I can't decide which is much better, Minsc's AC is -5 and he's dual wielding Foebane and Celestial Fury. Anomen is wielding Crom Faeyr and shield+5, his AC is -11. I got another shield+5. If I equip Minsc with it, his ac rating increases to -10. I can equip both of them with shields or give Anomen runehammer/crom faeyr for dual wielding. Do you agree or disagree? If I dual-wield them they gain +1 additional attack and their number of attacks increases to 4 from 3. 3 Attacks per round? 4 Attacks per round? -5 AC? -10 AC? let's discuss

You could always give Minsc the shield and keep it in his inventory using it only when you know you're gonna need the ac bonus . Thats what I do

It's not just defense vs offence ... you also need to weigh up the THACO. The offhanded weapon typically has a negative adjustment, unless you have two-weapon ability set to four stars.

Also, characters like Minsc specialised with two-handed weapons. Using a shield messes things up a bit. A two-handed sword and longbow combination always works well.

Plus, what would Boo say if he saw Minsc hiding behind a shield!!!!

If only we could dual weild sheilds and make our npc's take
all the fire.....

I ALWAYS have my Tank use a Shield, nothing else. Things like Dual-wielding & 2-Handed weapon are great for semi-Tanks (the guys right behind the Main Tank), but whoever's on Point really needs all the AC he can get. I would set Anomen on Point, with Minsc ready to jump out & start Dualing once Anomen has all the bad guys' attention.

The good thing about using a Shield is you don't even have to put weapon stars into it--adding those stars only improves your AC against missile attacks, and frankly who cares about AC against missiles if your guy's just gonna run up into the archers' faces anyway.