Stupid question on shields

[Mark Maxis]

I recently read that you can gain protection from shields without actually equiping shields. ( If your naked and only have a shield and two handed weapon, your shield can still counter damage as armor). With this level up the block skill?

[BarbarianHeart]

You can block with a two-handed weapon. It just doesn't work as well as using a shield.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by BarbarianHeart:

You can block with a two-handed weapon. It just doesn't work as well as using a shield.

No you can't, this isn't oblivion or Skyrim.

As to the op. No you won't gain blocking skill that only goes up when you block successfully, but you do get the defense of the shield if it's equipped and you have a 2 handed weapon

[The Flying Rodent]

It's not a stupid question. Morrowind is weird.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/2ri9kv/total_equipment_slots/

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Combat#Armor

You can wear ALL types of Armour and Clothing slots at the same time in Morrowind, totalling 18 different equipment slots.

Clothing-only slots are:

1. Shirt,
2. Pants,
3. Belt,
4. Skirt,
5. Robe [yes, you can somehow wear these 5 items all at the same time],
6. Amulet,
7. Left Ring,
8. Right Ring.

Armour-only slots are:

9. Cuirass/Chest Plate,
10. Helmet,
11. Greaves,
12. Left Pauldron,
13. Right Pauldron,
14. Shield.

Slots that you can equip either clothing OR armour in are:

15. Boots or Shoes,
16. Left Glove or Left Gauntlet/Bracer,
17. Right Glove of Right Gauntlet/Bracer.

And then finally, no. 18 is the weapon slot.

When it comes to armour, all the slots contribute a % total to your armour rating. If the slots are left blank or taken up by clothing, then your Unarmoured skill + associated Armour Rating is counted for this slot instead.

In order of protection:

Chest: 30%
Helmet: 10%
Greaves: 10%
Boots: 10%
RIght Pauldron: 10%
Left Pauldron: 10%
Shield: 10%
Left Glove: 5%
Right Glove: 5%.

The 'Shield' slot is one such slot: it contributes to 10% of a character's armour rating even if they're currently wielding a Two-Handed weapon, and will be treated as an Unarmoured slot if no shield is equipped.

Block is an percentage chance [based off of block skill] automatic action in Morrowind, and requires the character to be wielding a One-Handed Weapon and a Shield at the same time. Block skill only increases if the character is actually 'blocking' something.

If the character is wielding a Two-Handed weapon and a shield, they'll receive the Armour Rating from the Shield, but they won't be able to 'block' anything, and so they won't be able to level up their Block skill.

[Caethyril]

Worth noting that there is an option in the Morrowind Code Patch to unequip the shield when equipping a two-handed weapon.