A different approach to Shield Block

[Megistone]

After much discussing and the math I did in the general discussion thread, I came to a new idea to manage Shield Block:

The amount of damage blocked is equal to half your level + your Strength modifier.
The shield's hardness works normally, further reducing damage to the shield itself, but not to the character.

This addresses a number of issues I have with how blocking is working:
1) The effectiveness of the block now scales with the character's skill, and not only with the shield you are using. After all, the fact that an harder shield absorbs more damage never fully convinced me, unless the item is breaking in two and letting the excess force go through.
2) The levels where your shield can't be upgraded see less of a drop in blocking effectiveness.
3) Shields become more durable, and while blocking with a non-sturdy one will probably still break it, at least you are saving yourself enough damage to make it worthwhile.

Besides that, it's another reason to encourage characters to pump Strength, a rather weak stat.

Now let's see some numbers.
At level 1, by the rules, you are blocking 3-5 damage, usually 5, and we have seen that it's a big amount. With my change you are maxed at 4, but a lower Strength build will block less.
Going up, a Strength-focused character will compare to the current rules like this:
Level 4: Sturdy Shield = 8, 1/2 level + Str = 6
Level 7: Sturdy Shield = 10, 1/2 level + Str = 7
Level 10: Sturdy Shield = 13, 1/2 level + Str = 10
Level 13: Sturdy Shield = 15, 1/2 level + Str = 11
Level 16: Sturdy Shield = 17, 1/2 level + Str = 13
Level 19: Sturdy Shield = 20, 1/2 level + Str = 16

We are close, but constantly under the expected amounts. To fix this, Sturdy Shields could give an item bonus to the amount blocked (between +2 and +4), which keeps them better than non-sturdy ones at their job.
Also, abilities like the Champion's Shield Ally should give a similar bonus instead (or together with) increasing the item's hardness.

Now, what happens when you block with an Arrow-Catching shield at level 11?
Average incoming damage is 28. You reduce it by 10 with your reaction, and take 18 damage yourself; your shield instead takes 12, just enough to break it.
In the minimum damage case (17 damage), you take 8 and the shield only 1; with max damage instead (39) you take 29 and the shield survives with 1 HP left.
Criticals are a different beast, and still destroy your shield in most cases.
Not exactly the situation I hoped for, but a still a big step forward IMO.

Do Sturdy Shield become indestructible instead? Well, mostly. Since their main function is now baseline, their bloated hardness is probably unneeded; we can reduce it to numbers that make sense and allow them to be actually damaged by average blows. But I'll come back to this later.

[HumbleGamer]

I'd go instead in the opposite direction.

If the problem is that a utility shield can't sustain a normal hit ( not a criticial one ) at high levels without being destroyed, would be wiser to work on HP instead of Hardness.

This will give the shield user the possibility to save the shield even after a block, but the block itself would be a block meant for an utility shield ( 6/8 Hardness ).

So, it would be the same calculation you proposed, but instead replacing it to the shield current Hardness, it will be a value added to the shield HP ( full level instead of 1/2 lvl, rounded up )

Level 4: Sturdy Shield = 64, level + Str = 8
Level 7: Sturdy Shield = 80, level + Str = 12
Level 10: Sturdy Shield = 104, level + Str = 16
Level 13: Sturdy Shield = 120, level + Str = 18
Level 16: Sturdy Shield = 136, 1/2 level + Str = 22
Level 19: Sturdy Shield = 160, 1/2 level + Str = 26

This way a non sturdy shield will be able to block 1 attack ( not a critical one ) of the same level but:

1) Will trade the raise shield action until the shield gets repaired again ( most of the attacks will break the shield )

2) The DR from shield block will be adequate to an utility shield ( so, a back line won't be able to exploit using an utility shield while maintaining the possibility, if an attack comes, to block as much damage as a sturdy one. the 2-4 hardness difference is nothing at high level if you compare to a 14 difference ).

3) A critical hit will probably destroy always destroy the utility shield ( this won't happen with high hardness )

4) Less chances to be able to forgo point 1 because of high hardness

5) Using a reaction to reduce 6/8 damage from an incoming attack would be the real deal, since the user deliberately decided not to go with a sturdy one.

...

So, the HP issue would be solved, but without dealing with the sturdy shields / utility shields balance.

[Seisho]

I like the hardness approach more since the Shield blocks function to reduce damage is also a thing that lacks in the higher levels, except from sturdy shields of course

Also I think the HP of a shield are really more of a material thing while it does make sense that blocking gets better through increased skill