Armour
Armour is your basic life insurance. Even a leather jerkin has saved more adventurers than every spell of healing put together. This page covers the essentials; for the full type and material lists, see Armour types and Materials.
Slots: what you can cover
Different parts of your body wear different pieces. Type slots to see what you have, what is currently covered, and how well. Most humanoids have head, neck, torso, arms, hands, legs, and feet. Beasts and stranger races vary.
Manage your armour with:
eq— list what you're wearing and wieldingwear <item>— put onremove <item>— take offwear all— wear everything in your inventory you can
Cover the vulnerable spots first: head, neck, torso, legs. Hits in combat fall on specific body parts. A bare head takes the full force of every blow that lands on it, no matter how good your breastplate is. Read Adjectives for the order of protection adjectives the game uses.
Sizing
Armour is sized for the wearer. You can squeeze into pieces that are within roughly a third of your own size — bigger or smaller. For an exact fit, find a smith who can resize it. Resizing usually costs a small fee. Larger races generally pay more.
Armour Classes
Armour comes in three weight classes. Each one trades protection against mobility and combat speed.
Light Armour
For those who prefer mobility over protection. The protection is modest, but even the lightest armour beats none at all. The best NPC-available light material is chitinium silk — expensive, but excellent. Suitable for monks, dexterous fighters, and anyone whose role is dodging rather than soaking.
Medium Armour
The most common protection in Icesus. Heavier than light, but with much better defence. Cheaper than heavy and far lighter — a solid compromise. Most fighters wear medium until they outgrow it.
Heavy Armour
Plate and the like. The strongest protection, but very heavy, hot, and cumbersome — combat penalties for the unfit, expensive, and uncommon. Only stronger and more experienced fighters wear it well. A monk in plate fights badly; a frontline warrior in robes dies quickly. Match the armour to the role.
Material and Quality
Materials run from cloth and leather up through chitinium silk, steel, mithril, and rarer things. The smith's craft (its quality) matters almost as much as what it's made of. The better the material and quality, the better the protection.
For the full list of armour types and which materials work for each, see Armour types and Materials.
Wear and Repair
Armour takes damage in combat. A worn-out helmet protects worse than a new one — sometimes much worse. Repairs are handled by city smiths, player Pro Smiths, and province workshops, each handling different parts of the spectrum. Type eq check to look over what you're wearing for wear.
Some pieces are protected from damage entirely:
- Guild items — always indestructible
- Specially enchanted gear — sometimes protected
- Worn jewelry, rings — usually safe from melee, but area spells (acid storm, firestorm, etc.) can still hit them
Full breakdown at Equipment damage.
Glow
Magical armour glows. The glow tells you something is enchanted, but doesn't reveal what without identification. See Glowing equipment.
See Also
- Armour types — full list of armour types
- Materials — what armour is made from
- Equipment damage — wear, breakage, repair
- Combat — combat overview
- Glowing equipment
- Adjectives — order of protection adjectives