The User of this skill has a shield of some sort on his/her off-hand arm. The character is treated as using two weapons in terms of weapons and shields allowable due to weight and wieldiness. Use twice the shield’s Enc value as the Weapon’s Strength Rating for this purpose.A secondary attack is allowed using the shield. It is subject to the usual rules for such attacks. The WDM for a shield used in this way is the Shield Factor divided by 10. Damage is C type. Large shields add to a character’s Overall Defense Ability in Hand to Hand combat and all shields add to the Overall Defense Ability against any missile attacks coming through the character’s front hexes. A shield is struck by any attack when the attack is successful and hits any location covered by the shield or when the die roll of the unsuccessful attack falls is in the range protected by the shield. The range protected by the shield is equal to any additions the shield gives to the character’s Overall Defense Ability and, in the case of a Hand to Hand attack, the character’s Weapon Defense Ability. A missile attack that falls into the range protected by the shield still has a 50% chance of attacking the character. If it does the missile weapon will still be reduced by the Minimum Barrier Effect of the shield. Roll for hit location normally.A shield struck with a successful attack must be penetrated before any damage can be applied to penetrating the armor of the target. Bullets will have their BDG reduced by the minimum Barrier Effect of the shield. This yields the effective BDG used to determine the die to be rolled for Damage Potential. Arrows and crossbow bolts will have their effect Strength Group reduced by 1 for every 10 points or portion thereof of Barrier Effect. Other muscle powered missile weapons and Hand to Hand weapons have their normal Damage Potential determined. From this is subtracted the minimum Barrier Effect of the shield. The result is the effective Damage Potential, which may then be applied to the target. Any time that the normal Damage Potential of a successful attack exceeds the overall Barrier Effect of the shield, that shield is reduced to the next lower class. A shield struck by an unsuccessful attack will be attacked. Bullets will reduce the shield by one class if their effective BDG upon striking the shield exceeds the overall Barrier Effect of the shield by 3 times its value. Arrows and crossbow bolts will not reduce the shield but will stick in the shield and add their ENC value to the ENC value of the shield. Other muscle powered missile weapons will attack the shield as Hand to Hand weapons do and will stick in the shield to add their ENC value to that of the shield if the shield user doesn’t make a Deftness Ability Saving Throw to dislodge them. Hand to Hand weapons will reduce the shield class by one if damage done is twice the minimum Barrier Effect of the shield.It requires 1 Action to remove a shield and 2 Actions to put on, sling or unsling a shield.

Consider Kelly and his old Police shield. The Shield is a class 4 and is made of 1/2 inch of heavy plastic. The upper third is clear. The Barrier Value of plastic is 20.Minimum Barrier Effect is 1/2 times 20 or 10. Overall Barrier Effect is the class (4) divided by 2 times the Minimum Barrier Effect (10) for a value of 20. The ENC Value is the Overall Barrier Effect (20) times the shield’s factor (15 for Class 4) times the thickness (.5 inches) times a constant (.005 for plastics) yielding a value of .75 ENC. Kelly’s Skill score in Shield Use is 80 giving him a Weapon Defense Ability of 4. When he is attacked in Hand to Hand combat, he will add this Weapon Defense Ability to his Combat Dodge Ability to get his Overall Defense Ability. Since he is using a Class 4 shield he will add an additional 1 to this for a total Overall Defense Ability of 7. (His Combat Dodge Ability is 2). An opponent’s attack could miss him totally, strike him cleanly, strike the shield, or hit him on a portion of his arm covered by the shield. If his opponent’s Basic Chance of Success were 15 it would be determined like this:

*Any other die roll indicates a clean miss. Note that the results of 9 or 10 are misses due to Kelly’s CDA.

Missile attacks against a character carrying a shield are resolved in a similar fashion. Of course the character may not apply his Weapon Defense Ability against a missile attack but the type of movement in which he is engaged may enhance his Combat Dodge Ability. Any attack die roll falling in the range protected by the shields plus to the Overall Defense Ability is considered to attack the shield. Thus, in Kelly’s case, against an opponent with a BCS of 15, the shield adds 4 to his ODA. Any attack die roll from 12 to 15 would attack the shield.

Basic statistics on shields:

Minimum Barrier Effect = (Barrier value of material x thickness)
Overall Barrier Effect = (Class/2,up) x (Minimum Barrier Effect)
ENC Value = (Overall Barrier Effect x Factor x Thickness x K)
K = .005 for plastic; .02 for metals; and .01 for other materials.