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I posted this on another thread but honestly wanted to throw some ideas out there that might be able to improve shields as part of a character equipment instead of feeling disposable.
I like the idea of shields reducing damage in theory as I love a sword and board fighter.
The RAW shield concept makes using a shield more dynamic so I would like to see it continue with some modifications.
Some of the ideas I was throwing around:
Increase dent amount.
3 minimum, and have item quality affect number of dents and not just hardness.
(Ex. Standard Steel shield - 5 hardness/ 3 dents. ->. Expert steel shield - hardness 6/ 4 dents, etc.)
Increase material hardness from base value since manufacturing a shield would make it reinforced to be more sturdy. The idea would be you are not hitting a piece of timber, you are hitting a reinforced banded wooden shield.
(Ex. Wood hardness 3, standard wooden shield hardness 6./ steel hardness 5, standard steel shield hardness 10, etc.)
Also it would make sense to use the current quality progression for hardness for an item, so better materials are still inviting to use for manufacturing a shield but quality increase would still be desirable. (Ex. Standard Steel Shield hardness 10/ 3 dents, Expert Steel Shield hardness 11/ 4 dents, Master Steel Shield hardness 13/ 5 dents, etc.)
Make it so when the shield is Broken you can still apply the AC bonus if you raise shield.
Basically you get a few damage reductions during combat and if you run out you still have higher AC for having the shield, then repair it between combat in downtime or resting.
Allow characters to shield block with a broken shield, but if it receives a dent when broken, then it is destroyed.
Allows you to really have some dynamic combat decissions in a big fight.
Just some thoughts I had to make shields really fun to use and more like a utility item during combat rather than a consumable.