Animated Shield 5e
Armor (shield), very rare (requires attunement)
While holding this shield, you can speak its command word as a bonus action to cause it to animate. The shield leaps into the air and hovers in your space to protect you as if you were wielding it, leaving your hands free. The shield remains animated for 1 minute, until you use a bonus action to end this effect, or until you are incapacitated or die, at which point the shield falls to the ground or into your hand if you have one free.
A shield is made from wood or metal and is carried in one hand. Wielding a shield increases your Armor Class by 2. You can benefit from only one shield at a time.
Commentary by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Do you need a free hand for some material components? Normally, you’d need to forgo your shield or weapon to achieve this- with an Animated Shield, you can have it all!
Animated shields are shields like any other; you can’t benefit from wielding more than one at a time, nor can you benefit from a held shield’s AC bonus while you have an animated shield active.
The shield can’t be disarmed by way of spells like Fear, as you aren’t physically holding it.
It hovers “as if you were wielding it”- how finite control you have over it from there will vary DM to DM.
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