Shields and Power "handedness"

Okay, #1:

There are attacks in all Melee sets that use both hands. The development of the Shield powerset required the creation of a NEW set of animations for each melee set that limited the attack to one hand. Thus, for instance, Energy Melee with the pink pom poms generates only one pom pom and uses only that fist when carrying a Shield. The Barrage attack, which normally uses both fists, will use only one fist, and change the animation so it takes the same amount of time, but doesn't strike twice. (Or it strikes twice with the same hand, I haven't tried the combo to know that)

What this means is that in theory there could be a combination of Claws with Shield, BUT THAT CLAW WOULD HAVE TO BE ON ONLY ONE HAND. Your claws would spring out of the right hand, not the left one. Likewise, Spines would have to spring out of your right arm and body, but your left arm would either have to be bare, or the spines would need to be adapted to avoid clipping with the sheild.

Now, #2:

In addition to the above, physical weapons attached to the wielder have to be attached at a node. The pink pom poms are not a physical weapon, they are an effect overlaid over the character model. Likewise, the sword summoned by Fire Sword is (I believe) not a true sword, it is simply a particle graphic. Weapons are separate entities with their own wireframe and texture that are "connected" to a player model at a "node".

So again, the Claws, if they were to be used with a Shield, would have to be attached to only one hand. Claws as a set, however, is designed around having TWO claws, each attached to a node. Dual Blades is the same. It could be possible to have Dual Blades essentially become Broadsword when a Shield is added, but that's probably not possible, because removing a weapon from a node is a much more difficult task than removing a graphic from one arm or the other. You wouldn't be able to make Claws or Dual Blades would with Sheilds without removing the blade from the left arm for ALL players.

Spines I'm not really sure about. It seems odd. In some ways it seems like a weapon, but in others it seems like a graphic. It was the only set that could not be customized as a weapon customization, but it doesn't seem to quite fit Power Customization. The "shard" fired by Spines attacks could be customized, but the color and "splash" of toxic goo that comes out with the spine couldn't. According to BaBs, this was because "you can either customize a power effect OR a weapon." So I'm guessing this means that Spines, even though it is customized as a power, is actually appearing as a weapon. Probably, like Stone Armor and the like, it is anchored to various nodes around the body.

What might be neat, though, is to have a option for Spines which puts a spiny "shield" on one or both arms in addition to the spine "blades". It wouldn't act like the Shield set, but it would give you an option that would look like a shield with spines, at least for role playing purposes.