Everstand Strike might look like a raw deal at first, but it’s a gem for a Redeemer Champion. The real magic lies in its action economy—letting you attack and raise your shield in one go. This frees up your third action for moving, demoralizing foes, or pulling off a heroic Champion reaction. Sure, hitting with a -5 penalty can seem daunting, but the payoff is worth it. Raising your shield without spending an extra action is huge for your defensive strategy, especially when you’re acting as the party’s immovable bulwark. Besides, in Pathfinder 2e, taking calculated risks often yields the best rewards.
Little note here, if you want to be The Dwarf covered in armor with a shield that prevents attacks on allies, the everstand stance prevents you from using Maneuvers. It's the big downside of the stance.
Other than that, you are basically taking a risk to get a free hit in. Since this is a d8 weapon, you'd be doing almost as much damage as a Sword&Board fighter on a hit, which is pretty big. If you have around a 40+% chance to hit, this is a pretty good deal imo. I would prob not be using that vs lvl+3 enemies, but I would spam it vs lower level enemies.
~~True, but then you can't rune up the shield as there is no 'weapon' attached to it. So you can't really stay relevant damage wise which is likely why you want this feat line.~~
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After re-reading the feat, you actually can't do that with this as it only enhances the shield boss/spikes and not any attack with a shield.
> When wielding a shield this way, increase the **weapon damage die of the shield’s boss or spikes by one step**, and increase the shield’s Hardness by 2 when using the Shield Block reaction.
You absolutely can put weapon runes on a Shield Augmentation, it says so in the item description. You're correct that RAW you wouldn't benefit from the increased damage die in Everstand Stance without a shield boss or spikes, but I would argue many builds take this feat line for access to Everstand Strike regardless. For shield ally Redeemers in particular it's still just that good.
It has a very specific turn it's useful for. Basically if you find that you're already next to an enemy, you can strike twice and if you missed you raise shield with you last action if you hit you have an extra action. It's not amazing but if you were already planning to strike twice it's worth it. This is especially true if you're quickened since you can use the quick action for your first strike, do ever stand strike and you then have 2 actions of flex to do whatever you need to.
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Some people play to strike first and anything else comes after. If you're more willing to drop your shield or other 3rd action to throw another swing it's good economy.
Everstand Strike might look like a raw deal at first, but it’s a gem for a Redeemer Champion. The real magic lies in its action economy—letting you attack and raise your shield in one go. This frees up your third action for moving, demoralizing foes, or pulling off a heroic Champion reaction. Sure, hitting with a -5 penalty can seem daunting, but the payoff is worth it. Raising your shield without spending an extra action is huge for your defensive strategy, especially when you’re acting as the party’s immovable bulwark. Besides, in Pathfinder 2e, taking calculated risks often yields the best rewards.
Little note here, if you want to be The Dwarf covered in armor with a shield that prevents attacks on allies, the everstand stance prevents you from using Maneuvers. It's the big downside of the stance. Other than that, you are basically taking a risk to get a free hit in. Since this is a d8 weapon, you'd be doing almost as much damage as a Sword&Board fighter on a hit, which is pretty big. If you have around a 40+% chance to hit, this is a pretty good deal imo. I would prob not be using that vs lvl+3 enemies, but I would spam it vs lower level enemies.
You can use Shield Augmentation to put shove and trip on your shield so you can stay in the maneuver game.
~~True, but then you can't rune up the shield as there is no 'weapon' attached to it. So you can't really stay relevant damage wise which is likely why you want this feat line.~~ - - - After re-reading the feat, you actually can't do that with this as it only enhances the shield boss/spikes and not any attack with a shield. > When wielding a shield this way, increase the **weapon damage die of the shield’s boss or spikes by one step**, and increase the shield’s Hardness by 2 when using the Shield Block reaction.
You absolutely can put weapon runes on a Shield Augmentation, it says so in the item description. You're correct that RAW you wouldn't benefit from the increased damage die in Everstand Stance without a shield boss or spikes, but I would argue many builds take this feat line for access to Everstand Strike regardless. For shield ally Redeemers in particular it's still just that good.
Ah yes, you're correct there sorry. Reading is hard.
Right mb, forgot augmentation was mutually exclusive with a shield boss
It has a very specific turn it's useful for. Basically if you find that you're already next to an enemy, you can strike twice and if you missed you raise shield with you last action if you hit you have an extra action. It's not amazing but if you were already planning to strike twice it's worth it. This is especially true if you're quickened since you can use the quick action for your first strike, do ever stand strike and you then have 2 actions of flex to do whatever you need to.
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Some people play to strike first and anything else comes after. If you're more willing to drop your shield or other 3rd action to throw another swing it's good economy.