Arrows hurt...

[rmcin329]

well if you can survive long enough(and be strong enough to kill them) for dragons to start showing up, they can potentially give a shield. Though even if they did it'd most likely end up being junk, like wooden or medium iron. Or if you survived till exp lvl 25 then chaos knights can provide some nice gear, shields included, and even better they actually aren't all that tough. But surviving that long is another story.

[vogonpoet]

Barbarians are such a double edged sword for this challenge too - you desperately want the bows and ammo, to make killing everything else easier, but first you have to be able to survive those encounters... I have killed loads of PCs who got bored of orcs and skeletons and decided to go arrow hunting too soon... Of course, I often try this challenge with PCs without the survival skill, which makes finding food and training food preservation a bit of an urgent problem... then its jackals all the way...