In traditional myth you often see a valiant knight in full plate using his shield to block the fire breathed by dragons. Heck, you even see it in the Skyrim teaser trailer with the carving of the Dovakhin usinga shield to block flames.

As far as I could tell this never translated into TES as having a shield in MW or Oblivion did nothing against fire or any other magic (unless enchanted).

So i was wondering if blocking with a shield in Skyrim will mitigate any damage from dragon fire or any other magic

thoughts?

Something akin to the Mirror Shield?

maybe a perk will allow spell reflect or absorb with shield

* (Dovahkiin)

But yeah, I agree with you but depending on the dragons level, and the type of shield you have to protect yourself
against the dragons breathe ex. a Wooden shield would easily be destroyed, same with a Leather one, unless reinforced with magics, as for metal it could super heat and be melted, but i'm sure for gameplay purposes it would be resistant against the dragons fire.

[ Probably getting ninja'd as I type this. :toughninja: ]

Who ever said dragon fire-breath is magic? And I definitely hope that shields will at least partially block magical attacks. It was ridiculous when they couldn't.

Honstly that is a really good point to bring up. I never even considered how shields should work against magic. I suppose that they should be able to block certain spells such as fire or frost since things like that would hit the shield and stop on impact, but if a metal shield i was holding was hit by lightning I'd definitely be shocked instantly. So i guess my opinion on it is that it should depend on the spell being cast at you?

I can't remember... did shields only block physical damage in Daggerfall, Morrowind, & Oblivion?

enchanted shields should be the only ones that protect against magic

Now that I think of it... this question is doubly important for electric attacks. Wouldn't a metal shield (and armor for that matter) be like protecting yourself with a giant conductor?

I hope they will be. Shield vs. dragon's breath is a classic image in fantasy, but there are endless other interesting possibilities once it's established that spell [cone, projectile, beam...] effects can be blocked.

As Bodycool mentioned, I'd expect perks to govern things like this to one degree or another.

An article I read yesterday (on IGN, I think... I'll look up the link when I get home) said that shield perks will, among other things, add to your defence against magical attacks. So we may not start with it, but it's among the perks.

I, for one, never understood why projectile spells couldn't be blocked. Would add a new element to being a mage yourself, too, if enemies can block your spells. Have to aim for the feet, or use a different sort of spell. Stuff like fireballs should be able to be blocked at the very least. I always felt like my block skill was utterly useless against mages. Why bother with it if half of your enemy's attacks can't be blocked?

Pretty sure it was confirmed that there's Shield perks that will allow blocking of Magic.

Imagine what it would be like if this was not implemented. I can see it now. I am walking into the final chamber of the dungeon to receive my reward, a pile of good ol' fashioned treasure. I hear a noise to my right and there is a giant lizard with wings sitting and looking at me. It opens its mouth and starts to scream the word for fire in Draconic. The flame spills over its sharp pointy teeth to engulf me. I raise my wooden shield hoping it will deflect the oncoming storm of fire. I am lit afire and stand in place as an ashen statue. The dragon puffs a nostril and the statue falls to the floor to scatter across the floor, and in its head it will be saying something along the lines of "Haha... Bethesda really screwed you over hu".

Why not be able to reflect with a shield?

Yes, shields should be able to shield you from directed attacks whether it is an arrow, a bolt of ice, or a stream of dragon's breath. Obviously it shouldn't be full 100% protection, but you should be have some benefit for putting something in between you and projectiles.

I see a problem with blocking dragon's breath though. Holding block now initiates a shield bash, but the dragon's breath attack is going to last a little longer than a bolt of fire.

I can understand a none enchanted shield blocking certain spells, but certainly not reflecting them. Even with perks, spell reflection on a shield seems a little too far <_<

What if it was a rare, unique, legendary piece of loot? Only one in the entire land?

Dragonfire is magic because the dev's said the dragons dont breath fire. When they are shooting out fire, they are actually speaking in their language using a dragon shout.

That would be fine. Magic/enchanted shields will spell reflection make sense. It is just the idea of a regular iron shield being used to reflect spells due to some silly perk bonus that struck me as being odd.

It's great that shields will allow some absorption, but it sounds too much like a passive quality in shields themselves as opposed to actively blocking them. And what I want is to actively block them. Sounds more like they just added a new attribute to shields, "absorbs 10% magic damage" as opposed to clicking your block button and having that fireball impact the shield. Just saying.

Player - "I use shield bash!"
DM - "Shield bash what? the're no enemies around."
Player - "I'm attacking the darkness"




technically its not magic then, its Thu'um, more of a innate ability than it is magic.

Something like the mirror shield.

I wonder if the silence spell will work on the dragons.

Dragon: FAS RO D-........!!!!!

Dovakiin: Silence!

Dragon:.......?!?!?!

Anti dragon fire shield FTW