Shield (spell)

Shield (originally called General Matick's shield ) was a relatively simple abjuration spell used by wizards or sorcerers.

Effects
When cast, shield manifested a wall of magical force around the caster, deflecting away damage and enhancing his or her reflexes significantly. Shield was not a very complex spell, but it required enough power on the part of its caster that it could not be recast until a short rest of a few minutes or more had been taken.

Before the Spellplague, shield was also used by sorcerers and, like other spells, could only be used a number of times per day equal to the number of times a wizard had prepared for it or a sorcerer had the energy left to cast.

History
The spell was supposedly invented by the Netherese arcanist and warrior General Matick in &minus;1580 DR, but many scholars believed that he had only commissioned its invention.

Inscription
According to the tome known as the Book of the Silver Talon, the ingredients for the ink used to inscribe shield into spellbooks were: one ounce of giant octopus ink, one clipped thumbnail, a pinch of iron filings, a powdered piece of rock crystal, a pebble, a beryl and a star sapphire.

The rock crystal, beryl, star sapphire and pebble were each individually crushed in a dwarf-forged mortar and burnt to ash with the thumbnail. The ink was heated, but not boiled, to which was added the components in the following order: pebble dust, iron filings, rock crystal dust, beryl dust and star sapphire dust. It was stirred until dissolved and completely mixed, and then the thumbnail ash was added. It was then cooled until the fire dissipated.