Agreed with McNastea, which I guess agrees with Bad Bud. Hrmm. Maybe I'll change..
But let's just look at the stats. Pre-reqs, sacrifices, potentials. Please correct me if I'm missing anything, too! I'm gonna have to make a few judgments as well, so this isn't simply a representation of facts-- but hopefully it'll help, even if it brings you to a different conclusion.
Shield User: - Required Feat:
Shield Proficiency.
- AC Amount: Ranges from +1 to +3 with mundane equipment. Common equipment will have +1 to +2 modifiers. Common varnishes can supply temporary +3 shield modifiers. Enchanted shields (Sacrifices of Xp/levels into item dropped upon death. While may be worth it, it is much more risky) provide permanent bonuses up to +7 against certain weapon types, though usually come to a total of +6 universally. **Important: The only scaling of AC that has to do with level pace is getting enchanted equipment which requires a specific level is met.
- Negatives:
*Weight-- Tower Shields (45lbs). Large Shields (15lbs). Small Shields (6lbs).
Weight can be a significant detriment to non-strength classes, hybrid builds, or packrats. *Armor Check Penalty-- Tower Shield (-10), Large Shield (-2), Small Shield (-1).
This usually isn't a significant number, but the jump between tower shield and large shield is noteworthy. For builds that want to use skills such as stealth, tower shields are going to be a huge detriment to rely upon in combat. *Arcane Spell Failure-- Tower Shield (50%), Large Shield (15%), Small Shield (5%). This is also a pretty important figure that isn't often talked about. PoTM's UMD system counts arcane spell failure into scroll usage. Tower Shield users-- and even large shield users, have to count this potential for failure into their scroll usage, if they even elect to use them at all. This makes shields particularly troubling for classes that want to use magic (Scroll, or arcane), but also have a number of skills that they might prefer to invest in besides parry. I'm looking at you, Bards. Divine spellcasters and still spell users won't care. But arcane still spell users are still sacrificing a whole spell level in order to maintain their AC while casting.
*Tower Shield Size Limitation-- This one is kind of weird. I hesitated even putting it, but I thought it should at least be considered. Small creatures (Halflings and Gnomes) can't use tower shields. Still, they get enough bonuses to make up for it, usually.
Summary:
For something with very little investment, shields are (And have always been) a great source of AC. Yes, pure clerics (or pure cleric friends) can help you get the most mileage out of a shield, but it's either so unreliable that it shouldn't be mentioned in balance, or so reliable that it's part of your core balance (That is, if you
straight up are a cleric) and shouldn't be mentioned in consideration of balance.
While shield AC is and has been the norm for acquiring AC on characters, PoTM challenged this norm not
just with the implementation of a parry AC system, but also impacted it tangentially with others. I'll list a few:
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Low/Unavailable ability increasing items. You're not likely to find a piece of armor with +2 Strength. Ability enhancement relies almost solely upon spells and buffs. This exacerbates some of the negatives of shields, like the weight issue on non-pure-strength builds.
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PoTM's Changed UMD System. Vanilla UMD isn't actually a skill check in the same way as most skills. It was your UMD (In intervals of 5) vs the DC of the item. If you had enough UMD to be able to use the scroll, you would simply use the scroll and succeed. By adding an actual skill check, they've made +UMD items actually useful-- but they've also made armor spell failure severely penalized, as I believe was intended. This shouldn't be forgotten when it comes to shields.
Parry Users:Before I begin, it should be noted that there are two main groups of parry users: dual-wielders, and two-handers. There are flavor alternatives who sacrifice the strength bonus of two-handing for a single weapon, but they know what they're missing out on (And the fact that it's still even viable is one of the biggest hallmark's of the parry system, end-stop).Basic Requirements:
- Skill Selection, and/or +parry equipment. The skill is dex-based, and available to most if not all combat classes as a class skill.
