I've noticed when using books they cause my character to use the kick animation. Do books count as unarmed? Or do they just simply buff whatever equipped weapon is available. Thinking about it now I have not tried equipping an actual weapon along side it, only a shield, so I'm not sure.
I think tomes count as shields. All items in the game can grant defensive and offensive traits. If the thing is square its an offensive trait, and if its a circle its a resistence. The Little Black Book for example grants 1 necro resist and 2 necro damage to any of your attacks, regardless of what else is equipped. Same could be said of any other kind of item with such symbols.
Okay so they're just there to buff all sorts of attacks while equipped, that's what I thought but wasn't sure. Thanks.
Pretty much. The general point is that you will get the tome's bonuses irrespective of what you have in the other slot, so their type doesn't really matter. They don't benefit from weapon skill bonuses as far as I know, and that's the only case where item type matters. (although I don't know about the shield skill - do you need a shield to use its abilities; if so, do tomes qualify?)
You do NOT need a shield for Shield Mastery to kick in - Tomes, however, do count as shields, since they do NOT remove Unarmed skill bonuses.
