An armour piece for a bracer that has a shield attached
Type
Models
NWN2Game
All
Description
In a previous suggestion I made (http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2Ideas.Detail&id=358) I noted that NPCs wield monkeygripped spears+shield differently from PCs, and suggested that while imperfect, this animation would be an improvement for PCs. Here I present an alternative idea for much the same effect.
If a model of an armour piece for a bracer were made that had a shield attached (purely visually), then it would be possible, using the toolset to create or modify suits of armour, to wear this while wielding a spear normally (with no shield or second weapon) and appear to be using a spear+shield while using the two-handed thrusting attack animations, instead of the usual ridiculous slashing attacks you get with monkeygrip.
Obviously for symmetry reasons, pairs of gauntlets could not be produced to create this effect. However, using the toolset it is possible to create custom armour that features assymetrical bracer arrangements, whereby a left hand bracer featuring a "shield" could be created.
This would be perhaps a less elegant solution than somehow getting the PC to use the animations NPCs get to use, but what can I say, to me (and I'm sure others), the ability to play a spear+shield using character - even if only in appearance - is important.
The main downsides would be that there would in fact be no shield (or shield bonuses) conferred, and the spear would be in fact wielded as a two-handed weapon, though to some extent these could be considered to cancel each other out. Monkeygrip would not be necessary to appear to be using spear+shield, but then, single handed spears should in truth exist in the game anyway. Finally, to use this option the PC would have to use custom armour specifically designed to use this bracer model.
Not being a modeller myself, I can only speculate as to the difficulty involved, but I would assume that existing shield models could be in a sense pasted on, perhaps reducing the amount of work to be done. If that is the case, then ideally a selection could be produced based on the standard and some of the excellent custom shield models.
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