- AC Amount: +1 AC to a maximum of +5 for every *modified* 5 points of parry. Maximum AC of +7 with feats: Two-Weapon Defense, and Improved Two-Weapon Defense*. This requires a dexterity of 17+ to reach +7. While modified parry is technically lowerable with things like curse song, it's pretty much a consistent, regular device that is best considered permanent as soon as you draw both weapons.
- For Two-Handers, Improved Parry (Which also helps you get closer to the amount needed to maximize).
Benefits:
- Lightweight option.
- +5 AC at maximized score, but minimal investment of simply a skill point per level.
- Offhand can be used for weapons or auxiliary items like palantirs.
- Flexibility. You can still always use a shield if it's better for a situation, but whether you're one-handing, two-handing, or dual-wielding you have tons of options.
- Massive two-handed damage while still having the AC of a fully buffed shield.
Drawbacks:
- To reach the most AC with a value of +7, you're going to need a dex score of 17 and invest two feats on top of the basic requirements.
- Lower AB from dual-wielding (Often still favored due to higher DPS).
- To maximize benefits of dual-wielding damage, you'll often consider taking a total of 4+ feats. (Ambidexterity, Two Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Defense, Improved Two Weapon Defense, Improved Two Weapon Fighting.) Builds that feature the best use of dual-wielding have dual-wielding as a literal pillar of their mechanical setup (Even on a high feat count server like PoTM), compared to the easier build investment of shields.
- Two-handing strength builds often find themselves a little more restricted, or slower to arrive at their full benefit of basically monkey-gripping (Two-handing while maintaining good shield benefits). They might be forced to wear lighter armor, like Chainmail, in order to more reasonably hit their marks.
Summary:
Parry does what it set out to do. It creates viable options for alternative weapon sets that would have literally never seen the light of day, except for people who willfully knew they were bad, but accepted the ostracizing from their peers. Dual-wielding is in an okay spot. I think that if dual-wielders were going to dual-wield, they were going to do it whether or not they had the parry AC system. The extra APR and damage is just that good. Helping them out by supplying them AC is a good move to help dex-builds in a low magic item server. Two-Handers are more the problem child, however. The small difference between AC is often too severely mitigated by the crushing damage that comes not only the 1.5x strength modifier, but also from the bigger weapon category (Base damage, bonus properties). As well as gimmicky Improved Disarm bonuses. Two-handers were always good, now they're great. In fact, better than most same-strength sword-board builds-- especially in later levels.
This doesn't mean that shields are simply out of the metagame, or out of all of our builds.But it does mean that if you're a pure-strength fighter or barbarian, it'll probably do you better than a sword and board. But outside of antagonize, discipline, cross-classing rogue skills, and -maybe- concentration, the fighter or barbarian never really had to struggle to consider taking parry. Ever. The people who do consider shields are builds that are feat and skill starved, or builds that have hybrids between Str/Charisma, or Str/Dex (Rangers). Paladins who have a demanding regimen of feats to get the most of out their charisma (Power Attack, Divine Might, Divine Shield, Extra Turning*, Extend Spell*). Bards who have not only a demanding set of feats (Lingering Song, Extra Song, Curse Song, Extend Spell, Still Spell), but also have a huge amount of available skills with very few ways to get all the goodies. Bards can go in sooo many directions, from the combat buffer/debuffer, to the master sleuth, to the socialite, to the stealth. Parry as a skill can be unforgiving in tight builds.
So shields do still exist. It's just that if you're a straight and simple fighter-- yeah, you're probably gonna wish you went two-hander by the time you're level 12+.
There are probably some cool ways to encourage more versatility among pure strength builds, still, and I think the OP has the right start. Maybe even consider combat moves that lower a target's parry score. Also, if you're gonna work on shields at all-- see if you can try to stretch to make small shields niche and useful in their own way. Ultimately, though, you can always balance shields by simply creating better shields in the lootbin that can help offset some of the negatives or encourage people to consider switching.
