Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General Shields and shield skills.

I generally play as a "tank" type character that uses one handed weapons and shields. At a certain point I realized that using a shield in the first game really wasn't worth it. Especially because casters were so powerful, the extra armour/block wasn't balanced well enough in my opinion. The lack of shield specific skills was also quite disappointing, so I have a few ideas for the shield user in D:OS2.

1) During the twitch stream, they talked about the cover system. An ability to take cover behind a character with a shield would be really neat. So casters/archers would not have line of sight on the character behind the shield user. This could be an ability as simple as warrior targeting the skill on the adjacent party member that forces the next hit to be taken him/herself.

2) A "Hold the line" type skill. You activate the skill and select a line or area along the ground. When an enemy walks inside that line, your character will move and intercept the character and either interrupt the movement action (not refunding unused action points), or force a melee attack at reduced damage to waste their action points.

3) Crowd control skills. I believe that shield using characters should not do as much damage as a person dual wielding or using a large two-handed weapon, so in addition to the best defense and physical protection skills, perhaps add a bit of extra CC into the mix. Shield specific knock-downs, stuns, etc.

4) Magic interaction: casters in your group can temporarily charge your shield with elemental magic. It will become empowered with whatever element you cast on it. Electricity? Melee attackers will be stunned. Fire? Burned. Ice? Extra defense, but slowed due to more weight.

Enemies would also be able to cancel out or interact with the skills by casting spells on you. Opposite elements to cancel effects, or interactive elements to cause problems for you (such as casting an oil spell on a fire-shield user will cause that user to explode, or making it rain when your shield is electrified will stun you).

Thanks for making the best cooperative game my wife and I have ever played. We are looking forward to experiencing it again with the enhanced edition, and again with D:OS2 -- especially as a couple of dwarves!