There are even a couple more alternative fixes I could suggest, such as not being able to cast shield on successive turns perhaps. However, I personally prefer just sticking a top limit on, which is easy to remember. (It kinda makes sense… the more armour you have, the less help having a protective magical barrier provides vs. If you want to be a bit kinder to Eldritch Knights and Artificers, for example, you could use my original idea that the AC bonus depends on whether you’re wearing no armour / light armour (+5), medium armour (+4) or heavy armour (+3). But it’s never going to result in players spamming their ACs to obscene levels where they become all but untouchable. Now the shield spell goes back to fulfilling its job of protecting glass cannons, and is still a pretty useful option for the likes of Eldritch Knights (at least ones that don’t wear an actual shield). The bonus works against the triggering attack, and you take no damage from magic missile. Until the start of your next turn, you have a +5 bonus to your AC to a maximum of 21. Just a little down-tuning should be enough.Īn invisible barrier of magical force appears and protects you. Now, Treantmonk obviously runs games full of optimised character builds who (it seems) spam the table with full spellcasters in plate armour etc., so maybe this house rule makes sense for his games – if everyone on the table feels obliged to take a certain option, then I agree with his logic: it’s better to remove that option, because all you’re doing is killing variety in your game.īut while I must confess that I may have exasperated a few DMs with successive castings of the spell in clutch combats, for ‘normal’ tables I don’t think a nuclear option is required to deal with shield. Plus, it’s one of the only defensive mechanics in the game… a rare, and enjoyable, moment of empowerment for players who are usually unable to actively do anything to prevent an enemy hit. Anyone unable to wear medium or heavy armour in 5th edition walks around with a suicidal AC for essentially the entirety of their adventuring career. Now, I’ve railed against certain incantations so many times on this blog that I’m not going to list them again here… regular readers have no doubt grown sick of me complaining about them! As for shield, I’d never even considered that it was somehow damaging my D&D sessions, nor had anyone else flagged it as an issue.Īs someone who is currently playing a very fragile College of Lore bard, I’d more likely go the opposite way and say the shield spell is actually good for the game. Shillelagh is not a spell attack and would not get the spell attack bonus.Wtf? If I was going to start removing spells from the game shield would be pretty far down on my list! Does Shillelagh get a Spell Attack bonus? Is Shillelagh a magic weapon?Ī weapon imbued with Shillelagh is considered to be a magical weapon. Shillelagh is not an attack in and of itself. Shillelagh imbues a weapon with Druidic magic, which can then be used to make a weapon attack. Why should I take Shillelagh?īig damage, you get to look cool, and you get to shout “shillelagh!”, what’s not to love? Alternatives to ShillelaghĬommon Questions About Shillelagh Is Shillelagh a spell attack? It gets out-scaled by Primal Savagery at the 5th level when the two cantrips get their first upgrade, but Shillelagh has the highest early level damage within the Druid cantrip list. Shillelagh is an excellent early damaging spell. Bards can take the spell with their Magical Secrets feature, available to all Bards by 10th level. More importantly, it allows the caster to use their spellcasting modifier when attack with the weapon. It raises the damage of the club or quarterstaff to a d8 if the weapon does not already have damage that great. Besides its amusing name, Shillelagh alters a wooden club or quarterstaff. Shillelagh might be the most iconic Druid spell in Dungeons & Dragons. Statuses Inflicted: Affected weapon’s damage die becomes a d8, and attacks made with it use your spellcasting modifier Materials Required: Mistletoe, a shamrock leaf, and a club or a quarterstaff Level: Druid (1), Bard (10, Magical Secrets) Cantrip, Transmutation, Damage, Bludgeoning
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