Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General One-handed + Shield vs. Two-Handed.

Well, I definitely wouldn't recommend a Shield Specialist 5 character who has any hard points in Constitution whatsoever (although of course maybe a couple points in gear). If you're going Shield Specialist, there should be some reason why you don't want Attribute points in the more conventional survivability (such as feeling that hybrid split between Str and Int, another reason why armoured caster fits it so well). If you're planning on both conventional survivability on top of Shield Specialist, you're right, it's defensive overkill.

It's also really hard to make a good argument for Shield 5 anyway. Shield 4 I feel is justifiable on certain builds; Shield 5, not so much.