Shield Bonus anomaly

[bennis1980]

I noticed the shield bonus isn't showing up in the DB of the combat tracker although it is totalling in the combat tab on the character sheet. I've used the Special bonus field instead and this works for now.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[Dakadin]

The shield bonus will only show up if you have the attacker selected for the shield or the All check box selected. Give it a try and let me know if that doesn't work.

[bennis1980]

Ah, okay. I'll try it when I get home

[lachancery]

Just a bit more information to get the shield working when you run it at home:

1) The shield must be dragged onto the combat tracker into the Weapons section, its DB value must be set, and the toggle "Use?" must be activated.

2) In the combat tracker, after clicking on the shield & sword icon for the character, you will initially see (none) under the heading "Defend vs". When the player selects a target by clicking on its icon on the battle map, all these (none) are set to the target automatically.

3) The shield DB will only be used when that target attacks the player.

4) Alternately, the toggle "All?" can be set and the shield will be used to defend against all attacks on that target. There's an optional rule in Rolemaster that allows parrying multiple opponents.

If you encounter any issue with the above, paste a screenshot of the combat tracker and attack resolver, we should be able to figure it out from that.

[bennis1980]

Thanks for your help. It works perfectly when I do as you describe, but I don't see the purpose of the "Shield" bonus field under "Defensive Bonus" and the "Combat" tab of the character sheet. It don't seem to be used at all and it's quite confusing.

[Dakadin]

I think it was setup for informational purposes initially. Different types of DB only apply in certain situations so adding them up is only showing the best possible scenario.

I plan on doing some work on the character sheet fairly soon. I already have some ideas of how it needs to change but I am always looking for other people's ideas to see if I need to change the approach. Do you have any suggestions on how you think it should be handled?

[bennis1980]

Since you asked, I think all DB should be handled the same way (from a user perspective) moving forward.

So if Adrenal Defense is added automatically from the skill and speed bonus is added from the stat, then the shield bonus should (in theory) be added automatically from the item. The method Yves describes the best way, but it should be made more intuitive, like "place shield here" instead of putting it with the weapons (maybe in the Defensive Bonus section. If it goes with the weapons, should it not have a shield bash option?

Can the shield field in Defensive Bonuses section be removed/replaced with a drag and drop area? Of course the special DB field should remain for "lightning reflexes and the likes.

...just a few thoughts.