Is a sword and shield build viable in late game, your best guess?

[solaris32]

Obviously the full game isn't out yet, so I'm asking for your best guess.

I love playing defensive tank builds with a shield. Problem is in the majority of rpgs shield builds suck in the late game, because enemies do so much damage that your armor matters little, when going 2-handed damage focused matters a whole lot more. Kill fast or be killed fast.

Hopefully that's not the case here.

[Ronin Gamer]

There are certain classes/sub classes that get bonuses to having a shield or wielding a single weapon in one hand which allows you to have a shield in the other, so I'd hope that would be the case.

Also AC in this game focuses on if an attack even hits you, not reducing damage.

[Enclave]

Of course it'll be viable, higher AC is very handy for certain builds. I'd be shocked if it wasn't viable.

It may not be OPTIMAL but optimal and viable mean very different things.

[Gunslinger]

If its like dnd 5th, which it should be, sword and shield should work fine

[Aldain]

With bounded accuracy being a factor any AC increase is a good increase even if it comes at a small damage loss.

Also depending on how Larian does the itemization Shields could well have extra bonuses on them that would give a SwordnBoard style some extra utility/stats over a 2hander.

[Recjawjind]

Shields don't reduce your damage taken, they make you harder to hit. A regular, mundane shield effectively reduces your chance to be hit by 10%, magical shields reduce it by more (up to 25% for the highest tier of shields in regular 5e dnd), and larian has already shown that they are putting in a bunch of very fancy magic items, that aren't just straight from 5e dnd. Shields are effective, yes. Without taking magical weapons into account, you are losing an average of 2-2.5 damage per hit over using a two handed weapon, which is generally a pretty worthwhile tradeoff.

[larhtas]

I always play a shielded character. And it is very effective. You even have a feat to make it even more powerful (shield master).

[Yojo0o]

Shields are good. Depending on how Larian's high-tier DMing is, they may even prove to be optimal.

[solaris32]

I'm happy to hear it :).

[Foolswalkin]

Duelist style is great for Paladins. Brings your average longsword damage up to average Greatsword when going sword and board. Not as good on crits, but that is what smites are for.

[Edstyles]

Optimal ? Maybe not . Viable id say yes

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by solaris32:

I love playing defensive tank builds with a shield.

The majority of rpgs shield builds suck in the late game.

Enemies do so much damage that your armor matters little

Going 2-handed damage focused matters a whole lot more. Kill fast or be killed fast.

That's what healers are for. To keep your Fighter alive while he agros the enemies.

Your damage-dealer can target vulnerable enemies while your ranged character snipes.

Pretty Simple.

It's hard to kill a tank in a Larian game.

It's much easier in PvP because humans are smart.

[larhtas]

Yes if you want to make more damage take the duellist feat (for fighter or paladin) because it works with shields.
But if you are looking for tanking maybe take defensive instead.
And at last there is the fighter (paladin) feat "protector" (if i'm not sure about the name) and in tabletop it is not considered very good. So maybe do some research about it if you want to consider.

[Kyutaru]

Roll a Barbarian instead and just soak the damage with reduction.

[Recjawjind]

Oh yeah one caveat to shields being good is... karmic dice.
If you haven't already, please turn it off. It sucks.

If you run a shield and get more AC, the enemies just suddenly start rolling better against you, making the investment into defenses pointless :)

[larhtas]

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

Oh yeah one caveat to shields being good is... karmic dice.
If you haven't already, please turn it off. It sucks.

If you run a shield and get more AC, the enemies just suddenly start rolling better against you, making the investment into defenses pointless :)

+1
I recommand disable kharmic dice always in this game