Expedition: general discussions.

Why are you talking about strength? I'm saying that a damage dealer with high strength will also have armor, so the advantage of a shield-user over him won't be that significant. Especially considering that his damage (and probably accuracy) will be significantly reduced, which raises the question: "who will take down the other faster?" Shields have a chance to block, which can be tied to some stat, such as dexterity. This means that the tank will also have to invest in dexterity to effectively block. Considering that he has already invested 20 points in vitality and 13 in strength, I don't think he will have many points left. And therefore, the chance to block will probably not be that great.

It's not a given that blocking will be tied to dexterity. For shields in Shabet, for example, this was not the case, which is logical in its own way.
I mentioned strength because percentage-based armor increases effectiveness as vitality increases, as I said. In other words, 400 HP and 50% armor mean that the character will have to take 800 damage before dying. And 200 and 50% means 400 damage before dying. Although the same applies to increasing weapon strength, but, as we have seen, increasing weapon damage by two times is not the same as increasing HP by two times. That's all the math.

The problem is that this "tanky" character is designed to withstand melee attacks. He has less chance against mages and archers. Also, in the game, monsters don't always target the fattest and strongest characters. This isn't an MMORPG.

It all depends on what abilities there will be and how they are implemented. I personally believe that the stats should be balanced against each other, so that the abilities can also be balanced relative to each other. Otherwise, it will turn out like this: "well, vitality is over-buffed, so we need to make more double attacks and stuff like that, and fewer focus-holding and defensive abilities." I think this is a bad approach. Permissive, but difficult.