How about a sword that can stop projectiles. In exchange it has a single swing/no combo. Or even no alchemy path.
even with just a single swing, that is overly overpowered, and then it defunct the use of a shield, which is there for a reason, and breaks the core gameplay of the sword knight, a high damage, high risk game-play style.
even with just a single swing, that is overly overpowered, and then it defunct the use of a shield, which is there for a reason, and breaks the core gameplay of the sword knight, a high damage, high risk game-play style.