Thank you for your advice. Guess I'll go for a 1h/polearm or 2h hybrid (blocking with a shield all the time is boring, but getting raped by missiles is annoying as hell).
Another question : back in the old days, all my 2h characters had 2 shield skill and a board shield, but that was because of the awful ranged spam we used to have to deal with. I've not seen many 2h or polearm users carrying shields, so I wonder if it's still as useful as it used to be.
Also : now most bows deal cutting damage, do arrows break shields faster ?