I figured "ajkhgjksdhgbkjd damn this shield!" since it was gonna kill locke, my chosen carrier of the thing, in any long battle. I then thought "wait a sec, doesn't condemn work using the doom spell".. I was right. relic ring will make it not a countdown to death, but a countdown to a full life regen. It's nifty, but it does make healing the other chars a bit annoying.