Yeah we had a giant discussion about shields a while back, where a bunch of us proposed various shield-themed skills:

http://larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=587910#Post587910

Rant:
This is the reason why I voted for the shield skill tree in both rounds of community votes... cuz I just know shield is going to be crap without any help again LOL. We have 5 schools of magic coming back from DOS1 already. I think they can do with a bit less magic and more martial type skills to help out those that want more brawns as opposed to the brains :P.