Dodge and Shield skills are making a comeback

[Rias]

Tweak those goals spreadsheets: The Dodge and Shield skills are making a comeback. I'll give a brief explanation tonight, and go into it further some other time when I'm not dead tired.

Melee skill will continue to grant full one-for-one Parry defense. It will grant partial Dodge and Block defense. Note that a number of attacks cannot be parried, such as ranged attacks and powerful physical attacks such as a bison charge.

Dodge skill will grant no offense ability, but a bit higher than one-for-one Dodge defense. Dodge is overall the superior defensive option, being able to dodge any type of physical attack (including less-conventional ranged attacks like occult projectiles). You get the most pure defensive bang for your buck with this one, so this is the clear choice for non-combatants who nonetheless want to be able to survive combat situations. They should be able to get by with somewhat lower skill point investments if they just want to survive combat and not worry about going on the offensive.

Shield skill will grant one-for-one Block defense, and will also go toward various shield-related skills, including some offense-oriented shield moves (bashes, charges, and so forth). This will be particularly useful for Guardians and Marauders, and generally for those who just want to maximize defensive options: shields are the best defense against ranged attacks, and good against most melee attacks (again, exceptions would be things such as a bison charge - you're not going to stop that with your shield).

Yay ever-changing combat.

[Rias]

P.S. Shield skill would include using occult shielding, as was asked about a while back. Old wizened elder who can't effectively wield a weapon or move quick enough to dodge? Pick up the Shield skill and protect yourself with occult discs of force or solidified nether, and other fun stuff like that.

Goofy mages.

[Candelori]

I appreciate the opportunity for additional specialization in shields, and this looks like good news for non-warriors who wish to explore the more dangerous parts of the world.

[Kiyaani]

It seems like you're wanting Shield and Dodge to be things people have to put points into - which is cool, especially in regards to being able to have more specialized defenses for combat-orientated builds, but will definitely require some adjustment to my build. Since that's the case though I have a few questions about how this is going to work:

Will it be possible for occult/magic users to have defensive spells that don't require Shield skill? I've always considered the magic-type shields to be pretty different mechanically from using an actual physical shield - especially if you're using something like nether which is pseudo-sentient to begin with. It seems weird to me that someone using a physical shield would have the same shield training as someone using some sort of magical barrier, disc, or orb protection, but maybe I'm just not understanding how the occult shield spells function.

How is Dodge going to differentiate from Acrobatics? Couldn't they be similar in many cases where a low acrobatics skill would be basic combat dodging/avoidance, but high acrobatics is more of the fancy gymnastics stuff? Is it possible for them to be somewhat interchangeable? Will they work together somehow or are they going to be completely separate?

You mentioned that Melee Skill will give some basic block and dodge defense. Would Ranged Skill also give some dodge since you would be actively trying to stay at ranged and thus trying to avoid close combat - or will Ranged not offer the same benefit as Melee in this regard?

[Rias]

For shield-like defenses you will indeed need the Shield skill. Occult shields are still centered around one hand and need to be moved around skillfully and tactically to block incoming attacks - there's no magic covering that aspect of moving the shield around intelligently for you.

Were we to say occult shields are different than regular shields, then I suppose I'd have to add another skill. The bottom line is that you're not going to get block-type defense without an associated skill - there's no way it's going to be based on, say, the Arcana skill just because it's an arcane conjuration - the arcane knowledge gave you the ability to form the shield, but not to use it skillfully. Just like using occult ranged attacks require the Ranged Combat skill to use effectively. Arcana skill imparts the ability to conjure the occult bolts, but nothing about studying glyphs and diagrams and spells imparts the ability to skillfully aim attacks in combat against moving targets.

As I've said before, I'm strongly against magic users being able to cut corners skillwise "because magic." Combat is one facet of this game - for one to excel at combat, whether offensively or defensively, one will have to train combat-related skills of some kind.

This isn't to say there can't/won't be occult powers that enhance combat abilities, but those would be enhancers and modifiers that are still based on related skills.

Regarding Acrobatics: I'm honestly not sure what place it has at the moment. I could see it possibly granting some fractional non-stacking dodge ability (taking the better of the two), but I could also see the skill being axed altogether - I'm really not sure what to do with it. It could probably be made into an Affinity instead of a Skill.

Ranged skill grants some dodge ability like Melee does, though less against melee, more against ranged. It's specifically "ranged combat", so some defensive combat maneuvering/tactics is implied, even if less a focus than with Melee since Ranged will have chances to avoid attacks outright by simply being out of range.