I have a shield. When I'm not holding it in front of me it's either in my left hand or my back. You'd think it would protect you even a little bit in those positions, but it doesn't.
Now, when I'm not holding it in front of me I'm not bracing, so I can see it not providing it's full blocking power, but it should do *something*. When my shield is in my left hand and facing my left, attacks to my left side, should be muffled some, moreso the closer to the center of my shield it hits. Same thing about my rear side when I'm holding a vial and the shield is on my back.
This would make shields much more important to me than they are now.
Well, you block attacks with the energy field it generates, not the shield itself.