Quick Comments on Shields and Dual Wielding

Everyone's talking about shields again. It's the perennial topic: "shields are undervalued in D&D." I'm not going to link, because there's so many, but it seems to have started at Grognardia in connection with the dual wielding discussion.

So, quickly, here's how I'd fix both:

• A shield gives a 1-point defensive bonus, as usual.
• Using two weapons doesn't increase your number of attacks or your damage, it just adds +1 to your attack roll, or gives you something to parry with (same effect as shield.)
• "Shields Shall Be Splintered", of course, but modify chance of breaking based on material and shield/parry weapon size compared to attacking weapon.
• Shield bash is just another weapon: normal attack, 1d6 damage.
• Use shields to block missiles, if you can see them coming; minimum AC3 or the standard armor+shield.

So, the main benefit of dual-wielding is that you get to choose each round whether to add +1 to your attack or +1 to your defense, but you lose the ability to defend against missiles.