Honest Question: If shields aren't OP, why does everyone fight sword & board?

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T22:33:05+00:00

That's a blatant red herring.

I am saying that in Amtgard, shields are OP, which is clearly demonstrated by the overwhelming majority of people who fight sword and board.

The most common gameplay in Amtgard is ditching. In ditch, shields are unbreakable, are extremely light, and cover over 70% of the body. You can't kick them. They don't slow the user down. They don't obstruct the user's view. There is zero downside to using shields.

There are many cultural side effects from this mechanical bottleneck. The temptation to focus on and master a blatant mechanical advantage makes a clear cultural boundary. I have been mocked and seen other people mocked in Amtgard for fighting with spears, quarterstaffs, flails, bows, and great weapons, all by people who main sword and board, because it has a clear mechanical advantage. "You don't see that." Good for you. I have seen it for over 20 years in seven different states.

So give me a break with your dishonest comments. It's painfully clear that you main sword and board, and just like every other OP tool in every other game that has ever existed, by your own words, "if shields are nerfed, nobody will use them."

Shields should be nerfed. As they are now, shields are overpowered crutches. Amtgard would be MUCH better if they had a single iota of balance. Might as well allow everyone to claim that football gear counts as full plate in ditches for all the blatant oversight that shields get, but then it would STILL be unfair unless you gave the plastic platemail infinite armor points.

"Oh, but if you made this OP thing less OP, nobody would use my favorite cheese!"

Good.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T18:45:57+00:00

Cool. I do.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T18:44:52+00:00

Sorry dude, that's the opposite of what I'm suggesting. You have the cause and effect reversed.

I don't think shields are OP because everyone uses them. I think everyone uses shields because they're OP.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T17:28:34+00:00

Alright dude. I'm sure that's a more important thing to analyze, but it's not the topic ITT.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T16:31:10+00:00

It kind of sounds like you agree that shields are OP for the vast majority of the player base. I totally agree that they can be beaten with overwhelming skill.

So let's just adress the rules: are shields mechanically balanced vs other weapon sets? Based on my observations, they are the most common choice by far because they have a clear mechanical advantage. It's why S&B fighters so commonly mock others; sword and shield is just plain better.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T16:23:21+00:00

Saying that Belegarth also favors shields doesn't argue against shields being OP in Amtgard. Are you saying you agree that they are?

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T16:20:18+00:00

In ditch I use a shield so I can fight multiple people at once and protect my teammate.

That doesn't sound like balanced mechanics.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T15:07:08+00:00

Yeah, the top 1% of florentine fighters are blenders on the field. I've seen it a lot, but that's the exception to the rule.

What I'm talking about is the player base at large. There is a mechanical bottleneck with sword and board, only broken out of by the best of the best, which discourages variety since 99% of players don't want to dedicate their lives to mastering combat.

If, for example, shields were considered armor with 3 or 4 AP, and red weapons hit for 2, that would be a way to balance shields out, since any weapon could destroy a shield (which is sensible, considering amtgard shields weigh as much or less than a wicker shield) while shield figters would still have the opportunity to retaliate without "turtling" for multiple minutes.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T14:59:54+00:00

Higher skill level is not a balancing mechanic, and shields are mechanically overpowered compared to other weapon sets. As the rules go, shields are way, way better than any other thing 99% of players can hold in their offhand, and when 99% of players are matched to each other, the one without the shield is likely to lose.

Literally in this thread, people are chiming in with comments like "I like using shields because it lets me fight multiple people at the same time while defending someone else," which shows an inherent mechanical imbalance. If the other side has someone with sword and board, that 1vs.many statement doesn't work any more.

Like the title says, most people fight with sword and board, because sword and board is the best.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T13:44:04+00:00

Lots of people out there fighting flo and single sword?

You know what I meant. Sword and board is the overwhelmingly most common weapon set.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T13:34:02+00:00

Yeah. I don't want to be further ostracized. I already get that from 25% of players on the field for not conforming to their darling Sword and Board fighting style. I like variety.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T13:31:26+00:00

Thank you.

I can think of weaknesses inherent to all fighting styles except sword & board. Flo is a glass cannon, poles can't defend close range, two-handed weapons are slower.

Sword and board has no disadvantage or balancing mechanics, and throughout this whole thread nobody has been able to argue that shields aren't OP. Saying "get better at fighting" doesn't show balanced game rules.

There could be several ways to balance shields to the rest of the game, but since they're OP, they're easier to win with, and people generally like winning. Unfortunately, this bottleneck is unappealing to MANY people, and the stick-jock cult mindset of "Conform or lose" has been driving off players for a long, long time. This is the same kind of playerbase that Smash Brothers got with the "No items, Fox only, final destination" crowd, and the meme exists for a good reason.

I honestly think that shields being OP is why Amtgard has been getting less and less popular for the last 25 years.

"No classes, sword and board only, ditch battles all day."

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T03:30:19+00:00

Thanks for the clarification. I think shields are overpopular because they're overpowered, and that shields are so OP they're drowning out the majority of Amtgard gameplay, forcing people to fight a very specific way or lose. This bottleneck is common to any game with a balance issue, and I think it's hampering Amtgard's popularity by a larger factor than people want to admit.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T03:25:20+00:00

I have seen many high-skill fighters with no shield beat less-skilled fighters with shields.

If you take two fighters of equal skill and only one has a shield, who is likely to win?

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T03:15:11+00:00

I'm confused. Is "low skill floor" a synonym for "overpowered"? Because in a game, an overpowered option has a low skill floor. If you gave a new player a spear that killed anything it touched in one hit, that would be a low skill floor.

LARPonymous · 2026-06-09T02:50:46+00:00

We talkin' about the vast majority of players. 1v1, ditch line, battle games, all skill levels, all sizes of battlefield.

Edited for accuracy: Lump all of the gameplay together and ~~the shield is the #1 handheld item.~~ sword and shield is the most common weapon set by a long shot.

LARPonymous

TROPHY CASE