I cannot figure out what shield skill actually does. I have a priest with about 20 in the skill, but he seems to get the same AC bonus from a given shield as anyone else, who all have less than 5. Can anyone give me a more stat based explination of the way this skill works. I would appreciate it.

I don't have stats but my observation is that if the shield is used in combat there is a % built toward shield skill increase. I put a shield on my Dwarven Priest who had 0 skill and he earned a point just carting it into battle.

It may be also that if the shield successfully/fails to deflect a physical blow, or a magic attack if applicable, this is what contributes to the building of the skill. Anyone know?

My Dracon fighter uses sword and shield style fighting. His Shield skill is 77 and uses a Heater Shield. The shield itself confers AC of +3, with my skill level in shields he gains an extra +3 to AC. Thats a total of +6 to both Base AC and Average AC. I think his Average AC is 22 so without the shield plus the Skill it would only be 16. Needless to say baddies miss in hurting him a fair bit because of this. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Shield skill also affects the damage inflicted by the weapon in your other hand (according to the skill description).

I'm not sure on the weight applied by actual shield skill, though.

I haven't been putting any level points into it, but I have about 60 skill in both my fighters at about level 12/13

A big part of the shield skill goes towards how often you'll deflect an attack with your shield. My fighter (human, sword & shield) has a shield skill of 64, and he deflects at least 5 times per battle. It's saved his butt quite a few times. It's just for physical attacks, though. Magic goes right through your shield.

I noticed that for my case, every 25 skill points adds a bonus AC.