Good Morning All. I am new to this forum and fairly new to this terrific game. I have been progressing nicely so far but having just stepped into Dragon's Eye, I suspect the difficulty of the game was just kicked up a notch. Anyway, I have a question that perhaps someone can answer for me. Even though all my fighters are equipped with one-handed swords, when I try to equip them with shields I am told that I have two handed weapons equipped and the game refuses to let me carry the shields. Can anyone tell me why that is?

Welcome to the Boards, Cursedshadow. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

To answer your question, do any of your fighters have a bow or crossbow in their weapons slot? If so, you've got to remove them in order to equip yourself with a shield. Even if you're not USING the bow, you still cannot have it in the quick weapons slot if you try to equip your shield. If that's not the problem, I'm stumped.

[ 10-07-2002, 10:44 AM: Message edited by: Keraptisdm ]

Welcome Cursedshadow!

Keraptisdm is most likely correct. There are times I feel like having everyone carry slings or a throwing ax just so they can use some of the great shields found in the game.

[ 10-07-2002, 12:45 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Oh. You're probably absolutely right. I have assigned points to ranged items for all my characters and I didn't realize I would have to remove them altogether to equip the shield. I am on a different pc right now but when I get back to my gmaing machine, I will give it a try. I am sure you're right. Thanks.

Give it a try CursedShadow and let us know if that worked. In my fighter's four quick weapon slots I ususally have: bow, two-handed sword, long sword, mace/flail. (Mace or flail to beat on skeletons)
I use the bow for the ranged attacks. As monsters close to melee distance, I switch to one of the other weapons without equipping shield. If I'm in an area and know that I cannot use the bow, I remove it and the two-handed sword from my quick weapon slots, place them in the inventory slots, equip shield, use long sword, engage. You can also switch weapons and equip shield when paused (even in the middle of combat), but some get :mad: if you tell them that. Full report on my desk tomorrow morning, soldier.

Well, I am surprised as heck but that didn't work. I have a long sword equipped, no bow in my weapon slots and when I try to equip the shield it tells me I have a two-handed weapon equipped. I don't have the game patched but I didn't think I had to if I have HOW installed. Any other ideas?

Never seen this problem before CursedShadow. I would have sworn that the advice about unequipping the bows / crossbows would have solved the problem. I have a couple of suggestions:

1) Unequip ALL weapons, shields etc. Then requip ONE weapon only, make sure its a one handed weapon (check the weapon description CAREFULLY just to make sure). Then try equipping the shield.

2) If suggestion #1 doesn't work, try this. download the v1.41 patch for HOW and install that.

3) If neither of the first two suggestions work, then grit your teeth, back up your saved games, and characters and any custom portraits and *sigh* uninstall EVERYTHING and reinstall. Make sure the installation is in THIS order:

IWD - HOW - HOW patch v1.41 (or alternatively Trials of the Luremaster in place of the v1.41 patch) You do NOT have to install any of the IWD specific patches if you install HOW over IWD as HOW updates IWD to version 1.40 and includes all previous patches.

I would try removing the sword as well just in case it is two-handed. The other thing that it could be is that the shield is class related like only can be used by elves but it would be a strange message to get than. Other than that I am completely baffeled.

Well, I am sure it is a one handed weapon. When I right-click on it , the description is of a long sword and it is decribed as a one-handed weapon. I use my bow so often, maybe I'll jusr suck it up and do without shields (this problem applies to all my fighters). Thanks for your suggestions, though. I will download the HOW patch and see what happens.