MikeEnglish

Oooh... cool. Thanks. Might have to pick that up after all.

As I think about it, in Cthulhu we usually said dodge takes an action - either you declare dodge on your turn, or you sacrifice your next action. Rather than a subtle turn of the waist, it becomes a full bodied throwing yourself out of the way. In this scenario, parry becomes not solely the physical deflection but also a measurement of distance and timing. This potentially creates a scenario where parrying - with shield, if you're worried about damaging your weapon or incoming missile attacks - becomes the standard. Dodging is reserved for area attacks, non-shielded missile defense, and spending your action in full defense mode. Still thinking.

I don't follow? Does that make shields more useful? I'll have to consider it a bit more. Thanks, everyone.

I'm wanting to start a fantasy game, and truth be told I'm torn between three systems. I'm kind of going by the book here, which is my preference to begin (although I've been playing Cthulhu for 20 years or so). I am not planning on splitting attack and parry, and am not planning on weapon skills over 100% - although I'm open to considering either if it resolves my quandary. As is, I don't know why a player would divide points between weapon and shield rather than weapon and dodge. Against melée attacks, presumably the weapon skill would be higher and therefore better to parry with than a shield. No advantage shield. Against thrown attacks, it's full dodge skill or full shield parry skill - no advantage shield. Against missile weapons, it's half dodge or 15/30/60% with shield. I can see if you compared having a low dodge skill to carrying a huge shield then shield might have an advantage... But what about the small/regular shield or if you can afford a dodge of 60% or higher? The benefits of shield seem limited, considering it was a soldier's staple. Take full action to kneel behind it to avoid missiles Use it to attack and push - although then it gets compared to carrying two weapons It has more HP if somebody tries to break it, although if they are trying to intentionally break something you think they'd choose to damage your weapon instead Wait...am I missing a rule about regular parrys possibly damaging the weapon? That would make sense so you would parry melee attacks with a shield rather than risking damaging your weapon. Mind you, I could just dodge everything and parry nothing. Maybe I'm just not putting it together properly in my head. Little help, please?