Armor Styles - One suit to rule them all, or...bits and pieces?

[Caetul]

Curious as to what people think today, is a good route to go with all the armor choices.

Obviously the end result will be Full Plate Coverage, so my question is the following.

Would it be more suitable to wear say, MBP then add in greaves and a helm with special properties. Or more easier of a route and just wear some sort of full plate with properties?

Obviously with the pieces of armor, you'd be able to add what you want, but is it better in the end to do that, or just better to keep with one piece of armor and get the properties for/on that instead?

[Izzy]

Keep in mind that MBP + accessories != Full plate. You lose out on CvA, plus often you end up with extra weight. Not to mention you're welcome to wear accessories with full plate if your goal is simply to add functionality (flares, localized padding, etc).

[Caetul]

Keep in mind that MBP + accessories != Full plate. You lose out on CvA, plus often you end up with extra weight. Not to mention you're welcome to wear accessories with full plate if your goal is simply to add functionality (flares, localized padding, etc).

Ah yeah, that's right. Forgot about the Full Plate CvA and what not.

Good reminder, thanks

[Menos]

There is no perfect answer to this question. You have to decide where the balance of advantages fits best for your guy. Full plate is going to give you a better CvA (in effect higher TD), more carry room (assuming you lighten it which everyone should) and -not to be underestimated- more options for very nice sets to buy. My experience has also been that the AvD boost is bigger than the extra dodge DS, but YMMV.

Each step down you go towards MBP is going to give you alot more maneuver defense, especially if you have room to overtrain in armor significantly.

Hunting in OTF with almost zero maneuver danger to speak of, full plate is an easy choice for me. That is only reinforced by having a nice suit of full plate to wear and no prospects of finding a nice lower coverage set soon.

If I was in a more maneuver heavy area, or if I just wanted something more well rounded, I would have aimed for augmented breastplate. The trouble with that of course is that I am not sure I have ever once seen a truly nice set of augmented sell or even one mentioned as existing.

Metal breastplate is just too much TD for me to give up, but next to full plate there are the most sets of this stuff out there to be had for the buying.

Edit to add:
As for wearing greaves to tailor the effects in different areas (like puncture resistant head coverage, fire resistant leg greaves, lightning coverage on torso or wherever the hell nerve crits hit) I do not find the advantages of doing so enough better than altering the full suit to justify the extra weight and worn item count. If you play a fluff covered giant, I doubt this will hold as true for you.

[Alorn15]

On a similar vein...

I was given a 6x ECP fire-resistant MBP. My understanding of armor is that this is superior to 6x full plate in every situation except:
1. Hit in non-chest area with a roll that would result in a minor.

In which case I'd be dealing with chain-level protection and the padding wouldn't come into play.

Is that about right?

[Androidpk]

iirc you still get padding on the non chest areas.

[Alorn15]

Right. I was referring to this, from Krakii:


Critical padding can not reduce a critical that would have been rank 1 or higher to a rank 0.

[Menos]

On a similar vein...

I was given a 6x ECP fire-resistant MBP. My understanding of armor is that this is superior to 6x full plate in every situation except:
1. Hit in non-chest area with a roll that would result in a minor.

In which case I'd be dealing with chain-level protection and the padding wouldn't come into play.

Is that about right?

I think the padding would make up for most of the difference in crit deviser on non chest areas. The only real negatives would be less room to carry stuff (lower base weight) and crap CvA. I'd sure wear that stuff over normal FP and count myself lucky to do so.