WOIN How does the quality of a shield effect the defense score you get from having it equipped?

[Steven Barker]

Lets consider a character with 6 AGI (3d6 pool) and Acrobatics 1 (1d6 pool), wielding a one-handed weapon and a medium shield. Their defense would be 14 (from attributes and defense skill) + 2 for the shield, for a total of 16.

How does that defense score change if the shield's quality is increased? There is no rule directly describing how quality effects shields, as their bonus is a flat increase to defense (not a die bonus, which would logically get increased by quality dice). It seems implausible to me that a high quality shield would give +1d6 to the defense pool (which would be +3.5 in the final defense score), in addition to the base bonus which is only +2. That would bring their defense up to 20, with six of it coming from the shield!

I'd assumed that shield quality didn't actually matter for defense, but the rules contain the following lines (on page 63), which have confused me and some other players I'm in a game with:

For MELEE DEFENSE, the quality of your weapon or shield can be used in your dice pool (although you cannot benefit from more equipment quality dice than skill dice; see the section on dice pools, later in this book).

For RANGED DEFENSE, the quality of your shield can be used (again, you cannot beneft from more equipment quality dice than skill dice).

Is some other calculation intended? Maybe +1 or +2 defense per quality level, like higher quality armor gives a modest increase in SOAK? Or is it really intended to be +3.5 per level of quality (making shield size almost completely irrelevant by comparison)?

 

[Brundle]

What I Found was in the Reference doc there is a shield skill that is not listed in the book.
Not sure if that is accurate , If this is the case it could function the same as other defensive skills?, I'm guessing a shield skill would also apply as a defensive skill and not only a combat?


Also not sure if the shield quality would add to Shield bash,and if there is a "shield skill" would that apply to the shields bash attack?

Should also be noted this is in reference to the NEW system

 

[Steven Barker]

I guess there are two questions then.

First, how much defense score does each shield quality level give? I'm sure it must be less than 1d6, as that would be much more than the base shield's bonus, and would make shield sizes almost irrelevant. I'd expect it to be somewhere in the range of 1-2 points per quality level, similar to how armor quality increases SOAK.

Second, which skill caps the shield quality bonus? I'd been assuming that it was whatever defensive skill you were using (e.g. dodging), but maybe the quality bonus should be capped by a specific a "shields" skill (which could also be used as the weapon skill for shield bashes). Another possibility is tying each shield size to an armor weight (e.g. small shields have their quality bonus limited by the character's light armor skill), though I'm not sure I like this idea as much as the others.

 

[Morrus]

Shield quality has no direct effect on DEFENSE.

It can form part of your dice pool like any other equipment can; it uses the shields skill, and that dice pool is capped as normal.

 

[Brundle]

Shield quality has no direct effect on DEFENSE.

It can form part of your dice pool like any other equipment can; it uses the shields skill, and that dice pool is capped as normal.

Would the shield quality and skill level apply to shield bash attacks as well?

 

[Morrus]

Would the shield quality and skill level apply to shield bash attacks as well?

Of course. It’s just a weapon attack at that point. Resolved the same way as a sword is (but its a shield).

 

[Brundle]

Shield quality has no direct effect on DEFENSE.

It can form part of your dice pool like any other equipment can; it uses the shields skill, and that dice pool is capped as normal.

So if the pc has 6 dex for 3 pool and 1 dodge for 1 pool and 1 shield skill and a high quality shield for another pool, the total pool would be 5d6?

 

[Morrus]

So if the pc has 6 dex for 3 pool and 1 dodge for 1 pool and 1 shield skill and a high quality shield for another pool, the total pool would be 5d6?

You can only ever use one skill at a time. He would have to choose between his dodging and shields skill.

 

[Brundle]

Thank's was under the impression that equipment was add'd after skill's Thank you for the clarification

 

[Fortuitous]

Your base dice pool is attribute + skill + equipment which is capped by max dice pool. Anything beyond that, exploits, modifiers, etc? All that is after.