Armor
Armor is gear worn by characters to protect them from damage. It is divided into main armor and armor accessories. Kinds of main armor are distinguished by their armor group (AG) and armor sub-group (AsG). Characters may only wear one set of main armor and one of each kind of accessory at a time.
The first armor in an armor group is usually torso armor, covering only the chest, stomach, and back. The second type will cover the arms and hands of the wearer, then the third type will cover the legs as well. The last type of armor in a group covers the entire body. When a character wears an accessory such as leg greaves to increase the coverage of their armor, the AsG changes to correspond with the amount of total coverage (this also increases the penalties to movement, etc., see below for more details). For example, if a character was wearing light leather that covers just the torso, they might decide to add arm greaves at one point. The AsG of the character's armor would then change to that of full leather since the total coverage would then be torso and arms.
When a type of armor in a class doesn't cover a body part, the part counts as being covered by one class less when determining the critical rank of a strike. For example, when striking someone wearing torso plate, or metal breastplate, the weapon uses the damage factor of striking someone in plate, no matter where the strike lands. However, when striking an uncovered portion, the amount of raw damage required per critical rank is only 9 damage, instead of the 11 damage which is standard for plate armor (these numbers are called critical divisors). Therefore, a strike of 18 raw damage using a longsword (a +203 to +208 endroll) to an arm is a level 2 crit (+7 extra damage, for a total of 25 damage), but if the same strike were to hit the chest, it'd only be a level 1 crit (+1 extra damage, for a total of 19 damage).
Note: the endrolls noted may be much higher if the victim has significant amounts of DFRedux. For example, a character with 60% redux in the example given above would require a +358 endroll for the same result.
Action Penalties and Spell Hindrance
Wearing heavy armor can introduce difficulty to a character's actions and hinder their use of magic. Action penalties can be mitigated through training in the Armor Use skill. Spell hindrance cannot be avoided unless you have access to the spell Faith's Clarity (1603) (Paladin base) and/or are a Paladin with training in the Armor Specialization known as Armored fluidity. However, spell hindrance can be minimized by training in the Armor Use skill. Spell hindrance will never go above the maximum (listed in the far right column) but will also never go below the minimum hindrance listed under the corresponding spell circle.
| AG | ASG | Name | RT | AP | CvA | Spell Hindrance | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norm | Magic | MnS | MjS | Cleric | MnE | MjE | Ranger | Sorcerer | Wizard | Bard | Empath | Paladin | Max | |||||
| 1. Cloth | 1 | Robes | 0 | 0 | 25 | 15 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2. Soft Leather | 5 | Light leather | 0 | 0 | 20 | 15 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6 | Full leather | 1 | 0 | 19 | 14 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 7 | Reinforced leather | 2 | -5 | 18 | 13 | - | - | - | - | 2 | - | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | 4 | |
| 8 | Double leather | 2 | -6 | 17 | 12 | - | - | - | - | 4 | - | 2 | 4 | 2 | - | - | 6 | |
| 3. Hard Leather | 9 | Leather breastplate | 3 | -7 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 16 |
| 10 | Cuirbouilli leather | 4 | -8 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 20 | |
| 11 | Studded leather | 5 | -10 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 24 | |
| 12 | Brigandine armor | 6 | -12 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 28 | |
| 4. Chain | 13 | Chain mail | 7 | -13 | 1 | -6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 7 | 16 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 40 |
| 14 | Double chain | 8 | -14 | 0 | -7 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 20 | 8 | 18 | 20 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 45 | |
| 15 | Augmented chain | 8 | -16 | -1 | -8 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 25 | 9 | 22 | 25 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 55 | |
| 16 | Chain hauberk | 9 | -18 | -2 | -9 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 30 | 11 | 26 | 30 | 15 | 14 | 9 | 60 | |
| 5. Plate | 17 | Metal breastplate | 9 | -20 | -10 | -18 | 16 | 25 | 25 | 16 | 35 | 21 | 29 | 35 | 21 | 25 | 10 | 90 |
| 18 | Augmented plate | 10 | -25 | -11 | -19 | 17 | 28 | 28 | 18 | 40 | 24 | 33 | 40 | 21 | 28 | 11 | 92 | |
| 19 | Half plate | 11 | -30 | -12 | -20 | 18 | 32 | 32 | 20 | 45 | 27 | 39 | 45 | 21 | 32 | 12 | 94 | |
| 20 | Full plate | 12 | -35 | -13 | -21 | 20 | 45 | 45 | 22 | 50 | 30 | 48 | 50 | 50 | 45 | 13 | 96 | |
To see how much training is required to reduce penalties as far as possible, see the Armor Use article.