Shield Use
Shield Use is a skill a character trains in to increase their skill with a shield, therefore increasing defensive strength when the shield is in the character's off-hand.
Ranks and Training Point Costs
| Type | Square | Semi | Pure | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profession | Rogue | Warrior | Monk | Bard | Paladin | Ranger | Cleric | Empath | Savant | Sorcerer | Wizard |
| Max Ranks Per Level | 2 | 3 | |||||||||
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Training Point Cost | 4/0 | 2/0 | |||||||||
| 5/0 | 3/0 | 5/0 | 13/0 | 13/0 | |||||||
| 13/0 | 13/0 | ||||||||||
Defensive Strength Calculation: Blocking
Shield use is essentially the Blocking part of the Evade/Block/Parry system. The defensive strength generated by the shield is as follows:
Base DS bonus × Stance Modifier × (1.0 + Shield Size Modifier) + 20 + Shield enchant = Final DS bonus
where shield size modifiers are as follows:
- Small shield: -0.15
- Medium shield: 0.00
- Large shield: 0.15
- Tower shield: 0.30
and stance is given by:
- offensive: 0
- advanced: .2
- forward: .4
- neutral: .6
- guarded: .8
- defensive: 1.
Note: the use of a large shield benefits the defensive strength generated by the Shield Use skill and the shield, however, larger shields harm the defensive strength provided by the Dodging skill. The larger the shield, the more harmful the shield is. A small shield lowers dodge DS by 20% where a tower shield lowers it by 50%. Shields generated by the bard song, Sonic Shield Song (1009) may be less harmful depending on how much Elemental Lore, Air training the bard has.
Changes since GemStone III
The effectiveness of a shield in Gemstone III depended heavily on the enchantment of the shield, in a formula where the shield's benefit was calculated with (Enchantment Bonus + 20). Therefore, a 4× shield produced, literally, twice as much defensive strength as an unenchanted shield, where an 8× shield produced three times as much defensive strength as an unenchanted shield. Also, there was no difference, mechanically, between a buckler and a tower shield.