Currently, the most useless build in the game is the 1 hand + shield. I think that shields need to be way more valuable to even consider playing this way.
I suggest giving shields both physical and magical armour at the same time (I'm anxious about writing that because it might be in the game and I just haven't seen it) because it would help them be more useful. A one handed melee person with a shield can run over fire because they know that they can take some damage, and be ok and these characters need to be able to move around the battlefield. On the other hand, a one handed mage sometimes needs the physical protection.
The only other suggestion would be to significantly increase the shield armour. I'm thinking double/triple etc.
Shield should have a 'Shield Up' move similar to the 'Staff of Magus' one:
Shield Up(2 AP cost, 1 turn cooldown) - Restore <number based on shield armor/level> of <type> Armor and end your turn.
I like Naqel idea of shield related skills, but I feel that a more drastic solution is in order.
Instead of having shields that increase the physical armor value, we should have shields that deflect a fixed amount of damage per hit (not a %). This value should scale with the level of the shield, of course. They should work more or less like weapons, in other words.
This way shields would be useful throughout a whole encounter, even after your physical armor is depleted.
