Unbelievable! This mod has reached 42 Million (!!!) downloads. Thanks to everyone who downloaded this mod!

Merry Christmas! Spartan Shields 3.0.0 beta 1 is out now for Minecraft version 1.18.2!

Featuring:

The mod is now open source under the Apache version 2.0 license!
Aluminum Shields!
Tower Shields for all but the Mekanism non-powered Shields (they already exist in Mekanism Tools)
Shield Bash Compatibilty for the Vanilla Shield and other modded Shields (the need to be added to the "spartanshields:shields_with_bash" tag though)

IMPORTANT:

The Spartan Shields issue tracker has been moved to GitHub. It can be found here: https://github.com/ObliviousSpartan/SpartanShields/issues

If there is still an outstanding issue with the mod, please submit an issue there.

Special thanks to Ghost8909 for providing the texture for the Soulforged Steel Plated Shield!

Spartan Shields is a mod for Minecraft that adds a variety of new shields to the game.

Getting started:

Right from the outset, you can craft the Crude Wooden Shield as soon as you punch some trees! This has changed in version 3.0.0, now requiring only 4 planks instead of 6

Alternatively, you can make a Wooden Tower Shield which allows you to apply banners to them!

Wood won't cut it for long, so you can upgrade it when you get new materials. Note: The Wood Shield you use must be undamaged for this to work!

The same can be done with the Wood Tower Shield as well! This has changed in version 3.0.0, these now require six of the appropriate material

The Shields you can make this way (with no other mods) are the following:

Stone Braced Shield & Stone Tower Shield
Iron Plated Shield & Iron Tower Shield
Gold Gilded Shield & Gold Tower Shield
Diamond Reinforced Shield & Diamond Tower Shield
Bulky Obsidian Shield & Obsidian Tower Shield -> Increased Knockback Resistance + Slower movement speed

Common Modded Material Support:

Depending on other mods you have running and the materials which are contained within them, more recipes will become available for you to use.

The following require any mod with a valid OreDictionary [1.12.2 and below] or vanilla Tag [1.13.2 and above] entry for their respective ingots:

Copper Braced Shield & Copper Tower Shield [enabled by default in version 3.x]
Tin Braced Shield & Tin Tower Shield
Bronze Plated Shield & Bronze Tower Shield
Steel Plated Shield & Steel Tower Shield
Silver Gilded Shield & Silver Tower Shield -> Hurts undead mobs that come in contact when blocking
Lead Plated Shield & Lead Tower Shield
Nickel Braced Shield & Nickel Tower Shield
Invar Plated Shield & Invar Tower Shield
Constantan Plated Shield & Constantan Tower Shield
Platinum Plated Shield & Platinum Tower Shield
Electrum Plated Shield & Electrum Tower Shield

Mod-specific Material Support:

The following requires Botania:

Manasteel Plated Shield
Terrasteel Strengthened Shield
Elementium Plated Shield

All of the above Shields can be regenerated using Botania Mana. They also have Lexica Botania entries!

[Version 1.x and 3.x only] The following requires Thermal Foundation:

Signalum Strengthened Shield -> Inflicts Weakness when mobs hit the Shield while blocking
Radiant Lumium Shield -> Inflicts Glowing when mobs hit the Shield while blocking
Enderium Strengthened Shield -> Inflicts Slowness when mobs hit the Shield while blocking

[Version 1.x only] The following requires Abyssalcraft:

Darkstone Braced Shield
Abyssalnite Plated Shield
Coralium Plated Shield
Dreadium Reinforced Shield
Ethaxium Strengthened Shield

[Version 1.x only] The following requires Better with Mods:

Soulforged Steel Plated Shield

[Version 1.x only] The following requires Thaumcraft:

Thaumium Plated Shield
Void Plated Shield

[Version 1.x only. Will be coming to version 3.x when updated to MC 1.20.x] The following requires Ender IO:

Dark Steel Riot Shield -> Powered by µI or RF/FE power

[Version 1.x only] The following requires RFTools:

Infused Riot Shield -> Powered by RF/FE power

[Version 1.x only] The following requires Redstone Arsenal:

Flux-Infused Shield -> Powered by RF/FE power

Tower Shields:

Tower Shields function in the same way as regular Shields but you can also apply some banners to them!
In version 3.x, these now have more durability and can Shield Bash multiple enemies in a small radius and has a larger cooldown.

Enchantments:

Most shields can be enchanted using an Enchanting Table, unlike the vanilla Shield. The exceptions are the RF/FE Powered Shields.

The following enchantments can be applied to them:

Unbreaking [Vanilla]
Knockback [Vanilla] -> Used to enhance Shield Bash knockback power
Spikes - Max Levels: 3 - Gives a chance to inflict damage to any mob which hits the Shield when blocking

New in 2.1.0 (for 1.14.4):

Firebrand - Max Levels: 2 - Shield bashing causes the hit target to catch on fire. Higher levels causes the target to be on fire for longer
Payback - Max Levels: 4 - Blocking absorbs about 50% of damage into the shield. This boosts damage of the Shield Bash. Higher levels increases the max damage that the Shield can absorb by 2 points per level

Requires Java 8!

Any Issues/Bugs/Balance Issues?

Let me know here: https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/spartan-shields/issues

Translations:

Any language translations anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated! Make an issue at the new issue tracker here: https://github.com/ObliviousSpartan/SpartanShields/issues
Here is the English version of the Language file here for anyone wishing to provide translations.

1.12.2 - version 1.5.4: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10lqxoaOpoDxwxf__ecGI6jp4z0GRn2Aj

1.16.4 - version 2.1.0: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QnT63oG1CYcfeuOMHSQMtAThg6ZJD5_U/view?usp=sharing

Modpack permissions:
Permission granted! No need to ask. If you have a interesting modpack including this in it, let me know! I would love to see it.

Plans for Future Versions:

IC2 Shields
Dragonbone Shield (from Ice and Fire) (coming soon)