FF2 Armor/Defense Confusion

[grands1am]

Hi, maybe I'm just an idiot, but I can't figure the stats out for this game. I know that's not an uncommon problem, but I'd just like one question answered. Why does a character's defense occasionally decrease when something like a bronze shield is equipped? I'm relatively sure that I'm using the correct hands for the weapon and shield, but I still can't see how that would make sense anyway. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Captain Maxx Power]

Shields themselves don't come with an added defense bonus. Rather they add to your evasion based your shield skill. How your defence could decrease is a mystery to me, since none of the other weapons increase your defense in any way, at least the actual defense stat. When you say defence, which stat are you talking about? There's three stats. "Defence" which reduces damage of each physical hit by that amount, Defence X which is the number of attacks that you can evade, and Defence % which is your chance to avoid each hit.

[grands1am]

hi, i appreciate the help.

an example is, my first character, the one who i think is called "frioniel", with nothing in his left hand, has: att - 19, def - 8. when i put a bronze shield in his left hand, att goes down to 16. the attack and defense skills i was referring to are the two main ones that display at the top of your equip screen. thanks again.

[Slam Dancin' Moogle]

Shields decrease attack power, I think this is because when they don't have a shield, the characters treat the weapon as a 2-handed weapon (example: bow) so therefore can use it more effectively. However, I always give them shields, and I suggest you do too, as some shields have really nice effects.

[Leeza]

Please do not bring up old threads that are basically done with already.