My paladin wears damite everything and some leather gloves. By the time you hit 50th circle your hindrance should be fairly minimal. Which is all the more frustrating when your other chars have 3-4 times the skill in armor and can't reduce hindrance lol.

Monster Elec

You hear the distant echo of a savage Horde snarling in barbaric disapproval of your deeds.

All of your armor:

a triple-reinforced vardite pavise shield
a dull steel field plate (HP)
some scratched copper plate sleeves (HP)
a pair of thick goggles with a shark-cartilage frame (light armor)
a pockmarked copper chain aventail (chain)
an enameled lamellar cap embellished with tiny dragons (brig)

I only have a clownish head.

What I wear:
some midnight black crusader's armor accented with a platinum etching of the Fruvous family crest on the breastplate (altered old old forged overwhelming hindrance half plate)
some pockmarked silver-plated light plate greaves (Old Kanton's brigandine greaves with fair hindrance)
an engraved electrum-plated chain helm (Old Kanton's chain helm with insignificant hindrance)
a heavy vardite plate mask (forged mask with light hindrance)
some coarse mammoth-hide gloves (tailored gloves with light hindrance)
a tarnished crusader's shield with a polished soulstone boss encircled by the pantheon of the Immortals (altered pavise shield)

With 1150+ in all armors they each still lock.

What I recommend to new Paladins who seek me out:

Heavy half plate
Brigandine greaves
Mail balaclava (or helm)
Heavy Plate Mask (if wearing the helm above)
Leather gloves
Lumium target shield/sipar or scale target shield

Paladins train down hindrance fast enough, I don't bother with the less hindering stuff on new players.

--Just a Squire

Riveted to the metal is a small copper plaque depicting a shield crossed with a longsword overlaying a field of thirteen stars. Encircling the design are the words, "Many Faces - One God."

>>Badgopher: I was wondering if Paladins wear a clown suit, what mixture and model do you guys use? My armor terts just use lumium and the lightest they can get. Assuming you can handle the weight, is the armor hindrance penalty low enough that you want to go for the heaviest and most protective pieces you can get? Or should you still moderate?

For training, I have reinforced damite:

All of your armor:

an azure pavise inlaid with a silversteel gryphon seated within a ring of laurel
a damite lamellar balaclava (brigandine)
a luminous suit of tonlet armor with winged pauldrons (plate)
some damite mail vambraces (chain) or some padded heavy titanese vambraces (light)
some damite lamellar gloves (brigandine)

But considering all the armor and shields you are wearing or carrying, you are currently lightly (4/14) hindered and your stealth is very (9/14) hindered.

I swap between chain and light vambraces as needed to keep all four skills moving.

This results in an experience split of about:
plate (torso/legs): 49.4%
brigandine (head/eyes/neck and hands): 28.6%
chain or light (arms): 22%

It would be possible to distribute experience more evenly with smaller pieces of plate, but I already had the field plate, so I just built my setup around that.

---

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall rank!

Vote for DragonRealms on Top MUD Sites: http://www.topmudsites.com/vote-DragonRealms.html

I find this works well hinderance wise and protection wise for a 'clown' suit.

All of your armor:

a lumium chain mask
a triple-reinforced vardite pavise shield
a padded burlap hood sealed with protective wax
some lumium brigandine gloves
some damite full plate embellished with gold leaf around the edges
[Type INVENTORY HELP for more options]

Where can I buy those pieces? I just returned to the game myself and am playing a Paladin (7th circle). I think I've seen a few sipars on the Paladin only rack in the guild.

Really enjoying the armor aspect of Paladins and want to start training everything as early as possible.


~Koldred

^ That's some good advice up there.

Even if up pick up your suit of armor on your own, I would advise talking to paladins anyway with the intent of becoming a squire. You can always use gweths to facilitate the meeting. The knight-squire RP is some of the most fun you can have. I wish I knew that when I started out. You'll always have a knowledgeable resource for paladin questions and a hand with some difficult quests. Also, building rapport and running a few errands for your knight may earn you a good suit of armor and/or a weapon, which is a far more satisfying feeling than having commissioning one. Then there's also the party held in your honor when you ascend into knighthood. Fun stuff.

Thanks guys. I put together the crossing clown suit Badgopher suggested and am currently training in Crossings wild boar/deer area. Seems to be working well!

>>Even once you're in the 1000+ ranks, the huge pavise types are questionably useful from what I've read here. But a high level Paladin should correct me if that's wrong.

I've messed around with decent small shields (damite Targe, 1 hinderance sipars, and others) vs the Pavice and when I look at damage taken over a window it works out about the same. Personally, I like the Pavice, YMMV.

Samsaren

>>Well, I'll retract my statement then, since I can't think of much more qualification than yours. Sorry for the misinformation.

I wouldn't sweat it overmuch. Some folks, like old Rekon, and I wanna say Lennon swear by smaller shields, I'm a fan of bigguns. (though I keep a small for bow training) DR's obfuscated combat mechanics make it awful difficult to speak definitively about it. End of the day - go with what you enjoy, I enjoy my altered cool lookin' Pavice.

Samsaren

>I wouldn't sweat it overmuch. Some folks, like old Rekon, and I wanna say Lennon swear by smaller shields, I'm a fan of bigguns. (though I keep a small for bow training) DR's obfuscated combat mechanics make it awful difficult to speak definitively about it. End of the day - go with what you enjoy, I enjoy my altered cool lookin' Pavice.<

Heh, posted as I was posting.

But yeah, what Samsaren said. Even though I do swear that small shields are better, I personally use an altered pavise, because of the RP aspect of it (it's altered with functional soulstone). I do wish that the combat mechanics made more sense in general, but especially as applied to shields.

--Just a Squire

Riveted to the metal is a small copper plaque depicting a shield crossed with a longsword overlaying a field of thirteen stars. Encircling the design are the words, "Many Faces - One God."

>Were these tests done against melee or ranged attacks?<

If you're referring to my post: melee. For ranged, a large shield is hands-down better.

--Just a Squire

Riveted to the metal is a small copper plaque depicting a shield crossed with a longsword overlaying a field of thirteen stars. Encircling the design are the words, "Many Faces - One God."

>I doubt I'll ever get rid of my big shield, but I've been curious about this since Combat 3.0.<

We never tested mediums. Maybe it's worth it trying. IDK.

As I said, I use my large pavise exclusively, even though I honestly feel the smalls perform better at melee. It's an RP thing for me. Rekon would swap. When hunting he'd use small, in PvP he'd use large since so much of PvP is about ranged.

--Just a Squire

Riveted to the metal is a small copper plaque depicting a shield crossed with a longsword overlaying a field of thirteen stars. Encircling the design are the words, "Many Faces - One God."