View source for Post:Parry vs Shield Discussion - 1/25/2010 - 23:00:05

{{Post
|a=DR-DARTENIAN
|t=Re: Parry vs Shield Discussion
|d=1/25/2010 11:00:05 PM
|n=17275  
|f=Combat - Weapons and Armor (11) \ General Discussions (3)
|c=m
|p=Heyo!

Since I'm very close to finishing that portion of the rewrite, I'm going to go ahead and clue folks in on something they may or may not realize.

''> {{PRel|Shield Usage skill|Shield}} is better than {{PRel|Parry Ability skill|parry}} for about the first 200 ranks''

This is fairly accurate. shields have a "minimum skill" rating (negligible, but at extreme low skills, all the difference in the world) and once past that minimum give a flat skill bonus based on the stats of the shield. This is why shield is so much more effective at low ranks, especially extremely low ranks.

There is also a very low chance that a shield will "be in the right place" even if a skill check fails.

Now the above may make it seem like shields are superior, period. But that's not precisely true. In fact, at very high ranks, the situation can and does change.

Consider, if you will, the fact that shields have an evasion penalty. Consider also that this penalty is a percentage. What this means is that eventually, the ranks the shield strips from your evasion will be greater than the flat bonus the shield is giving to your shield skill. This is important not only for the obvious reason (trading a +50 rank bonus in shield for a -100 rank penalty in evasion is probably not good no matter how you look at it), but because the effectiveness of the shield itself depends in part on how well (or poorly) you evade.

In other words, at some point, shields can actually become a bit of a defensive liability. At this point, parry is probably superior in every way except the obvious one -- ranged attack.

And yes, that means that in the extreme long term picture, small shields are actually more beneficial than the large shields after a certain point.

The new defense set-up I'm working on should resolve most of these issues. (and introduce a dozen all-new ones, I'm sure!)

- GM [[Dartenian]]
|sub=Combat
}}