POLL: Who plays their fighters *without* magical armour?

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The only magical armour I ever keep are those that come with the NPC i.e. Valygar and Keldorn. In Valygar's case, until TOB perhaps, his armour is about as good as you can get (considering, as you may already have gathered, I don't ever buy magical items!) and Keldorn's armour is superb with it's freeaction and above all, saving throw bonus.
Now, since you cannot wear items of protection e.g. cloak of protection, ring of protection, with magical armour, I always think 'why bother'? Saving throws are far more important to a character's survival than AC, which is augmented by an item of protection anyway! Thus, my fighters (except Keldorn and Valygar) always wear non-magical full plate.
Anyone else?

Poll Information
This poll contains 1 question(s). 15 user(s) have voted.

Poll Results: Who plays their fighters *without* magical armour? (15 votes.)

Who plays their fighters *without* magical armour? (Choose 1)
* I prefer my fighter characters to wear non-magical armour *and* protection items. - 27% (4)
* I prefer my fighter characters to wear magical armour and lose out on protection items. - 40% (6)
* I use a cheat that enables me to have my cake and eat it! - 33% (5)

 

I usually go for the best AC I can get. You get attacked much more often than you make a saving throw.

That being said, Full Plate Armor and a Ring of Protection +2 goes pretty far into the game as the best combo you can get!

 

Magical armor also gives saving throw bonuses equivalent to its + bonus.

 

With all the items out there that give AC bonuses, why not use enchanted armour. The Armour of Hart comes to mind, or Plate of the Legion even. Then you can still wear the Cloak of the Sewers, The Ring of Gaxx and Ring of Elemental Control (I think that this is the one that gives a +1 to AC)and any number of helmets. Off hand I do not know any other amulets that give AC bonuses besides the Amulet of Protection, so that would be the only slot that could not be filled.

With all these possibilites, my number one frontliner always wears the best armour possible. I leave the Ring of Protection for my mages.

 

Why leave the Ring of Prot. for your mages? Do they ever get hit, and if they do Stoneskin is just a click away?

For most of SoA I use non-enchanted armour because the enchanted armour isn't that good. But, in the Underdark you get Drow armour, then after you get Armour of the Hart and Gorgon Plate.

 

Enchanted armor in BG2 does not grant save bonuses, though rings, amulets, and cloaks of protection have them.

Especially later in the game when magic begins to dominate, I much prefer trading a few points of AC for better saves. If the armor, though, has spiffy bonuses then I'm more likely to use it instead.

If I'm not mistaken, in PnP you can wear enchanted armor with protection items--you get the save bonuses from them but not the AC bonus.

 

Are there more than one Rings of Protection +2 in the game? Are there any rings with higher plusses?

 

Not sure how many rings or prot +2 there are, but if there aren't enough, you could always wear a Cloak of Prot +2 instead.

My lead fighter usually wears the Red dragon scale because you're allowed to equip a magical ring/cloak at the same time. But until I get it, he does indeed use non-magical Full Plate Armour.

Everyone else in the party wears magical armour, and rings that boost AC without conflicting with the armour (eg: Ring of Earth control, Cloak of Sewers, Ring of Gaxx), or of course other accessories with neat effects.

So I voted for the first option even though it's only true for the one character. But it's only true for Full Plate Mail; you'll never catch me wearing plain leather armour for fighter/thieves or anything else.

 

Camdawg, you do remember correctly that in P&P you can wear rings of protection *and* magical armour but that you only get the saving throw bonus.

Another comment from a self-confessed BG2 and D&D expert : Magic is BY FAR, the most deadly force in the game and failing saving throws is a far more common cause of death than a straight weapon hit. Furthermore, when combat is going badly, you can almost always just click a potion of invisibility and you're saved, or just run away. Spells however can follow you!
In my experience, AC seems to have little bearing on the tough fights. You seem to get hit repeatedly by the likes of Firkrag no matter what armour you're wearing!

 

I generally pick up the best armour I can find, magical or not. It gives you an edge in combat and, what's more, it's realistic. After all, if this was real and wearing magical armour meant the difference between life and death, you'd be rushing off to the adventurer's mart the first opportunity you get to buy Balduran's Plate.