Riot Shield buff

[cypherusuh]

Atm, there's almost no reason to use riot gear shield, due to absolute inferiority compared to Spear. It's also losing against Parry, which imo much better due to Dex scaling and works with any armor, also it works with swapping weapon, regardless of melee skills, which makes the blocking mechanic accessible to all type of weapon instead of just 1-handed

My idea to buff riot Shield (and hopefully doesn't translate to nerfing all other blocking source) is :
1. Add ranged attack blocking, which makes riot Shield much better and special compared to other block source
2. Removes 2-handed weapon restriction (could be tied with current feat such as Arm Shield, new feat, only accessible with certain shield type, or by default)
3. Adds "reflect melee damage" (either from additional mod using Spiked/serrated, Feat, or by default) alongside with blocking, which enables high CON turtle build around it

Any other idea is welcomed 

[harperfan7]

It stacks with spear guard and parry, I believe. 

[cypherusuh]

It doesn't stack, although each block source triggered separately.
"stacking" block are way overkill, especially since it only works with melee attack, leaving ranged attack as biggest weakness. And due to shield weight, you'll have pretty high movement penalty, thus making this option almost impossible for low agi character. And with that high penalty, metal armor usually provides better defense for both melee and ranged, especially once you get lucky with good quality Super Steel

Which leaves to my 1st suggestion, still making RG shield less better than metal, but potentially better if the blocking proc

[ciox]

Riot shields seem balanced around you using properly specialized feats, like Armor Sloping, Boarding Up and Shield Bash, with all those you can block up to 150 damage, do 300 damage with a Shield Bash for no action points, and still run around and be fairly agile.

[harperfan7]

That's what I meant though; you can get both the spear block and shield block against the same attack.