Some people are unclear as to whether using a shield counts as wearing armor. In particular, the monk class loses many of its special abilities when wearing armor. Some people believe that monks can use shields and still retain their special abilities. In fact, a "Power Play" article in Dragon 279 showed a monk using a shield to great effect. Other sources said that shields count as armor, and that a monk should lose its special abilities when using a shield. I sent a message to Sage Advice to clear things up. The following response has only been edited for better formatting. All typos are left in their full glory. The Sage's answers are in bold.

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Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 15:56:52 -0700
From: Skip Williams <thesage@wizards.com>
Subject: Re: Monks and Shields?
To: Guy Fullerton <guyf@apple.com>

Guy Fullerton wrote:

Monk abilities are (to a large degree) crippled by their use of armor. They lose their Wisdom bonus to AC as well as any level bonus to AC when they wear armor.

Does using a buckler (or any other shield) count as wearing armor?

Yes.

A PowerPlay example in Dragon 279 on page 108 shows a Monk using a buckler to great effect (stacking its AC bonus with the Monk's Wis and level bonuses to AC). Is this PowerPlay example correct?

No.