A follow up question would be: why is there a slot for melee weapon and another for range? Couldn't they be interchangeable? We should be able to equip one handed weapon + shield on one slot and the other a two handed weapon if we don't want our character to wield any ranged for example. This limitation doesn't make much sense in my opinion.
I might be wrong, but I think the character keeps the shield bonus even when they're using their range weapon. So if you have a shield and sword equipped for melee and a longbow equipped for range, and let's say you change between the two to go over to a longbow, I'm pretty sure you keep the +2 shield bonus to your AC. I'm not sure that you *should*, but I think that you do, at least in the game right now.
If you had a secondary build with a great sword instead of a longbow, I think you'd end up getting a shield bonus while fighting with a two handed great sword.
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Regarding being able to equip a long sword and a hand crossbow, I completely agree. It's something the character should be able to do, and I'd also like to see it as a possibility in the game.
