off to try and catch you with a -2 AC for one AoO.

Or at least I'd let a vanilla monk use it- my monk changes specifically overlap with all armor and shield type bonuses, because the increased monk bonuses already give enough to replace them.

As for the usefulness of the item, don't forget it's a force effect, so free ghost touch when ghost touch is spendy. Makes it on par with a second deflection bonus until you start adding more and more touch attack monsters. You can also potentially make use of the fact that it is very specifically described as a shield sized and shield shaped Wall of Force, so any situation where a 2-3' piece of indestructible material held in your hand could be useful. . . there you go. Another reason I'd rather treat it as a simple non-standard AC bonus that always works, because focusing on having to turn it on and off brings attention to the fact that as written they give you a portable continuous piece of Force to play with.

[imaloony]

Jumping in late, but adding my two cents because this came up recently in our group:

If I were running the game, I wouldn't allow the "Deactivate the ring, swing the sword, reactivate the ring" thing to work. The reason I say this is because it sounds similar to using a buckler with a two handed weapon, and the buckler's description says:

"if you use a weapon in your off hand, you lose the buckler’s Armor Class bonus until your next turn."

This says to me that because you used your hand for something else on your turn, your arm simply isn't in a position where it could reasonably help you to protect yourself. Your opponent isn't going to wait for you to ready your shield back up; if you swung your weight into your attack with that arm on your turn, then that's what the arm was doing. You can't do both.

The exception would be if you invested in the Unhindering Shield feat, which allows you to keep the AC even if you use that arm for something else, and I'd rule that if you had that feat, it'd apply for the Ring of Force Shield as well.