Shield difficulty

[Tomas]

I've not quite thought this through fully so it could be really stupid but why not change Shield difficulties to use Strength rather than Shield Skill and adjust the values accordingly?

It has always seemed a little strange to me that whilst all other items in the game use strength for their difficulty, shields alone use a skill.  To make things even stranger, that skill is agility based.

Why don't we therefore bring shields into line with all other items, doubling (or even trippling) their difficulties and making them strength based.  E.g. 10 (or 15 if trippled) strength to use the Huscarl Shield.

The shield skill would still be required to make shields last more than 1 hit in melee combat so true shielders should still have an advantage over opportuistic people grabbing a handy shield to hide behind.

The possible pros I can think of are
- no more excuses for 2 Handers vs Ranged
- more variation possible in shield builds
- possibly more hybrids in the game and less extreme builds
- more flexibilty in char builds

Cons could be
- Archers might end up over nerfed (in terms of shot speed) as everybody has a shield they have time to put up when they see an arrow flying slowly towards them.

[Duke]

It has always seemed a little strange to me that whilst all other items in the game use strength for their difficulty, shields alone use a skill.  To make things even stranger, that skill is agility based.

Bows use Power Draw, that is a skill.
Throwing weapons use Power Throw, that is a skill.
Horses using Riding, that is a skill and it's agility based.

[Hotpokka]

10 IF and 10 PS turtles! Great idea!

[Vibe]

10 IF and 10 PS turtles! Great idea!

10 IF and 10 PS will give you 3 shield skill at most, not much of a turtle, eh?

[Hotpokka]

10 IF and 10 PS will give you 3 shield skill at most, not much of a turtle, eh?

Did you read the OP?

[Vibe]

Did you read the OP?

Did you?

The shield skill would still be required to make shields last more than 1 hit in melee combat

[Bobthehero]

Still, 36 strenght 3 agi, steel pick, steel shield, go go go.

[Vibe]

Still, 36 strenght 3 agi, steel pick, steel shield, go go go.

Noone ever tried a steel shield with 3 shield skill, I wonder how fast it would break

[Hotpokka]

Did you?

You could have 5, which is definitely usable

Strength: 30
Agility: 6
Hit points: 85
Unused skill points: 3
Skills to attributes: 2
Ironflesh: 10
Power Strike: 10
Shield: 2 (+3 unused)
Athletics: 2
Riding: 0
Horse Archery: 0
Power Draw: 0
Power Throw: 0
Weapon Master: 2
One Handed: 125
Two Handed: 1
Polearm: 1
Archery: 1
Crossbow: 1
Throwing: 1

[Bobthehero]

Noone ever tried a steel shield with 3 shield skill, I wonder how fast it would break

Considering its body armor, not very fast with anything not an axe, now I THINK that you dont get any benefits on the shield if you have the same shield skill as the required difficulty.

If what I THINK is true then using a steel shield with 1 shield skill would be the same as using one with the current 7 shield skill.

[Vibe]

You could have 5, which is definitely usable

Strength: 30
Agility: 6
Hit points: 85
Unused skill points: 3
Skills to attributes: 2
Ironflesh: 10
Power Strike: 10
Shield: 2 (+3 unused)
Athletics: 2
Riding: 0
Horse Archery: 0
Power Draw: 0
Power Throw: 0
Weapon Master: 2
One Handed: 125
Two Handed: 1
Polearm: 1
Archery: 1
Crossbow: 1
Throwing: 1

What? 5 shield skill with 6 agi? okay.jpg

Considering its body armor, not very fast with anything not an axe, now I THINK that you dont get any benefits on the shield if you have the same shield skill as the required difficulty.

If what I THINK is true then using a steel shield with 1 shield skill would be the same as using one with the current 7 shield skill.

1 shield skill = 8% damage reduction
7 shield skill = 56% damage reduction
13 shield skill = 104% damage reduction (true turtle)

[Bobthehero]

Yeah but does the shield skill works like the Power Draw one, where a bow with a requirement of 3 will start getting extra damage only after you get 4 Power Draw, with 7 PD being the breaking point where you get bonuses, 8 PD for 3 PD difficulty bow is the same thing as 7 PD, thats how it is in Native, and I am wondering if its the same here.

[Vibe]

Yeah but does the shield skill works like the Power Draw one, where a bow with a requirement of 3 will start getting extra damage only after you get 4 Power Draw, with 7 PD being the breaking point where you get bonuses, 8 PD for 3 PD difficulty bow is the same thing as 7 PD, thats how it is in Native, and I am wondering if its the same here.

I think it's only raw 8% damage reduction per shield skill.

[Tomas]

Bows use Power Draw, that is a skill.
Throwing weapons use Power Throw, that is a skill.
Horses using Riding, that is a skill and it's agility based.

Lol - forgot about them    I was tired, that's my only excuse.

@Hotpokka - do you think that build would ever be able to hit anything?  I can see it being useable for a 2HAnder or Polearm due to those weapons' longer reaches, but a 1 handed weapon i'm not so sure about.  At least it would let 1 handers have the option of using that build though.

An alternative that's much simpler would be to reduce the weakest shield difficulties to 0 so anybody can use them.

[Blondin]

In fact, you want to be able to grab a huscarl as a 2 hander without any shield skill point invested?

If i remember shield difficulty was raised to avoid that.