I think Larian is trying to get away from RNG based defenses. I think to balance shields all shields need to come automatically with both Magic and Physical defense. In beta I played a sword and board dwarf and happened to get a very nice shield with as much armor as a unique bplate but still was not worth the investment and 2h was far more effective.
On top of that there need to be shield specific skillbooks that only work if one has a shield equipped. Those 2 things will make shields great again. *hair flop*
