I'm currently in a Terrinoth game playing a sword-and-board fighter. I'm thinking of how best to capitalize on the fact that he uses a sword and shield. From what I can gather from various talents, weapon attachments, and shields available, it looks like my best bet is to put the Balanced Hilt attachment on the shield to get rid of its Inaccurate quality. Then I pick up both the Dual Wielder and Shield Slam talents, meaning my character can then two-weapon attack with both shield and sword each turn for no added penalty. With the talents, then:

For 2 Advantages or a Triumph, he can hit with both weapons, doing basic damage for each.

For 4 Advantages, or a Triumph and 2 Advantages, he can knock his opponent prone (with the basic shield's Knockdown quality) and hit with both weapons.

For 6 Advantages, or a Triumph and 2 Advantages, he can stagger his opponent with Shield Slam and hit with both weapons.

If I pick up Dual Strike, too, I can trade in 2 Strain for 2 Advantages to ensure a double hit.

The question is: Is this all worth it? Is the versatility of imposing Knockdown and/or Staggered each turn worth the investment in talents or the upgrades to the shield? Or are those two-weapon-combat talents not worth it for someone fighting with sword and board rather than a pair of swords or some other combination?

Worth it from a Pure mechanical standpoint depend what you character is going for.

Using sword and board besiddes that it looks cool you gain ranged and melee defense. This is really the Best benefit. You loose some damage but gain better defense. Also stagger is very powerful

2 hours ago, Archellus said:

Worth it from a Pure mechanical standpoint depend what you character is going for.

Using sword and board besiddes that it looks cool you gain ranged and melee defense. This is really the Best benefit. You loose some damage but gain better defense. Also stagger is very powerful

Right, that's the problem I had with the Shield Slam talent as is. To use it, you have to sacrifice your sword attack to instead hit with the shield unless your dice pool is high enough to try for both without the Dual Wielder talent. Making it so you can consistently use both weapons remedies that somewhat. I can see how Shield Slam alone might be sufficient, though, like if you just want to stagger a mage for a turn so you don't have to worry about their spells.

I'm currently playing a sword & board Barbarian in a D&D game that was converted to Terrinoth. We've had about 3 sessions so far and he currently has the dual wielder talent, but no shield slam or balanced hilt. His primary weapon is currently a Warpick of Shattering (it's a normal warpick from the book with sunder and breach 2; but only vs inanimate objects).

So far I've been enjoying the play style. The defense it gives is really nice and the extra hit or knockdown is really nice for helping my melee party members. We also have a Ranger with the Exploit and Hamstring talents. So I can knock them prone and he can inmobilize them.

As a Barbarian I also have the Berserk talent which means my melee attacks get an automatic success and 2 advantage; also making it easier to activate those qualities. That will only get easier if i get the balanced hilt.