Shield bash

Sorry, this might have been suggested before, but I think that the ability to bash people with your shield would add a lot to the combat. It could even be as simple as a quick tap on the right mouse button, holding down the button would raise it like now. The effect of the shield bash would be to briefly stun the enemy (as if you hit him with a weapon) so he's open for a counter attack. It would either do no damage or the damage would be based on your shield skill, which would actually make it useful, unlike the waste of points it is now. And to make sure it isn't overused, every hit would drain a bit of HP from the shield.

What do you think?

cool idea. could do a little damage and knock your opponent back a bit as well, although we dont want it being lame to a point where you can just spam it all day till the guys dead (smiter from D2 anyone?). these could be based on your parry skill (rename it to maybe sheild profienency? how does having some sort of skill make your sheild more durable anyway?) and the type of sheild used.

corksacker69 said:

although we dont want it being lame to a point where you can just spam it all day till the guys dead (smiter from D2 anyone?).

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Well, if you bash too much you won't have enough shield HP to block any more attacks. Every time you bash someone you'd be sacraficing a little bit of your defensive capability.

Remark on the 'shield skill' : if you know how to ârry to deflect blows rather than just hiding behinf your shield and lettign it get hit full-force, odds are it wil hold on longer. That sounds like a fair rationale for the skill shield which increases the shield's durability.

when you parry to deflect blows, you use a weapon. when you use a sheild , the only way the weapon wouldent hit full force is if you tilt the sheild sideways or somthing to deflect some force of the blow. but common, an entire skill for just that?

By the way, the shield's biggest disadvantage isn't represented in the game at all (correct me if I'm not right) - the shield covers some of your FOV. For example, when you use a shield, your enemy can even hide behind it, and you won't get the idea from where his next strike will be made (btw, shield also opens your legs, and some smart opponents use it, so if you don't have GOOD boots and greaves, you won't be able to walk after two or three minutes of fight ). There are also some special attacks made only against shields, and I have to say they are quite effective)

I have no problem with there being a skill just for shield use, have you ever used a shield before? It is VERY tough... I took a training course in medieval battlefield tactics... which was admittedly very silly. However, we wore a suit of banded armor (similar to splint mail) as well as had full use of a kite shield. Using that shield was no joke and it took a lot of energy to hold it up to block the blows of the enemy.... and we were using maces wrapped in padding.... I could not imagine how hard it would be to resist a blow from a mace w/o padding...

I feel as though having a shield skill makes perfect sense. And yes, turning your shield to deflect the blow is a tough thing to gauge, but goes a long way to keeping your opponent off-guard... it takes a lot to recover from a glanced blow of about 7-10 lbs. of solid steel mace. Heheheh.

I support the implementation of shield bash.

Oh, well, bashing with kite shield not only silly, but nigh-impossible, unless you are a Hercules... and due to the way how it is attached to the hand. I also had experince it using it - and it's used exclusively in forming a 'shield wall' to halt attackers while you almost blindly swing past your shield, hoping to hit someone, and second line people with long-ranged weapons like halberds or two-handers pound away at enemy, swinging above you head. And yes, just holding it in the air deflecting attacks will tire you in minutes.
However, for 'hand shields' (that are not hanging on your hand, but gripped in your fist) it's a very viable tactics... however, simply 'bashing' with it is rather silly too, unless you just want to push enemy back a bit... or it's spiked.
Usually, you must use shield's edge to acheve the best effect... and it's SO potent that it's forbidden on most tournaments . Btw, about maces - they are forbidden too, cause padded maces look ahistoric, and unpadded they are DEADLY.
However, it will require special animation and extra research... and, since it's forbidden, I never saw it in action and cannot advice on how to implement it.
But anyway, I agree - shield should be considered more of a 'second weapon' then just a lump of wood to deflect attacks.

ah, put in spike sheilds! make sheilds have an additional modifier that dtermines how much base bash damage they would have, and have spiked sheilds that would generly have lower defence then normal sheilds, but have higher bash damage. the parry skill could also add various bonuses to the sheild bash, like damage, etc. (i know this is a total ripoff of D2, but its still cool)

Couldn't a bigger shield be used to plow into someone during a charge, catching them off guard or knocking them down? I'm not an expert on medieval fighting so I don't know if it would just leave you open for an attack or not, but charging into someone with your body weight behind the shield should throw them off guard or knock them down. Of course M&B would need a charge feature first

And about bashing with big shields, wasn't that what the romans did? They'd thrust their shields into the enemy to unbalance or injure them, retract, and then stab them with their swords while they were reeling. The shield played a huge offensive role.

I like the shield bash idea (why it has languished forlorn and forgotten, who can say?) in general though giving a shield carrier both that 100% frontal protection and the shield bash seems a bit excessive - it makes me worry for the poor archer, who must make do with his "shoot the enemy when he lowers his shield to strike" single shot.

I would like to compensate the archer with a possible frontal non-shield hit so that those small round shields don't give that assured frontal protection ifand only if the shield bash is added.

Just a suggestion. We return you to your regular programming.

maybe this could be when "fire arrows" come in.... to compensate for the sheild bash an a archer could use fire arrows...(doing high damage to shields but very low damage on a regular shot) of course fire arrows only if the sheild bash is added...

