All of us know the following situation: An archer has been spamming us with arrows, but now he is in close combat reach and we can fight him. We are expecting a short sword, a spear or maybe even a bastard sword as his secondary weapon. But then, all of a sudden, he draws his Elegant Poleaxe, crushes our shield and kills us. Alternatively, apruply a Flamberge appears in his hands and he cuts us in stripes.
An archer is enough of a threatment. An archer equipped with cruel melee weapons is definitely too much. Same with crossbowmen and horse archers.
This is why we need a new system which prevents overpowering hybrid classes. So far, nothing new: According to rumors, chadz is working on a patch with two-slot-items. On one hand, to prevent a ladder spam, on the other hand, to avoid hybrid characters as described. But hey - if the Sniper Crossbow gets two slots, crossbowmen can't use shields. What about old school board shield crossbowmen? If a warbow needs two slots, no shields for archers as well!
Two slot items make ranged characters use no shields. E.g., have a look at Medieval II Total war. You'll find lots of archers and crossbowmen using shields. A crossbow develops its power in combination with a shield: The crossbowman, under fire of an archer, whoose fire rate is higher, can use his shield to move protected in order to take cover behind of something, to reload his crossbow and to have a chance against the archer. Despite this, archers with shields are realistic, in contrast to 2h/archer hybrid etc.
In summary, shields are important and realistic for ranged characters. A two slot system would abolish ranged chars using shields and make the cRPG unrealistic.
So, instead of using a two slot system for large weapons, change the requirement of superior weapons. A Danish Greatsword needs to get a requirement of at least 100 2h skill points. for a Sniper Crossbow, at least 100 xbow skill points. Give an 100 bow point requirement to war bows, and so on. On the other side, all 1h weapons until the standard Sword shouldn't have any additional requirements; they should be allowed to be used by ranged classes. This helps the same way in order to avoid unrealistic hybrid classes as a two slot system. But xbowmen and archers will still be able to use shields.
What do you think of the idea?
(Not Ninja-) Torak
