Cactus Game Design Message Boards

It has to activate in play, then you can discard it from play.

This might be a dumb question, but can I discard gold shield from my hand to convert a hero in battle? Even if I don't have an evil character in battle, but I do in territory? Basically, wanting to see if I can use gold shield with Pharisees.

You can use it with Pharisees, but like Gabe and the Hobbit said, you have to play it in battle like a normal enhancement, then discard it. So if you block with Proud Pharisee and play Gold Shield, you can immediately discard it and then convert the attacker.