The Drunken Lizard Pub

• It's too heavy for a Fighter class adventurer (no buffs).
• If equipped, there is no room for treasure. I'm not a town guard.
• It has identical armor ratings as Light Armor.

What am I missing? It seems the Fighter is at a distinct disadvantage, as he must spent stat points on Strength and Concentration. From what I've read most players are spending their points entirely on Endurance or Perception and using buffs to wear heavy armor.

1. Is Heavy Armor more durable (requires less repair time)?
2. Does Heavy Armor provide greater damage reduction?
3. Does Heavy Armor get lighter with greater skill?
4. What effects does the Heavy Armor skill have on the above, if any?

I have a level7 fighter, and no problem with heavy armor.
I can carry about 144pounds, so I have room for stuff.

I believe that the main difference between light and heavy armor is in terms of damage reduction, which is also where the armor skills come in. The better and heavier armor you're wearing and the higher your relevant armor skill, the higher your character's DR.

Unfortunately, the term "damage reduction" is a bit misleading for people who have heard it other places. It's not an amount of damage that gets subtracted from successful hits to you. Instead, it's the percent chance that any particular hit will only do half damage.

If you're playing a fighter and you're not putting points into strength, you're missing on carry capacity and damage potential. My fighter never had issues with armor, even though it limited his carrying capacity.

You don't need to spend points on both strength and concentration. Strength and Dexterity would be better, as Dex pumps your tohit and provides additional armor.

With a high enough armor rating, you can be a walking fortress.

The problem, as has been pointed out, is that "damage reduction" sucks. It sucks royally in comparison with other defense methods (Invisibility, Chameleon, heck, even the Dodge skill). It even sucks in comparison with simply building up your dodge rating... which you HAVE to do to build up your damage reduction rating!

ManusDei wrote:I have a level7 fighter, and no problem with heavy armor.
I can carry about 144pounds, so I have room for stuff.

Stats please.

RasterOps wrote:

ManusDei wrote:I have a level7 fighter, and no problem with heavy armor.
I can carry about 144pounds, so I have room for stuff.

Stats please.

Let's see if I can guess. 24 STR and 12 CON, right CB?

Never had problems with heavy armor, and as you can see from my stats I am all str.Mana points at 143 are more then enough to cast all the divination buffs 2,3 times over and pretty much own anything...Dont really need perception or concentration more then 15...

Got a bit of dex for "To Hit" but my Bludgeoning Weapons skill at 40 pretty much took care of that.

Made sure I got decent divination and with haste+bless+ogre str. + my 2x damage bludgeoning skill which if you have over 32 skill activates every 4 rounds ^^..... I can pretty much go through anything...

I ran a cleric with heavy armor and never used ogre strength since I never got the scroll. Sure with two mighty rings I was at 50 strength by the end, but watching those taurax legionnaires have a 1% chance to hit was worth it.

You make more trips carrying loot than if you wear light armor, but you can easily get 10 to 13 more armor rating without needing a shield.

Thanks everyone for your help.

@ Anastasia, thanks. I can compare my current character to yours and see how they have diverged. With Bless I have about the same ToHit as you, when I equip a ring of Intense Focus (+5 CON). I focused on Endurance and added a few points to STR and CON taking them to 20 each.

@ All
Three of my big concerns about Heavy Armor was the weight, the lack of notable difference in the armor rating vs Light Armor and how as a fighter was I supposed to increase STR, END, and either DEX or CON, not to mention SPD?

In the early game and in previous character attempts I found I was missing far too often (magic rarely misses or fails). Fighting more than one enemy at a time risked death. A fighter that can't hit his target is going to die. I discovered Bless but that often wears off at inconvenient times and my % ToHit was dangerously low. I really didn't want to have to rely on Bless. I have been focused on improving my survivability and ToHit. So there was no points left over for strength... and Heavy Armor.

RasterOps wrote:Thanks everyone for your help.

@ Anastasia, thanks. I can compare my current character to yours and see how they have diverged. With Bless I have about the same ToHit as you, when I equip a ring of Intense Focus (+5 CON). I focused on Endurance and added a few points to STR and CON taking them to 20 each.

@ All
Three of my big concerns about Heavy Armor was the weight, the lack of notable difference in the armor rating vs Light Armor and how as a fighter was I supposed to increase STR, END, and either DEX or CON, not to mention SPD?

In the early game and in previous character attempts I found I was missing far too often (magic rarely misses or fails). Fighting more than one enemy at a time risked death. A fighter that can't hit his target is going to die. I discovered Bless but that often wears off at inconvenient times and my % ToHit was dangerously low. I really didn't want to have to rely on Bless. I have been focused on improving my survivability and ToHit. So there was no points left over for strength... and Heavy Armor.

Raising your primary weapon skill gives you an added tohit chance every other point into the skill.

Kreador Freeaxe wrote:

RasterOps wrote:

ManusDei wrote:I have a level7 fighter, and no problem with heavy armor.
I can carry about 144pounds, so I have room for stuff.

Stats please.

Let's see if I can guess. 24 STR and 12 CON, right CB?

27 Strengh, 20 Concentration, and 148,0 lbs

ManusDei wrote:

Kreador Freeaxe wrote:Let's see if I can guess. 24 STR and 12 CON, right CB?

27 Strengh, 20 Concentration, and 148,0 lbs

Ah, then I made an erroneous assumption of the zero point. Each point of STR adds 5 lbs of carrying capacity, and each point of CON adds 2, but they don't start from 0. I'll have to try to roll a character with 7 STR and 7 CON and see what the minimum carrying capacity is, maybe.

Kreador Freeaxe wrote: I'll have to try to roll a character with 7 STR and 7 CON and see what the minimum carrying capacity is, maybe.

Just tested: 42 lbs with 7 STR and 7 CON.

Gorgon Rider wrote:

Kreador Freeaxe wrote: I'll have to try to roll a character with 7 STR and 7 CON and see what the minimum carrying capacity is, maybe.

Just tested: 42 lbs with 7 STR and 7 CON.

With 7 STR, and 8 CON, I get 44lbs...

With 8 STR and 7 CON, I get 46lbs...

With 9 STR and 7 CON i get 50lbs..

So it looks like 4lbs per point of STR and 2 per CON

7*4= 28; 7*2=14; 28+14 = 42 = The Ultimate Answer.