Quote Originally Posted by NeoSeraphi View Post
Yeah, but I agree with this particular variant. If you're using a shield, it either blocks the attack, or it doesn't. It can't soften the blow for you like armor can.
I wasn't so much thinking "soften" as "deflect into a less sensitive spot". Not something that everyone can do, but a Shield Master...

Right there. See, I make my classes based on experience, and my experience is "The DM is not a jerk". Sundering is not something that ever happens at my table, even when it became very, very necessary. (A player was using his Item Familiar longbow to optimize his Spellcraft for Persistent Incantatrix cheese and the DM still wouldn't take his bow away)
That's because Sundering is so extreme because it permanently destroys an item. I expect that in Pathfinder (where it does not work that way, and is an example of the sort of "fix" I was talking about) sundering happens quite a bit more frequently.