Peculiar Armor Usage

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I was playing about a week ago when I stumbled upon a bizarre quirk with my Avenger. It turned out he was able to equip Shadow Scale Armor. This wasn't a huge surprise because I knew that thieves could equip it too. So, it appears that Shadow Scale counts as leather armor. No, the bizarre part was when I found he was able to equip Red Dragon Scale armor and Ankheg Plate Mail. So, this got me thinking, what other classes with armor restrictions can use these armors?

Kensais and Monks cannot use armor and cannot use these either.
Archers and Stalkers (and probably Valygar included, although I didn't test him) can use the Shadow Scale armor and still hide in shadows.
This one's a little wierd; Shapeshifters (and probably Cernd included, although I didn't test him) can use the Shadow Scale armor even though their kit states they cannot use any armor.
Bards, Barbarians, and Thieves can use the Shadow Scale armor. Theives can still use all of their abilities while wearing the Shadow Scale. Bards can still pickpocket but cannot cast spells. I'm sure the same applies to Thief/Mages, although I didn't test that build.

So it seems the only real bizarre one was the Avenger and Shapeshifter. I still don't know why the Avenger can equip Red Dragon Scale armor and Ankheg Plate Mail. The regular Druid can equip all 3 as well.

 

Shapeshifter is looking better and better....

There are bugs in the Corthala Family Armor and Keldorn's Armor that allow others to use them. Monks, in particular, can use Keldorn's Armor if they have the proper stats.

In BG1 a druid could wear Ankheg Plate Armor, so I don't think those are a bug for the plain druid. Shadow Scale Armor is considered leather and is the best armor for a thief in SoA (although a good argument could be made for the Human Flesh Armor and The Night's Gift).

 

Starfox, I think that the reason that your avenger can don those various scale armors is because they are armors made of natural materials, not metal. Or at least, that's probably the in-game justification.

 

Dragon scale and Ankheg armour are 'natural'. So it would make some sense to have Rangers and Druids equipping them.

 

"Vanilla" Rangers and Druids can use these armors (ie. Red Dragon Scale and Ankheg Plate Mail). The kits are the ones that have armor restrictions that still allow the wearing of some "natural" armors and not others. Perhaps I should have copied the kits' armor restrictions into the thread for those who aren't familiar with the kits?

The Avenger is only supposed to be able to equip leather armor as the kit states. The Stalker is supposed to be able to equip up to studded leather armor, as the kit states. Yet, the Stalker cannot equip the Red Dragon Scale or Ankheg and the Avenger can.

 

Yeah, the BGII usability restrictions were never implemented 100% consistently. A consequence of having so many kits and character options in the game is that it then becomes very, very difficult to balance and playtest everything properly. That's why BG1 handled everything much more smoothly & everything is as it should be -- the scope of its character creation is more limited, and thus better implemented. Even the exception of a druid being able to use Ankheg plate a) works and b) is obviously an intentional exception.

If you want, it's pretty straightforward to edit items using a program like DLTCEP and alter their usability restrictions. Actually, that's about the easiest change to make to the game, as long as you intend to stick to the innate limitations of the Infinity Engine. You could then package the updated .itm files and post them for folk to d/l if they wanted to. Heck, Tal might even host it, and you'd have made a contribution to the SP community and earnt yourself a portrait without even having to dip into your purse or learn to use WeiDU!