Repulsion Shield 5e
Prerequisite: 6th-level artificer
Item: A shield (requires attunement)
A creature gains a +1 bonus to Armor Class while wielding this shield.
The shield has 4 charges. While holding it, the wielder can use a reaction immediately after being hit by a melee attack to expend 1 of the shield's charges and push the attacker up to 15 feet away. The shield regains 1d4 expended charges daily at dawn.
Review by Prince Phantom
Most Artificers will be wielding a shield, meaning this is a very good pickup once we reach level 6. Options for infusing a shield are limited to just this and Enhanced Defense, so thanks to a lack of competition, this will be the go to pick for many players from levels 6-9. It does require attunement where Enhanced Defense does not, and as an Artificer we can get full on attunement slots very easily, so that might be an issue for you.
The reaction we get from this infusion is also much better than its easily comparable offensive brother, Radiant Weapon. No save required, we can push someone who hits us 15ft away with our reaction 4 times per day. This is better in almost every way than Gift of the Gem Dragon, a feat I rate highly. That feat does a bit of damage as well, but requires the target to fail a saving throw and only pushes 10ft. That extra 5ft matters a lot, as it makes it much easier to interrupt a monster’s multiattack. If a monster hits us, is pushed back by the shield, and then doesn’t have enough movement to get back to us, it cannot make the remainder of its attacks. This creates a strategy that rewards good battlefield placement and maneuverability and is a big boon to your survivability.
This makes the decision at level 10 that much harder. Enhanced Defense scales to +2 at this level, but this infusion has no such scaling. Enhanced Defense also does not require attunement, and those attunement slots become precious at high levels, even with the Artificer getting extra slots. Which one is better? Honestly, it’s build dependent.
If you have a fairly consistent use for your reaction most turns, Enhanced Defense is the clear winner. For the melee Armorer, your tanking ability is centered around your AC, and monsters start to have very large hit modifiers at higher tiers, making that extra point of AC very valuable. For most other Artificer builds though, I think I might would actually stick with this over Enhanced Defense assuming I could spare the attunement slot. That makes this a pretty cool and unique infusion, and pretty much all Artificers will get use out of it at levels 6-9.
Final Rating: 5/5
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