A shield gives no armor, it only has good durability for parrying, which still takes their action. You don't deal damage, but you do force them to use their action to not deal damage. Sure, defeating them means they can't do any action, but it stops them from causing damage this round.What about a charakter who actively want to use an Club or an Staff and face an enemy with great helmet and shield? If you have the wrong tools for the job you have problems.
In my opinion, bad armament does not have to be balanced at all costs.
That said, the armor makes a fair point in that it might absorb more damage you can dish out. But there is an optional rule that can circumvent that (The special attack "Find Weak Spot" 48), and if you have an artisan, or pay a blacksmith who has that ability, you can use the Master Blacksmith heroic ability to get your weapons sharpened to reduce the armor by 1 point.
And while the game dosn't specifically say it, it is pretty clear looking both through the Rule book and the adventure book that Npcs and Monsters with heavy armor is supposed to be rare (there are only three proper monsters that have armor, Demons 4, Dragons 6, and Wrights 8), and the ones that have large amounts of it are powerful adversary that you do not meet often. Which makes the moment you DO meet someone decked in heavy armor a big problem. But with Npcs, it is quite clear it is only the "Boss" who is supposed to have heavy armor, and the Minions lower amounts of armor. So if you can't take on the Boss, then you could likely help weed out the Minions instead who you can easier deal with.
But the way the Wound-Threshold works is effectively as if the standard Zombies have 8 armor (that you CAN'T work around compared to armor) and 1hp, but you face, by the way you described it, large numbers of them. Which depending on what equipment the players have is either really easy to beat, or they can't do anything. (Because maybe the players opted to play as a group of characters who don't start with good weapons, like a Bard, a Merchant and a Thief)
I agree that there should be weapons that are better than others. That is not my issue. My issue is that the way the zombie works is as if you're giving it a minion type of npc (something that while a threat, is on their own not too hard to deal with) traits of a boss styled npc (something that is a very capable threat), placing it in this weird middle ground.
Rules should have a sense of consistency (if they don't, why have them?). The frustration is that sense the Zombies do not work the same way as other monsters or npcs, which unless you specifically said "too kill the zombie, you must deal 8 or more points of damage in one attack", the players will assume that they will die once their hp has been dropped to 0, because that is how it works on every other npc. Which makes it weird when you attack an npc who seemingly either dies in one blow, or can take unlimited amounts of damage. Which can happen even if you topple them, or use an ability, and end up rolling a low value combined. Unlikely, but it SUCKS when it happens, sense now all that effort/wp feels wasted, sense the zombie dosn't at least "keep" the damage it took. It's either get over that specific value, or your plans where a bust.Consistency can end up in boredom. I like to mix up things from time to time. I dont see the frustration point. There are several Ways to react for the Players and striking one of these guys down will feel great for them.
But you've already convinced me about the piercing damage. I will omit this immunity. Maybe I should also lower the wound threshold to 5 / 7 / 9. So even a lucky slash with a knife and an average swipe with a broadsword can kill the zombie.
Having a system where you must roll a specific value to "damage/kill" your opponent isn't inherently a bad idea, there are other games that do this, but those are built with those mechanics in mind, having more ways, options and methods to increase the odds to succeed. Dragonbane is not designed to fully function like that.
Ultimately however, it's your game, so you can run it as you wish. I have given my feedback, and while i personally don't think it is a good idea, if you wanna run it feel free.
