It's impossible to play on Hard

[Zechnophobe]

I am fairly certain Magic Shield is a 'halving' effect AFTER damage resistance, so it isn't as awesome as it could be. That is to say that for physical resistance on a knight (30%) the calculation is:

total damage = base damage * (.7 for resistance) * (.5 for shield)

which is different from

total damage = base damage * (.2)... .7-.5

The former is not as strong as the later, but still nice.