The Drunken Lizard Pub

As I said, Book II doesn't have robes so most Magick Users will want some type of armor. Light armor is the most obvious choice, but there is no reason to think you couldn't develop a battle-hardened Mage encased in a full set of Heavy plate (if you have the Strength, that is- armor in Book II tends to weigh more than it did in Book I. Remember, there are no class-limitations to armor). In terms of magickal properties, there are many pieces of armor that have enhanced levels of protection or build quality, but the majority of your magickal boosts are going to come from Rings, Amulets, Hats, Capes, Gauntlets and Belts- i.e. accessories.

The last time it attempted to count, I had calculated about 10,000 variations of randomly generated and custom-made items. It is probably higher now. It is likely that some items may be generated with a ridiculously powerful combination of enhancements (depending on the roll of the dice, as they say). So to answer your question...

Tauschitz wrote:What will be the norm for wizard garb (robe) then?

...anything you want. If you want your Magick User to look somewhat traditional, then you're going to want to stay with Wizard Hat, cape, staff and enchanted leather.

Thanks BW!! Looking forward to Eschalon Book II!

Tauschitz

One of the things I thought was odd about Book 1 was that certain clothing items like wizard's hats and robes were considered light armor, and if you didn't have the light armor skill, you couldn't wear those items without a penalty.

More likely than not, if you choose to start the game with a brand new wizard character, you're probably not going to want to waste valuable skill points on the light armor skill. So I would like to see some basic items available for a wizard (and even other character types) that do not require the light armor skill. There should be at least one basic clothing item for each slot (hat, belt, shoes, etc) that doesn't require any armor skill. Maybe some of these items have an armor rating of 1, so that you at least get some minimal protection - which might be expected from basic clothing like shoes, gloves, or pants. Many, of course, wouldn't offer any protection. But you could at least dress your character. To get better protection, you would have to have the armor skill.

Just a suggestion.

well, there are shirts and pants... though things like sandals, cloaks and belts should fall into that category too probably. Gloves are difficult; maybe fur gloves (protect against cold) shouldn't be armor, while leather gauntlets are.

(Evnissyen has deleted his own post due to content deemed by him as inappropriate to his own delicate sensibilities.

(Explains Evnissyen: "I wasn't exactly myself when I wrote it."

(But he still poses the question: Should wizards' hats honestly be considered "armor", all things considered?

(He knows, he knows, fantasy CRPG calculation principles, he supposes, dictate that anything that modifies a player's endurance should by convenience's sake be considered "armor."

(Still, when he goes out these days, he never says to his friends or roommates: "Okay, let me just put my armor on."

("Although maybe I should [say that]..." he then concedes.)

wizard seems to be helpless without hats and robes

I feel I should point out that without the light armor skill you can wear a full array of light armor and still only suffer a -1 to attack and defend. You only take the penalty for the first piece of armor you put on (of a speciific weight class) So, taking into account you can wear ~6(?) pieces of armor, you're basically looking at z+6x-1 armor, where z is your base armor class and x is equal to 1, 2, and very occasionally, 3. Usually you will wind up with 11 above your base after a few hours. You can do the same with medium or heavy armor, but the penalty is slightly higher and you need a ton of strength. And since, as a magick-user, you will almost always be half a screen away from whatever you're trying to kill it barely matters anyway.

I've been playing through the last few days as a mage with no armor or weapon skills - basically focusing on elemental and alchemy - and I have found that it almost doesn't matter if you have the light armor proficiency; light armor is still really useful. Your first crap piece of armor doesn't count but everything after that does. Wear a pointy hat and a cloak and you will still look pretty wizardly.

I was exploring a bit of the game and found an priest npc type who is wearing an white robe...its unfair to give npcs robes and the player only clothes...reminds me of lionheart where the spellcaster enemies had cool robes and you nothing....

Developers seems to make the classical medieval fantasy games only with fighters in their mind...hence most of the old school fantasy covers had warriors and most npcs in old school games refers to you as an ´´warrior´´>_>