Weird Science Personal Shields; ideas and consequences

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

Here's a weird-science idea I had while considering a total remake of the Æthereal Sun setting. The idea is pretty raw (as in, uncooked, not the abbreviation), and has a bunch of options on which I haven't decided. I'm curious as to the effects and consequences of having such personal shields (with the various options/switches). So, here goes:

Orgone shields are powerful personal protective force field generators which tap a person's bio-energy in order to protect from external threats. They have the following features:

• Shields need to be properly calibrated and attuned to a person's bio-aura. Thus, it is often not possible to pick up another person's shield and use it immediately, if at all.
• A shield's power level can be roughly measured as the average of ST and HP (or the lower of two, if you prefer to be gritty) of the person to whom it is attuned.
• To be able to fully use the life-force of a person, a shield must weight no less than the BL of the ST to which it is to be attuned. This is the weight of a Light shield. It is also possible to construct Medium shields (×2 weight, ×2 protection) and Heavy ones (×3). It is not possible to tap more than triple the minimum amount of power, no matter how large/heavy the shield.
• A Light shield provides 5×(ST+HP)/2, or 5×min(ST,HP) points of protection, which, under normal ranged-combat conditions (see below), can be considered fully Ablative. Naturally, a Medium or Heavy shield will have ×2 or ×3 the amount of DR.
• For every ST or HP (or average) points of DR ablated, the shield-user loses 1 HP to general life-drain. If it matters, consider it Cosmic (irresistible) Tox damage.
• The rate of a shield's recharge I have not decided, but it is certainly not possible to take off one shield and take on a new one while under fire.

Now, I want to add some more esoteric options. Some of them more likely, some of them less. These are:

Mêlée:

• Unpowered mêlée attacks done by sapient characters ignore this DR fully or partially, thanks to the special focus of the sword-wielder's mind on the attack. Boomsticks and the like are considered powered for this purpose.
  OR
• Mêlée attacks get an armor divisor, but only specially-crafted blades get to totally ignore the DR.

Ranged attacks:

• DR is considered Non-Ablative against non-Aimed shots, as well as all shots except the first in autofire.
  AND/OR
• DR is considered Hardened against non-Aimed shots, as well as all shots except the first in autofire.
  THEN ALSO
• DR is considered Non-Ablative (but not Hardened) beyond a certain range, which may or may not depend on the Attributes of the shooter and the shield-user. I'm thinking of setting the range around 50-250 yards, but analysis of the consequences of other ranges is appreciated too.

So, these are my ideas. How do they look, and what would be the consequences of having such shields at TLs 7-9?

Thanks in advance!