I was sort of surprised by the FAQ because those shields have been that way for a long time. We generally avoided them because you couldn't recharge them on reset.
Snakeskin Tunic is also magic armor without the recharge power, and it's not even a shield. I never assumed that to be the "standard" ability of magic armor and I'm surprised by the FAQ too.
I've been noticing this as we go through RoRL. Stuff like Arrow-Catching Studded Leather doesn't have it either. In part, I assumed this was space on the card as much as balance. Arrow Catching Studded Leather has three separate paragraphs for powers, etc.
I hate armor a bit less now. Lol
(Assuming this does apply to all magic armor)
We're going over this issue. In the early stages of the game, we were looser about what templates meant. Now we're cleaning them up a bit, prompted mostly by the need for consistency in the Obsidian game and the class decks.
I can tell you that we intentionally kept this power away from all the Bucklers. They do not have the Off-Hand trait, which meant that something had to go to make them not just clearly better than their equivalent Shields.
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I can tell you that we intentionally kept this power away from all the Bucklers. They do not have the Off-Hand trait, which meant that something had to go to make them not just clearly better than their equivalent Shields.
Which makes a lot of sense. So an easy decision (and easy to remember) would be shield = recharge, buckler = no recharge.
I missed Snakeskin Tunic when I compiled my list. Thanks!
The fact that you're working on giving more consistency to support the Obsidian game reassures me a lot. Thanks.
Working on it. And lots of other things.
Huh... Last night I was checking my Deck 4 (just got them a few days ago), and unless I'm mistaken, I think I found a card that probably answers what the designer intent was for shields.
There is this unique shield (I can't remember the name) that is Magic and it's ONLY Power besides the standard Reveal is "Recharge if proficient". If that was always intended as power for all the shields - then there's nothing unique about this card, and it's no different than a generic 'Magic Shield'.. Or maybe I'm missing something?
I think you are missing that Animated Shield doesn't have the Offhand trait, and thus can be played even if you have played a 2-Handed weapon.
Hah. Yeah,this totally went over my head... Maybe it's just because "Offhand" is such a bothersome power, memory -wise :) It's one of the reasons we almost never carry shields for Combat dmg reduction - it's just not worth it to build your weapons around it, and anyway you slice it - 2-Handers were the best weapons in RotR, both Ranged or Melee. (Spiny Shield and Reflecting Shield were the only two we kept in a party of 6, but that's cause they have properties that are just too useful outside of the Combat check)
For characters like Jirelke and Seltyiel, one handed weapons are their bread and butter, so the shields have come in handy at times :)
Offhand is a really bothersome power. I'm sure there were one or two instances where we used a Mokmurian's Club and Reflecting Shield combo without realizing it.
But, I'm in the camp that least-favors armor. It's definitely more relevant in S&S (especially wit my nemesis, the Manticore, who seems to pop up every other game), but still armor's main power seems to be mitigating pre/post encounter damage, which Offhand doesn't matter for, so shields still have their uses, especially the one Reflecting Shield-ish buckler thing. We've only played characters with Light Armor proficiency, so that Shield seems better than just about any other light armor in the deck.