galehar wrote:sanka wrote:My problem with these kind of graph is that skill levels that cost more and more gives less and less result. It would be nice if high level of shield skill would actually give you some benefit.
That's the point actually. High level of shield skill still gives higher SH, it's not just about the penalty. It works for armour. The fact that the armour skill doesn't eliminate the penalty doesn't turn off people from training it to high level to get a lot of AC.
The problem though is that Shields are inferior to Armor and this won't really help encourage people to use them, and for those who might use Shields while Spellcasting this suggested formula is more of a detriment then the current formula.
The thing about Armor is that its benefits far outweigh its penalties with low Armor skill. Players therefore will wear armor to benefit their characters, unless the penalties are too severe for how they are playing (like casting spells). The reason players train the Armor skill initially to a decent level (Let's say 15 Armour) is to get the most out of their armors benefits in reducing damage to their characters or to quickly offset penalties that might be prohibiting their characters from playing effectively. Continuing to train the Armor skill to higher levels (15 Armor Plus) really has more to do in reducing the armors penalties in reducing spellcasting failure or lacking skills to dump the rest of their experience into; but almost never will you see someone suggest or play their character raising their Armor skill past their primary weapon/spell schools.
Shields are different though in that their benefits are outweighed by their penalties with low Shield skill. Primarily players don't wear Shields because it would be a detriment to most playstyles apart from Stabbing or doing one of the few activities that the Shield Penalty won't hurt or really inhibit (Invocations, Evocations, using a Blowgun and running away really fast). Most serious players who plan to use Shields only begin to wear them after or nearing the Shield level needed to eliminate the Shield Penalties on the Shield type equipped to their character for accommodation of other playstyles. Most don't train Shields much higher then that because the benefits start to diminish as you progress in the game outside of a few sparse scenarios.