Shield feat choice

[CertaSid]

Hi I started building a 2wf dps paladin but had a change of heart and i'm changing style to a Defensive Drow Paladin(sword and board) and was wondering which feat would be better choice shield mastery or tower shield prof. as I made a mistake with starting stats and only have 12 intelligence(+2 tome used) so combat expertise is out until I can get a +3 tomb. I'm level 10 so dont want to restart

Thanks in advance

Certasid

[aggravated]

id take the tower shield proficiency for a few reasons.

1. its more ac while attacking and shield blocking

2. there is a shield in HoX that is a named tower shield with the best over all dr and a heal proc. its key for any sword and board build. (u don't want the neg to hit with your main shield)

3. shield mastery is only useful while shield blocking. (and while u are shield blocking, you are more or less useless yourself)

just my opinion

[Kinerd]

I think you may be best off leaving this character alone and making a new character that uses sword/shield. It may turn out that you don't like sword/shield any more than you like twf, and feat respecs get substantially more expensive the higher level you get.

[CertaSid]

Thanks for replies

[donfilibuster]

Managing aggro is as important to shield block tanks than for sneak attack, etc.
Flanker dps can alternate from monster to monster while the tank or intimitank holds the attention.
Likewise you shield block when you have aggro but when you lose it and they turn around you beat their backs again.

So you are technically useless half of the time, altough obviously it'd be in vain if there's so many monsters they'll keep chasing the party.
Should work in boss battles tho, shield block works in many raids despite being slower than raw dps.
Leviks totally frustrates Lailat.

[elujin]

isn't to only penalty on beeing not proficient with towershield -4 to hit while bashing ?

also a tank with no ce is harsh not sure you can overcome that

[Kourier]

isn't to only penalty on beeing not proficient with towershield -4 to hit while bashing ?

also a tank with no ce is harsh not sure you can overcome that

Lack of proficiency with a tower shield applies the armor check penalty to your attack rolls. ^^ It's a bit more than -4 while bashing... Try -10 all the time.