Effect of armor on thief skills?

Remove all ads!

I've read Ragusa's explanation of how armor lowers a thief's abilities. My question is does this hold for unique armor of the same type? For example, when you come across Mae'Var's shadow armor or later the Grandmaster Armor you gains bonuses to some of your thieving skills; are the rest of your skills lowered the same as they would be with other armor of the same base type. I'm playing a M/T so it doesn't matter all that much since I can't wear the stuff without disabling my spells anyways but I was curious.

 

Yes, while wearing any armor it will lower your thief skill points based on it's type.

 

I think I'll make a check on special armors later - IIRC you're right, some armors, like shadow armor seemed not go give penalties - however, I can't be sure without having checked first

 

Also, I'm pretty sure you can hide in shadows while wearing Drizzt's Armor, at least you could in BG1. This is probably because it's Mitheril, which is very light, even though it counts as chain.

 

yeah i noticed that about Drizzt's armor in BG1 D
does it still work in ToB?

 

Well, in my playing here is what I've found so far:

When my M/T puts on the Elven Chain his thief skills show a decline. I therefore hesitantly am assuming that when you put on any armor if it changes your skills the change will be shown on the information page.

Armor Locks/Traps/PP/Silent/Hide/Set Trap

Elven Chain -5/ -5 / -20/ -10/ 0 / 0

Orc Leather 0/ 0 / 0/ 0 / 0 / 0

Shadow Armor 0/ 0 /0/ 0 /+15/ 0

Skin of Ghoul 0 / 0/ 0/ 0/ 0 / 0

Now then, the Elven Chain has an AC of 5 and everything else has an AC of 4. However, when you combine any of the armor with the Bracers of AC 3 you end up with the same AC so it's a wash there. Elven Chain of course lets me throw spells around as a M/T and the thieving penalties aren't that heavy. Really, only your Move Silently suffers since if you want to disarm a trap, pick a lock, or pick a pocket you usually can just take your armor off first (one exception is when you go after the group with Celestial Fury and you want to disarm some traps quickly in combat -- but -5 isn't much.) I know there are some good robes available but I haven't come across them yet to compare.

For a pure thief, of the armor I've found so far, it's interesting that the Orc Leather and Skin of Ghoul show no thieving penalties at all. So, you could take the +15 to Hide in Shadow of the Shadow Armor (which doesn't strike me as very crucial once you've developed your skills a bit) or take the Orc Leather which has the same AC, no thieving penalties, and 10% resistance to missles. You do suffer 1 Charisma point. With the Skin of the Ghoul you get the same AC and +3 to saves vs. paralyzation/poison. In my opinion, both of these non-thieving armors outshine the thief made Shadow Armor.
Caveat -- this is only comparing what I've come across so far. If you've got other unique armors please post so I can know what to hunt for. Also, maybe thieving penalties are hidden but if so why does it show the penalties with the elven chain?

Edited -- oh, and one more thing. Since I'm a M/T I haven't developed Detect Illusion yet so I can't compare this.

[This message has been edited by Laches (edited January 22, 2002).]

 

Good work Laches

as for Drizzt's chain - it is semi-usual elven chain - it allows stealth while not allowing spellcasting (at least in BG-1 it did - I never used it in BG-2)

As for the penalty-free armors: I don't think I'll include them in my thief-update - maybe later when I know some more.

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited January 24, 2002).]