About that one-handed skill and the with-shield skill, I wonder why so many people are angry by it.
I think it's because one-handed skill automatically implies one-handed-with-shield in all CRPGs up to this time--literally. I can't think of a previous game that has separated them out, and I've been playing CRPGs since the early 1980s.
So I took the skill, and equipped a shield because it provided me with a higher armor rating. I slogged through plenty of combat situations that were incredibly hard, despite putting as many as 5 points in this skill just to make those battles easier. Damn, I figured, those enemies must be very tough, even on this level of difficulty...!
Only later, after getting to my first battlefield, did I discover that the reason those battles were so infernally difficult was because I'd equipped a shield, literally nullifying my skill and all the points I'd dropped into it. And now, since (like every other player) I wanted to equip a shield, I was going to have to pay to get those points removed, and buy the skill with shield use.
Why do it that way? Why force players to buy a skill early in the game that no one in their right minds would invest in, given that a far better one exists? The only thing I can figure is because it's a cheap method of getting players to spend cash erasing their skills, so they have less gold available for items and other skills. In short, it's a money soak, and an irritating one. I don't mind money soaks if I feel like I'm getting something for my cash. But in this case, I feel a bit cheated by the arrangement of skills, forcing you to learn something that will prove largely useless as you advance. (This also applies to magic skills, since the really good ones don't show up until Act 2. By contrast, as much as I detest AD&D, their system does provide some level 1 and level 2 spells which remain very effective even after your character soars in power and experience.) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
