Will this game differentiate between different types of shields (like small, medium, large, tower) and restrict some classes and races from using some? I hope we'll see tower shields, but seeing them on non tanking classes or smaller races would be weird. On the other hand everyone - both class and race (maybe excluding some massive races - if we get any in the future) should be able to use the smallest ones - now how well are they able to handle them is the other story, which just can be sorted out with passives.
The only classes that can use shields are the plate classes. The shortest race that can use shields is a dwarf. As with most fantasy tropes, dwarves in Pantheon are not considered small but merely short. Halflings/Gnomes not being able to use shields solves your shield sizing problems passively.
VR has previously talked about how virtually all armor will simply fit any race similar to most games. The same robe auto sizes to fit an ogre or a gnome, I fully expect shields to be the same. Perhaps they will leave shields larger on dwarfs purely for emphisis of their short stature.
That said, VR has also have talked about race locked specific armor types existing. So ogres may have a visual type of armor the other races cannot equip. Perhaps there will be an ogre only shield from this, but I doubt it.
I greatly enjoyed the nuance of small, medium, and even the few tiny/large races over the years of TTRPGs as well as many RPG games. Halflings often using lighter weapons specificly built by their race, that did less damage. The damage was minor and being a small race had its own bonuses to mostly balance everything out. With parsers being the end all and be all of MMO balance now all of those cool RP ideas will never make it into an MMO again. I don't expect the damage racials to stick around without being ironed out across the board.
Jobeson said:The only classes that can use shields are the plate classes. The shortest race that can use shields is a dwarf. As with most fantasy tropes, dwarves in Pantheon are not considered small but merely short. Halflings/Gnomes not being able to use shields solves your shield sizing problems passively.
Shaman can use shields as well.
To directly answer the O.P.: "YES". There will "definitely" be different shield types and they will be restricted by class. We do not yet know all of the differentiations.
Add: I don't think (personal opinion) that seeing shields on non-tanking classes is weird, espcecially for classes like the Cleric (whose iconic abilities and sole purpose is to shield allies from harm).
Why would shields on non-tanks be even remotely weird? Traditionally many melee or melee-capable classes in both single player games and MUDs and MMOs have used "sword and board" or at least had that as an alternative to two-handed weapons or dual wielding. Cleric definitively one of them though far from the only one. A shield in the hands of a capable user can be for offense as much as defense especially the smaller shields. Many games give shield users offensive abilities such as bashing which make sword and board a very viable choice even for a pure DPS class.
I didn't say that having shields would be weird on non tanking classes - up to this point i thought most if not all will be able to (and still think that they should) - "weird" would be having a TOWER SHIELD equipped on such classes which are usually the heaviest/biggest types of shields in most games - which is why i originally thought of differentiating them by size and not having them grouped together simply as "shields", similar to edged weapons being divided into daggers, edged 1-h and 2-h. In my opinion clerics should be able to use heavy shields but not tower.
I'd imagine that in item creation they would just have one item group: select a shield appearance (Wooden circle), slap a name on it (Buckler), and click boxes for class / race combos (all / all), then add the stats and level req (3 ac / level 1); instead of creating 3 or 4 different types of shields or any extra fields.
Unless there was a mechanic designed around the size / weight of something in your hands, like a greatsword in your primary and a tower shield in your secondary would slow your character down immensly.
