Interesting bug. Extremely minor item spoilers I guess?

Pantalion

So yeah, I'm in Cloakwood II in my hardcore solo R/C game, walking around with Sanctuary on like a Boss, and for the first time in the whole game remember that I'm actually wearing Relair's Mistake.

Great, thinks I, I'll be able to get in and out of the Spider Queen's hive before Sanctuary expires, so I polymorph, and off I go.

Now having left the area I find that my shield (I think it's my shield) slot has somehow had its effects duplicated, and since I was wearing Buckley's Buckler at the time, that's given me a net +1 Con, permanently, and maybe -2 or more AC permanently.

I used Relair's Mistake again to confirm the bug, so now I'm sitting on 23 Con with the Claw equipped and my +1 Tower Shield and about -1 AC naked, except also with a naked +6 penalty against piercing and missile attacks because it was a Buckler.

So.... Does reloading my autosave to roll back the bug make my run more or less hardcore?

Tsyrith

Less. It's the same cumulative penalty with the same cumulative bonus. So the shield grants +2 with -2 to missile and piercing, you use the bug, it goes to +4 effective bonus with -4 missile and piercing, essentially increasing the enchantment level of the shield, along with a fantastically powerful constitution bonus.

Good find!