Make shields great again - Dual Shields

Dual Shields

Two shields. Nobody gets a spell off.

Test release — please read this first

This is an early, and honestly under-tested, build. It changes combat maths, the enchanting window and how items are saved, so expect bugs.

• []Use a separate save. Not your main campaign. Items carrying the new enchantments need this mod installed to load properly.

  []Bug reports are very welcome. Please include your Log.txt from PillarsOfEternity_Data\Managed\UnityModManager\ and say which of the two modes you were running.

  []The rework has been played through a handful of fights, not a campaign. The vanilla mode has had even less testing than that.

  Requirements

  • []Unity Mod Manager 0. 33 or newer, Pillars of Eternity 3. 9.x.

    []Enchantment Workshop — required for the rework mode, which is what lets you take an enchantment back off a shield and rearrange an 18-point budget. Not needed if you only want the vanilla mode below.

    What it does

    Pillars of Eternity lets a shield go in the off hand only, and once it is there the shield's size changes nothing about hitting people with it. This mod puts a shield in either hand and builds a real playstyle on top of that: a tank who barely damages anything and wrecks casters instead.

    Two things had to be fixed before any of that was worth playing:

    • []A shield in the main hand punches. Equipment. PrimaryAttack only reads an AttackBase component off the main-hand item, and a shield has none — its bash lives on an enchantment. Only the off hand ever looks the bash up. So the game quietly falls back to fists.

      []Bashing does nothing to armour. Shield bash is crush damage with a low base, and against any real Damage Reduction it rounds down to nothing. Without armour penetration the whole build is decoration.

      Two modes, one toggle

      In the Unity Mod Manager window there is a single checkbox, Shield rework. Restart the game after changing it.

      • []Off — vanilla. A shield fits into either hand, the main hand bashes instead of punching, and the off-hand shield is attached and rendered properly. Everything else stays as the game wrote it: one shield's Deflection counts, stock enchantments, stock 12-point budget. Enchantment Workshop is not needed for this mode.

        []On — rework. Everything below. Needs Enchantment Workshop.

        Shield size decides the blow

        In vanilla, Shield. Category has no effect on the bash at all: BashAttack1.. 4 are shared by every shield.

        • []Small — 25% less damage, faster recovery, weaker Interrupt.

          []Medium — as the game intends.

          []Large — 40% more damage, slower recovery, stronger Interrupt and a 20% chance to shove the target back two metres.

          Armour penetration by tier

          Bashing 2/3/4/5 bypasses 1/2/3/4 Damage Reduction. The mod also rewrites the description of every Bashing tier: in vanilla they are all named the same and only the damage number grows, with no mention of penetration or shield size anywhere.

          Dual shield defence rules

          Deflection is the strongest defence in the game — it turns Crit into Hit, Hit into Graze, Graze into Miss. So the second shield does not simply stack:

          • []Deflection from the second shield counts at 25%, or 100% with Interlocked on both shields.

            []Reflex comes from the main shield only.

            []Accuracy penalties stack in full. This build pays for itself.

            []Damage Reduction from enchantments takes the better value, never the sum.

            []Identical triggered properties do not fire twice.

            The shield enchantment budget goes from 12 to 18 points. There is no separate cap on how many special enchantments fit — points are the only limit.

            Seven new enchantments

            []Pincer (3) — two shields: +25 Interrupt for both hands, as much as a critical hit is worth.

            []Double Doors (3) — two shields: +4 Damage Reduction, −15% movement speed.

            []Interlocked (3) — must be on BOTH shields: the second shield grants full Deflection.

            []Staggering (2) — hits and crits: 25% to Stun for 2 seconds, 6-second cooldown per victim.

            []Toppling (3) — critical hits knock the target Prone for 3 seconds.

            [*]Riposte (4) — a hostile melee miss triggers a free shie