Medieval soldiers used shield bash a lot... Well, at least in Conquest( a THC show) they said it was much better to use it to bash enemies than block attacks... I really think shield bash would be cool, but it would be accompanied by Strength restriction to equip shields...
Since you would be pushing your opponent with your shield it would be reasonable to need a little strength to carry it and use it properly... Give a weak merchant a sword and a shield, yet he won't last any longer than if he was wearing a good dagger ( provided he was at least agile).
Shield bash should unbalance both fighters for a while ( yet the bashed one would probably fall down). Damage from shield bashes? Umprobable, it is already to tiring to use a shield and bash with it, but to the point you could cause damage? For Christ's sake dude... Impossible ! Well, unless you got a shield with spikes.. That could turn a simple shield into a fairly weak piercing damage weapon...
But about knocking down there is the bit BUT( one T only guys ) : Horses... It'll be impossible to bash horses( to normal ppl ,at least, pushing a darnt horse is kinda out of reality) and from horses( how the hell could someone be dumb enough to say that? Well, i agree with Einstein, there are 2 things that are known to be infinite: human stupidity and the universe. And still we couldn't prove the 2nd part! =D).
I guess it'll be a pain in the game creators to make it but it'd nice =)
Better yet, it'd be to Romanic and Ancient Greece mods like another freaking drop of realism
Okaaaaaaay
Cya

Hmm....time to revive an old thread..

Here's my two cents- Smaller shields can be used to bash for no Shield HP decrease (mainly because some shields, the ones with the small metal circle in their centers (I forget what they're called) included said feature for the sake of bashing), while larger ones (kite shields and upwards?) can be used to perform a shield shove- push an attacking enemy backwards a bit and make them flinch, in order to give you some breathing space.

KnZ said:

By the way, the shield's biggest disadvantage isn't represented in the game at all (correct me if I'm not right) - the shield covers some of your FOV. For example, when you use a shield, your enemy can even hide behind it, and you won't get the idea from where his next strike will be made (btw, shield also opens your legs, and some smart opponents use it, so if you don't have GOOD boots and greaves, you won't be able to walk after two or three minutes of fight ). There are also some special attacks made only against shields, and I have to say they are quite effective)

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Of course, the biggest ADVANTAGE of a shield isn't represtend at all, either. The ability to both block and strike at the same time. A close second is probibly the ability to get your opponants weapon stuck in your shield and close in for the kill.

corksacker69 said:

when you parry to deflect blows, you use a weapon. when you use a sheild , the only way the weapon wouldent hit full force is if you tilt the sheild sideways or somthing to deflect some force of the blow. but common, an entire skill for just that?

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Not neccessarily. Holding a shield aloft for any ammount of time is very tiring. Taking a solid blow to the shield feels like it just added ten minutes to how long you've been holding that thing up there. When you learn the basics of the shield, you gain an appreciation for just how wearing it is. However, when you start to get good at using it, you learn tricks like angling your shield to peer over and hide your attacks, and also how to block attacks at an angle and deflect most of the force, rather than absorbing it into your arm. Not only does this save damage to the shield, it saves wear and tear on your arm. Thus, a very viable reason why it would conserve block points (which I like, even if you have a shield that is solid steel, and there's little chance an enemy can break it. . .it's heavy as hell, and you can't hold it up forever).

A good bash can put your opponent in check-mate quick, especially if they aren't expecting it! I should clarify that, by bash, I mean putting your shoulder into the shield and giving the other guy a good ol' lineman love-tap(this actually has the benefit of giving your arm a moment's rest while your shoulder and momentum carry the shield, which is more replenishing than you'd think, plus, I'm sure the adrenaline from watching the other guy plop on his tailbone with a "you can't do that!" look on his face doesn't hurt either). Whacking someone with your shield arm is nice in concept, but even when I'd been working regularly with one, my arm was rubber and very slow after a few minutes of holding it up. Granted, I could still angle it to deflect blows, but winging my shield arm out there to thwack someone was straight out of the fuggin' question. Besides, the sheer physics of wind resistance means you'll be wasting too much energy on the shield swipe for too little effect. In "Conquest" the guy knows his stuff, most of the time. Unfortunately, he does tend to do the modern thing of forgetting just how fast fatigue can mount, and just how long battles last. For a quick melee in a tournament, sure, bash the heck out of your opponent, you may even have the energy for a shield swipe or two. On the battlefield, spend your energy like that, burning it all in the first 5 minutes of a 5 hour fight, and they'll be walking on your corpse for 4 1/2 hours.

I'd like shield bash to be added, but it should definitely subtract from your shield's block points. Also, I think it should mostly just push your opponent, and, if he's wide open, maybe knock him on his butt. However, I also think that most of the weapons bigger than a knife and maybe a hatchet (I'd grant this one to someone, but I disagree on it's effectiveness) would be nigh-on to useless aside from pommel strikes chest to chest. I think this should also be considered. Thus, a shield-bash or a push, if you have no shield, can get them back to striking range.

Shield bash is a very good idea. i wasnt thinking of the swing your arm to hit the opponent shield bash but to charge into them with your shiled to knock them over giving you the chance to hit them when they're down. One of my saved games my character carries two shields and a sword, since i like to sometimes go into a group of people and slay them and so i use my shield alot and i would like to use my shield also like a weapon.And if you're worry bout the HP for your shield why don't you just upgrade your shield mastery. I think shield bash is a good idea, for example when someone is trying to block your attacks you can use the shield bash to catch them off guard and knock them over instead of waiting for them to lower their shields or waiting for them to parry your blows. Shield bash! i wish it was implemented

My definition of a sheild bash is that one part in 300 where that guy is running at leonidas and he just slams his shield up and sends the guy sprawling to the ground.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FedyVShEavM

3 year old thread necro?  Crazy.

Well, if this was a good idea it would probably be in the game already.  Larger shields are mostly a passive defence; you move your attacks around it--the shields denies the opponent from attacking the covered portion.