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[tompliss]

Huh, did they change Shields calculation or something? With 25 skill in Shields and a Large Shield I have 24 SH, whereas before I'd have more than twice that.

Yeap.
They tried to align it a bit more on what AC and EV give per point, so that having 40 SH is not like having 15 EV...
so you'll have a SH value displayed more in line with the other defences, and still be as efficient as you wer in the older versions. Also, the enchantment on Shields is now a "good" (well not that much, but "less bad" than before), as the effective gain is the double that what you got before.
Some artifact shields have seen their value changed (Gong isn't +27 anymore).

Also, large shields usually aren't worth it. you need much more experience to go from shield skill 15 to skill 25, and the bonus defence from "normal" shield to large shield isn't really high. It may be good if you find a good artifact large shield, but otherwise ... :/
There are many spells that don't care about shields (airstrike <3 ), even if a shield of reflection can save your life more than once (reflect the LCS back to a lich to one-shot it is always nice).

[UltraValican]

Its even better if you find a Shield of Reflection.

[Mindmaker]

My favourite aspect of shields is that they can block Orbs of Destruction; useful for those situations where you really can't afford to spend time side-stepping.

If you're worried about OODs you shouldn't be hit by them, shield or not.
I believe my most promising character before my first win died to one of those and he had a shield.

[Graven]

Huh, did they change Shields calculation or something? With 25 skill in Shields and a Large Shield I have 24 SH, whereas before I'd have more than twice that.

Yeap.
They tried to align it a bit more on what AC and EV give per point, so that having 40 SH is not like having 15 EV...
so you'll have a SH value displayed more in line with the other defences, and still be as efficient as you wer in the older versions. Also, the enchantment on Shields is now a "good" (well not that much, but "less bad" than before), as the effective gain is the double that what you got before.
Some artifact shields have seen their value changed (Gong isn't +27 anymore).

Also, large shields usually aren't worth it. you need much more experience to go from shield skill 15 to skill 25, and the bonus defence from "normal" shield to large shield isn't really high. It may be good if you find a good artifact large shield, but otherwise ... :/
There are many spells that don't care about shields (airstrike <3 ), even if a shield of reflection can save your life more than once (reflect the LCS back to a lich to one-shot it is always nice).

So it's just the numerical value that's changed? Because I damn well felt a ton flimsier than on other Shields characters. Might've been my complete lack of armour and elemental resists, but all in all about 3/4ths of all my 15-rune games have been sword-and-board, and I've never felt so fragile with 25 skill and a large shield.

Also shields can block elemental bolts, LCSs, Iron Shots and OODs and I find that makes them effective against a great majority of the mid and end-game threats. It's when you hit torment and Hellfire that they start tearfully waving goodbye, but I've generally felt safer on Shields dudes even then. Fiends may torment you 3 times in a row, but they're just as likely to Bolt of Ice you three times in a row, and those can hurt like hell too.

[Rex_Nex]

I like shields on all my non-trog melee chars. There's just not that much XP required to be able to win the game with melee - mindelay, 15-20 armour (or dodging), 15-20 fighting, a few points into invoc/evoc and you're set. Shields just seems like the next best thing if you don't want to branch into spellcasting right away. Trog's a bit different, as its far more likely you'll be swimming in a sea of exec axes and great maces. You'd have to give me a damn fine demon whip to pull me away from a +8 great mace of freezing.

...speaking of demon whips, are they still in the game? I just realized I havent seen one in ages.

[Retropunch]

I like shields on all my non-trog melee chars. There's just not that much XP required to be able to win the game with melee - mindelay, 15-20 armour (or dodging), 15-20 fighting, a few points into invoc/evoc and you're set. Shields just seems like the next best thing if you don't want to branch into spellcasting right away. Trog's a bit different, as its far more likely you'll be swimming in a sea of exec axes and great maces. You'd have to give me a damn fine demon whip to pull me away from a +8 great mace of freezing.

...speaking of demon whips, are they still in the game? I just realized I havent seen one in ages.

As far as I know they are, but you don't get a buff if you're a demonspawn with them anymore.

[Mindmaker]

...speaking of demon whips, are they still in the game? I just realized I havent seen one in ages.

Take a quick detour through Pandemonium to find out.

[Mindmaker]

I know, my last character had a wizlab filled with statues that cast OOD.
It was nearly impossible to get close to any of them without eating at least one.

[Robsoie]

If you like OOB, the Spider Nest is really the place you want to visit.
You'll be pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome of the Orb Spiders, see how playful they are with their OOB, and because nothing is wasted you'll love running into all those spider webs while OOB are flying around.

Spider Nest, probably the most joyful place of the dungeon, be sure to visit soon ! Happy time guaranteed !

[Mindmaker]

You usually can trick the AI into having them move into melee though.
Even if it takes a bit of pillar dancing. And OODs from 1-3 spaces away are still somewhat manageable.

[Rex_Nex]

Ughhhh orb spiders, ALL my nightmares

[Retropunch]

Ughhhh orb spiders, ALL my nightmares

This. Such This. Much This.

Especially when playing a pure melee character with limited ranged options.

[goblolo]

Can anyone point me a formula of how armor penalty is calculated? I'm going to use Ring Mail (because if resistances) as a DECj. I have Str 5 and get my Armor to 5 to lesse the penalty. It is easily manageable since my hardest spell is battlesphere, but I want to have nice EV later on and excellent spell success of my Firestorm or LCS.
I understand that i may find a good robe to replace my ring mail and all the work wil be just a wasted xp and stats. But if that ring mail can be managed with little effort (such as 6-7 str and 10 Armor), I will be glad to get it soon. This will widen my choise from robe-leather to robe-leather-ringmail.

Also, is 5 in shield are enought to nullify the buckler spellcasting penalty?
I would be glad if someone can share links to trunk source code where I can look at all the calculation.

[Leafsnail]

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/Encumbrance_rating

I think this is mostly correct, or at least the aevp part is.  The main thing to note is that ring mail has a pretty miniscule ER, to the extent where almost any medium character can wear it without unmanagable penalties.  Note that armour skill doesn't do that much to lower the dodging penalty - in general it's more useful for boosting your AC.  If wearing the ring mail improves your defences then go ahead and use it - at worst you'll just want to train your spell schools a little more.

[DeKaFu]

Is there any reason to train stealth on a summoner?

My first thought was it'd be nice to be able to remain unnoticed while your summons get all the attention, but I suspect it won't work like that and enemies will notice you at the same time they notice your summons.