[cleveland]

As the perpetrator of the Great Kingmaker Blinding, I suppose I'll reveal the true power of the Eye Shield.

As vfb has pointed out, you do not have to hit the shield to gain the effect. In fact, you don't even have to hit the opponent...the very act of initiating the attack triggers the effect, BEFORE THE ATTACK ROLL. The attacker must then PASS A MAGIC RESISTANCE CHECK AGAINST 12, or lose 1 of his eyes.

Think about the two embolded points for a moment. Since the effect is triggered before the attack roll, if the attacker does indeed lose an eye, his attack is immediately and permanently lowered by 2. He then makes his attack roll, and if your Eye-Shield wielder manages to survived the mallaced attack, the adventure repeats the following turn...only this time, if the attacker loses his other eye, his attack is immediately and permanently dropped to ZERO.

So basically, all one needs to do is design a thug that can reliably survive being swarmed for a grand total of 2 turns. If he makes it, he's now surrounded by pile of blinded foes that can't hit him, and can't defend themselves. As Baalz latest guide points out, this is VERY easy to do.

In fact, my Kingmaker expansion was done using E9N4 blessed & Air Shielded Sidhe lords with Eye Shields...their glamour, high defense, and decent protection would keep them alive for those critical 2 turns, and then the only problem was dealing enough damage to inspire a rout before the turn limit was hit.

All that for a lowly Construction-2 item.

And they retained their usefullness right up until I overextended myself out of the game. But I have to say, the best part of the Eye Shield was that, while I could only kill maybe 10 regenerating Woodsmen each battle, my Lords would rout to safety taking 50-odd eyeballs with them, who's owners continued to demand a paycheck and that cushy Utgardian benefits package. You think it sucks getting 40 militia from a(n un)lucky event, ask DC what it's like to finance a Convalescence Home for Elite VFWs. Unintended economic warfare!