Quote Originally Posted by NeoSeraphi View Post
Unfortunately the Armor as Damage Reduction variant states pretty clearly that the way characters use shields is purely for AC, not for DR, which is why I had to use a divine source to give it to him.
There's no rule that every homebrew class has to match with every variant.

By that logic, WotC gave the wizard all-powerful spells, reasoning that as long as the spellbook could be stolen or sundered, they would still be beatable.
1. A wizard who's lost his spellbook still has his spells that he memorized this morning. A fighter-type who's lost his shield has no shield.

2. A spellbook doesn't have to be placed in a sunderable/disarmable position in order to be effective. A shield does.

3. Spells are offensively as well as defensively powerful, so the existence of a way to remove them isn't such a good balancer (plus, they can help protect the spellbook.) What I suggested is only giving the shield master high defensive bonuses, and nothing that will make it impossible to deprive him of his shield.

Players hate it when their gear is destroyed or stolen.
That's why I said it would be necessary to fix the sunder rules, so it can be disabled without being destroyed. (Stolen is not a concern, as disarming generally happens in combat, and if you win the combat you get the item back.)