heavy armor such as deadric cuiriass or ebony cuiriass has a very high lvl enchant. unlike that of glass armor for light armor it has a very low enchant lvl. a deadric curiass has an enchant lvl of 60. the glass curiass has an enchant lvl of 12. and the highest lvl the medium armor has is 24. the heavy armor sure is very heavy but they make up for enchantment power..so if you want to play a game and enchant stuff the best way to go is with heavy armor and heavy weapons. if you wanna go thru the game with no enchantments or minimal enchantments you go thru with light armor.

But pick unarmored because your encumberance will be so little that the fact that your only wearing nice clothes will not detract from your ability to fight.

I prefer heavy armor because I like to have a very high AR.

and when you wear nothing you are limited to what magical things you actually can do

there are actually people who don't wear anything?

won't they keep getting this meesage " cover yourself, are you mad? have you no decency? " when talking to npc? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

my character straight told me he would quit if i didnt put some clothes on him. said the fishes liked him a little to much when he went for a swim..........................

Besides enchant levels & weight & AR (armour rating), there is DR (DAMAGE RESISTANCE).

Light armour has less DR than heavy armour. You can be AR 20 in heavy or light, but the damage you take from an enemies blow will be reduced by the DR.

Oh yes, your sneak rating is affected by your armour. I think that Netch Leather is the quietest armour in the game. It's practically useless, but it's quiet.

[ 06-12-2002, 12:01 PM: Message edited by: DraconisRex ]

I have been wearing heavy armor since the start of my game and it does have its advantages if you can wear it.
1. It absorbs damage points in big ways when you have it repaired properly. Instead of you taking a beating it takes alot of it for you.
2. It increases your fatigue factor points when your running and jumping around with it on all day long.
3. The NPCs give you compliments on how well you must be doing to look so good.. ;) I remember taking on my first skeleton champion with an armor rating of 26. By the time I came out from that battle, my helmet, right gauntlet, and sheild were in my inventory shredded beyond use.... but I survived.

(I thought I saw that a glass shield has a 30pt enchantablity btw.. not bad for light protective gear!)

*\Conan/*

[ 06-12-2002, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: *\Conan/* ]

i got my heavy armor skill up to 97 right now . my dragonbone ciuriass
has an armor rating of 323 my deadric face of god has an armor rating of 285. my ebony shield has an armor rating of 285. my two ebony bracers have an armor rating of 178.my overall rating it says at the bottom is 215. when i get hit i take no more than 3 points of damage. im also a lvl 43 char so it took awhile to get up to that point.

armor rating at 100 now and my cuiriass and shield are at rating of 333 funny thing is if it is a weak hit i take no damage at all.

Check again, all the armor classes have 1 type of armor that can enchant at high lvls. The strength of Hvy armor is that it also happens to have the highest armor class. For medium armor, dragonscale curass also enchants to 60, but has a lower armor class than Dreugh.

Also when picking your armors, keep in mind that armor restricts movement, even if your are skilled with it. A character with 60 in hvy armor and 60 in athletics and speed of 50 wearing full plate will move slower than a character with 60 in med armor and 60 in athletics and a speed of 50 wearing full chain. You are also more likely to be knocked down in hvy armor than med or light.

yeah but when my butt gets knocked down i only take 1-4 points of damage. i can take quit a beating for a char with 534 life.

whats unarmored like then?

unarmored is for the thief type players. magically your skin can take blows better with ease.unarmored sucks cause your totally missing out on all good enchantments you can possibly could have.

i've tried it all out - heavy, medium, light and unarmored. finally decided that as-light-as-possible is my favorite, so i gave up armor altogether. finishing my first game without armor wasn't a problem, since i was already at very high level with lots of hit points and a lot of excelent gear.
starting a new game with unarmored from the beginning is a lot more difficult though. plus the fact i haven't increased my endurance from the starting 55 means i have 156 hit points at level 23. my unarmored is at 63 so my armor rating is a mear 25. low AR and HP sure make you think twice before charging straight into a melee fight unprepared. so i either use a bow to pick enemies of at a distance or rely on self-brewed health restoring potions (good thing i got my alchemy up to 100 early) when going melee.
on the other hand, my encumbrance is very low, around 40 when i'm not dragging any loot around, allowing me to run fast and jump high.
and in my experience a full 'set' of exquisit clothing and jewelry provides more than enough enchantment potential. plus, it looks better than any armor [img]smile.gif[/img]

ok nydlari here you go best enchant lvls for each best class armor.

sheilds:
light-glass tower shield 45 enchant lvl
medium-orcish tower shield 90 enchant lvl
heavy-deadric tower shield 225 enchant lvl
pauldrons:
light-none- they all have enchant value of 1
medium- orcish pauldron 2 enchant lvl
heavy-(odd)imperial chain pauldron 7 enchant lvl
guantlets:
light-chitin guantlet 10 enchant lvl
medium-none
heavy-deadric guantlet 60 enchant lvl
bracer:
light-glass bracer 10 enchant lvl
medium- orcish bracer 24 enchant lvl
heavy- ebony bracer 40 enchant lvl
helm:
light-glass helm 15 enchant lvl
medium-orcish helm 30 enchant lvl
heavy-ebony closed helm 50 enchant lvl
greaves:
light-glass greaves 10 enchant lvl(odd)
medium- imperialchain greaves 7 enchant lvl
heavy-deadric greaves 7 enchant lvl
cuiriass:
light- glass cuiriass 12 enchant lvl
medium- orcish cuiriass 24 enchant lvl
heavy-deadric cuiriass 60 enchant lvl
boots:
light-glass boots 10 enchant lvl
medium-orcish boots 10 enchant lvl
heavy-deadric boots 26 enchant lvl

total enchant lvl possibility:
light-113 enchant lvl
medium-187 enchant lvl
heavy-475 enchant lvl

and there are a couple secret deadric helms in the game as well not sure of there enchant lvl might be 60 or 90 not sure but that would only add another 10-40 points to an already impressive 475. now heavy armor might be heavy, and make you fall down in combat(poor weaknesses). it has very very high enchantment lvls and has very high ar so you take less damage all together.

I am just starting out in the game and I love the unarmored skill for a number of reasons. First it makes the game more interesting as I have to pick and choose which fights to engage. Second, since I am a thief/mage wood elf with a bow, I do not have a lot of strength. Not having to wear armor allows me to carry alot of arrows and loot. Third, it just seems to fit my character concept. I rely on conjuration and bows to keep my enemy away from me. If I do get hurt I have resotoration and enchant to heal myself. Besides it is really hard to sneak in armor.

Your list misses the point of my post; you've listed the enchant lvls for the strongest armor of each type. What I was pointing out is that for medium and light armor, weaker armor types have higher enchant ratings.

Example:
Dragonscale Cuiriass enchants at lvl 60; however it is much weaker armor than orcish. IOW, if your train in medium or light armor, you must choose between having the strongest armor of that type, or having the highest enchantment of that type; where as, for heavy the strongest armor is also the highest enchant lvl.

Now add to this the increased mobility in med and light, the increased chance at succesful sneaking, the ability to carry more loot, ect. and there are many reasons why a person would want to choose med or light over hvy.

And...on top of all that, there is the entire roleplaying concept.

ok whatever floats the boat i would rather enjoy playing the game with stuff i can do more with. sneaking is able to be done by anyone and any armor if you got a high enough sneak lvl. i would rather have an armor that helps me out more in battle than it would in covert situations.i got a sneak lvl of 82 now and i can sneak with the best of them. but can you fight and take damage like heavily armored char?

I thought sneak is the ability to do something undetected, what does it has to do with which type of armor you are using?