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Suggestions / Shield Bash & Boarding Up Improvements
« on: March 20, 2025, 09:43:35 am »
I.e. guess what kind of build I have been playing recently:
1) It would be neat if Shield Bash's cooldown could be refreshed after each 4 or 5 successful melee attacks performed on the same turn. I noticed that 'charging' Shield Bash with 5 hits required to stack Boarding Up is similar to pneumatic hammer activation. It feels nice to fulfil some condition, however small, in order to deal more damage, so it would be neat if Shield Bash were to become conditionally available multiple times per turn via this kind of interaction. For bonus meme points this mechanic could be tied to Shield Arm, an overall horrendous feat that nobody ever wants to takeand that should really just be integral to shields by default. If Shield Arm bore the offensive component of promoting Shield Bash's rate of usage, it might actually start serving a purpose.
2) Boarding Up should also increase the chance block per stack by 5%/10%. Not like shields are amazing and often used anyway, and not like having a somewhat strong defence exclusively against melee attacks is all that broken. Spears can already block more or about as much as top shields, but at 100% chance with Spear Guardian and without locking the wielder into a specific armour type. Shields meanwhile offer a 50% chance to block at best and even that with Shield Arm, an overall horrendous feat that nobody ever– right, you get the idea.
3) Applying Daze onto an already Dazed enemy should Stun the target for 1 turn. I saw this interaction in Darkest Dungeon 2, where applying Daze on an enemy that already has a Daze token upgrades it into a Stun token instead. If Underrail were to adopt a similar mechanic, Boxing Gloves would immediately become broken beyond belief, boxer builds rise up! jk
4) I may come off as a shield fa– enjoyer, but at the same time I think that sledgehammer attacks shouldn’t be blockable at all or should bypass a considerable percentage of block value depending on the block source. Sledges already have the real life gimmick of disregarding living targets’ mechanical threshold, so it’s really odd for melee block, which is pretty much just a separate situational mechanical threshold, to be exempt. I could see a shield mitigating a hit from a hammer partly but certainly not fully, a portion of the impact would still be transferred to the body just like it would through armour. Blocking even the tiniest fraction of a heavy hammer swing with a sword, knife or your own hands – Guard feat or Boxing Gloves – sounds rather preposterous.
I hereby rescind all responsibility for suggesting what might have already been proposed a long time ago.
1) It would be neat if Shield Bash's cooldown could be refreshed after each 4 or 5 successful melee attacks performed on the same turn. I noticed that 'charging' Shield Bash with 5 hits required to stack Boarding Up is similar to pneumatic hammer activation. It feels nice to fulfil some condition, however small, in order to deal more damage, so it would be neat if Shield Bash were to become conditionally available multiple times per turn via this kind of interaction. For bonus meme points this mechanic could be tied to Shield Arm, an overall horrendous feat that nobody ever wants to take
2) Boarding Up should also increase the chance block per stack by 5%/10%. Not like shields are amazing and often used anyway, and not like having a somewhat strong defence exclusively against melee attacks is all that broken. Spears can already block more or about as much as top shields, but at 100% chance with Spear Guardian and without locking the wielder into a specific armour type. Shields meanwhile offer a 50% chance to block at best and even that with Shield Arm, an overall horrendous feat that nobody ever– right, you get the idea.
3) Applying Daze onto an already Dazed enemy should Stun the target for 1 turn. I saw this interaction in Darkest Dungeon 2, where applying Daze on an enemy that already has a Daze token upgrades it into a Stun token instead. If Underrail were to adopt a similar mechanic, Boxing Gloves would immediately become broken beyond belief, boxer builds rise up! jk
4) I may come off as a shield fa– enjoyer, but at the same time I think that sledgehammer attacks shouldn’t be blockable at all or should bypass a considerable percentage of block value depending on the block source. Sledges already have the real life gimmick of disregarding living targets’ mechanical threshold, so it’s really odd for melee block, which is pretty much just a separate situational mechanical threshold, to be exempt. I could see a shield mitigating a hit from a hammer partly but certainly not fully, a portion of the impact would still be transferred to the body just like it would through armour. Blocking even the tiniest fraction of a heavy hammer swing with a sword, knife or your own hands – Guard feat or Boxing Gloves – sounds rather preposterous.
I hereby rescind all responsibility for suggesting what might have already been proposed a long time ago.