Bastion
Some say that a good offense is the best defense, but you find such boasting smacks of overconfidence. In your experience, the best defense is a good, solid shield between you and your enemies. You’ve focused your training on how best to use a shield to protect yourself and those around you.
Additional Feats 4th Everstand Stance; 6th Everstand Strike, Shielded Stride; 8th Reflexive Shield, Shield Warden (Fighter); 10th Quick Shield Block; 12th Mirror Shield
Bastion Dedication Feat 2
Prerequisites Shield Block
You are particularly skilled at using a shield in combat. You gain the Reactive Shield fighter feat. This fulfills any prerequisites requiring Reactive Shield as normal.
Special You can’t select another dedication feat until you have gained two other feats from the bastion archetype.
Disarming Block Feat 4
Prerequisites Bastion Dedication, trained in Athletics
Trigger You Shield Block a melee Strike made with a held weapon.
You attempt to Disarm the creature whose attack you blocked of the weapon they attacked you with. You can do so even if you don’t have a hand free.
Nimble Shield Hand Feat 6
Prerequisites Bastion Dedication
You are so used to wielding a shield that you can do so even while using the hand that’s holding it for other purposes. The hand you use to wield a shield counts as a free hand for the purposes of the Interact action. You can also hold another object in this hand (but you still can’t use it to wield a weapon). This benefit doesn’t apply to tower shields, which are still too cumbersome.
Drive Back Feat 8
Prerequisites Bastion Dedication
Access Knights of Lastwall have access to this feat.
Trigger An enemy within your reach Strikes an ally adjacent to you.
Requirements You have your shield raised.
You push the enemy back and attempt to intercede between the foe and your ally. You attempt to Shove the triggering enemy with your shield just as it attacks, pushing it back just after the attempt. Your shield has the shove trait for this Shove attempt. If the shove succeeds, you throw off your enemy’s timing, and the enemy takes a –1 circumstance penalty on its attack roll against your ally.
Destructive Block Feat 10
Prerequisites Bastion Dedication
You can protect yourself more effectively, at the expense of your shield. When you Shield Block, you can reduce the damage to yourself by double the shield’s Hardness, but if you do, the shield takes double the normal amount of damage it would have taken (before applying its Hardness). You can’t use Destructive Block if your shield can’t be broken or destroyed, such as if you’re using an indestructible shield.
Shield Salvation Feat 12
Prerequisites Bastion Dedication
You can save your shield from total destruction, even after a devastating attack. If a shield would be destroyed due to damage taken during your Shield Block, the shield remains intact at 1 Hit Point instead. Its construction is weakened until you take the time to repair it, preventing you from using Shield Salvation to save the same shield until your next preparations.