One of the main mysteries about the game i want answered is how the shields will work. I'm sure everyone is familiar with how they did it in oblivion so I'll skip the backstory. My main concern about that system was how you still took damage even though you were blocking.

For Skyrim, I think the shield system should be revamped so that it damages you fatigue to block things instead of your health.

Two main reasons:
1. It adds to the realism- you aren't going to die from blocking attacks over and over, you would just get worn out to the point where you couldn't lift it anymore, exposing you to the more damaging attacks.
2. It would help make fatigue something worth caring about- I never ran out of fatigue in Oblivion, and for the most part, it didn't affect gameplay at all. Having the blocking system damage fatigue will make players actually pay attention to it, and make combat more dynamic.

In regards to mages, the magical shield should be reworked. Instead of casting a spell that reduced damage for a certain time period, I think it would be cool to have to equip it to you left hand and cast it when you would normally block with a shield, which would still require a sense of timing. Instead of damaging fatigue however, the magical shield would take away from magika instead.

What are your thoughts?

A few things you should know. Its been confirmed that yes you equip a warding spell in one hand to help vs incoming MAGIC. it doesnt work or at least doesnt work well at all vs weapons its for mage vs mage conbat.


Also you should know you cant block at all if you have a spell ready in either of your hands.

In regards to blocking, it's already confirmed that if you hold the block button, you'll attempt to do a shield bash move. So you can't hold down the button to block anymore, you have to time it and block attacks at the right moment.

For the first part I was talking about stereotypical sword/ shield warrior, no magic involved.

Edit: This post is about damaging fatigue, I already know you'll have to time them.

I thought the shield bash was only if you held the shield trigger and the weapon trigger at the same time.