Scow2

The way to determine if a weapon is 2 handed: Can you use a shield with it? If yes, no. If no, yes.

If the fighters get it, the berzerkers would also have to, since they are the primary simple-offence.

Offense belongs to the berzerkers, not the fighters. Fighters need something to allow them to really tank, such as the protect ability discussed elsewhere in this forum, or a defensive stance that increases armor at the cost of damage, accuracy, or stamina regen (like 1 less per regen period, ability quite disabling before level 4, perhaps not available until they have at least 2 stamina) similar to the zerker's rage.

Should read more like:
Small snake attempts to attac RandomCleric with its sharp fangs, but RandomFighter blocks the attack
Small snake poisons Random Fighter
Small snake attacks RandomFighter with its sharp fangs, dealing 13 points of damage.

on a success, or a:

Small snake attacks RandomCleric with its Sharp Fangs, but RandomFighter partially blocks the attack
Small snake attacks RandomCleric with its sharp Fangs for 7 pts of damage.
Small snake attacks RandomFighter with its Sharp Fangs for 6 points of damage.

on a partial success, and on a failure:

Random Fighter fails to protect Random Cleric from Small Snake's attack.
Small Snake poisons RandomCleric
Small Snake attacks Random cleric with its Sharp fangs for 13 points of damage.

This way, by redirecting the attack to the fighter, the attack is still subject to defensive modifiers such as armor or dodge from either party.
As a migitating factor, a protecting fighter has personal dodge chance reduced significantly, and cannot dodge a blow directed at the protected character.

On the partial block, damage dealt is counted as two seperate attacks, damage calculated normally, and the result halved, or counted as one attack and damage calculated fully and distributed between them equally, then modified in the case of a dodge or armor protect.

Now for additional ideas to enhance this, to be given fair consideration, but not detract from the applicability of the original idea.

The fighter can protect multiple characters, but at a reduced chance of blocking the attacks, with an entropic loss, (IE, a fighter that has a base 50% chance of defending one character would have a 20-23% chance of protecting two characters, or something along those lines)

The fighter can optionally block a single opponent, with a much greater chance of blocking individual blows, but at the expense of allowing any additional monsters to attack party members unhindered. Variant: Prevent blocked creature from attacking anything other than the fighter, but the fighter cannot attack anything but the blocked creature, using the mechanic similar to the You-Shall-Not-Pass mechanic preventing movement on the 1-alt server.