Newbie Guide to Suits of Armour and Shields

From MUME

Newbie Guide to Suits of Armour and Shields

This guide written and published by p(Baca/Endo)

"‘No!’ said Aragorn. ‘We must have a look and see what the hammer and anvil have done to you. I still marvel that you are alive at all.’ Gently he stripped off Frodo’s old jacket and worn tunic, and gave a gasp of wonder. Then he laughed. The silver corset shimmered before his eyes like the light upon a rippling sea. Carefully he took it off and held it up, and the gems on it glittered like stars, and the sound of the shaken rings was like the tinkle of rain in a pool."

JRRT, The Fellowship of the Ring

This guide is about using suits of armour, shields, and other equipment to protect yourself.

Many parts of this guide reference to the MUME help pages which can be found at: https://mume.org/help/help_index

Bold words can be looked up in the games help files. Like help states.

Finding Armour

One way to find armour or upgrade your armour is to take it off of corpses of mobs you defeat. If the corpse has a better shield then you do, take it! You earned it. But there is a chance that shield will not be the right size for you. Then you need to take it back to town and resize it at a armourer. This will cost a small amount of coins, but the armour will then fit you after that.

If you find armour that loads in the room or in a chest, it is called "unsized", and anyone can pick it up and wear it. The moment you wear it, that armour is now YOUR size. Anyone else wanting to use it later may have to resize it so it will fit them.

You also might find armour upgrades sold in a armourer shop. Just type list to see everything the shop has for sale. Or you can narrow your search down. Like list shield, list fine leather, list chainmail, list worn on head, etc... In shops the armour is listed from the best condition to the worst condition for each type of armour sold there. It is very normal for players to sell armour in a shop for making gold, and to buy armour in the shop for upgrading their gear.

You can also use the compare command for armour you are wearing OR armour for sale in a shop, OR both options. This is a wonderful command and pretty easy to learn how to use it.

sell, buy, value, list, show, compare, consider, resize

There are some other armours in this game, that are semi artifacts or extremely rare and very difficult to get, this guide will not be focusing on them.

Maintain your Armour

Your armour will slowly get beat up, worn out, and damaged over time as you wear it in combat. As the armour gets more damaged, the amount of future damage it can absorb decreases. You can type equ or inv to see the condition of the armour you have. You can also type con breastplate or con leggings to see what the condition of that specific piece of armour is. Then you can compare it to the list in the help states list.

One easy way to think of it is that pieces of armour have hit points, and as they absorb damage during being hit in combat, they get hurt. Eventually they absorb so much damage that they need mended or repaired to be 'healed' or restored back to full hit points. Over time in the game they get worn down, and their 'full hit points' actually decreases. Meaning they will need to be mended more often for top performance and protection.

If your armour is getting worn down, you can visit a armourer shop and have it mended. This does cost some coins to do so, but it will repair your armour back to it's top damage absorbing potential. It takes a few minutes for your armour to be repaired in the shop. And you only have about 10 or so minutes to come back to the shop to get your armour back. If you forget to return to the shop, the armourer puts your armour up for sale. As soon as you enter the room, the armourer will give you all of your mending pieces back, in full repaired condition. You can mend more then one piece of armour at a time, to speed this process up. Like mend all.chain.

Wearing Armour

This is a list of what types of gear is worn in which slots. For more information try help wear.

  • On head - cap, hat, hood, helm, helmet, coif, crown, circlet
  • On neck - ruby, necklace, amulet, collar, scarf, chain, cloakpin, pendant, brooch
  • On body - shirt, vest, tunic, jerkin, dress, blouse, robe, breastplate, hauberk
  • On arms - sleeves, vambraces, wrapping
  • On wrist - bracelet, wrist guard, wristband, keyring
  • On hands - gloves, gauntlets
  • On waist - belt, sash, girdle
  • On legs - pants, trousers, skirt, leggings, greaves
  • On feet - boots, shoes, sandals, slippers
  • Across back - rope, quiver, bolt case, sheath, harness, baldric, satchel, backpack
  • About body - cloak, surcoat, cape, cassock, fur, coat, blanket, pelt

Mixing Suits of Armour

You can mix and match armour all you want in MUME. You can wear a soft cap, a fine metal breastplate, soft leather gloves, scale mail leggings, and cotton sleeves if you want too. There is no bonus or penalty to wearing complete suits of armour. But overall if you want high absorb, you'll want to go with a full suit of fine chainmail or fine metals.

If you do mix armours, and wear a 'lighter' piece of armour, you will notice over time that spot on your body tends to get targeted more in fights and might receive more light wounds.

A very classic example of this is a warrior in a full suit of metal armour... except the comfortable soft leather boots on his feet (helps with running around). Then in combat that warrior notices they get hit in the feet more often for more wounds, and over all more damage, because they do not have high damage absorb armour protecting their feet.

Armour Protections

There are some types of damage armour can help you with and some types of damage it cannot. This is a list of those situations.

Armour cannot protect you from the following types of damage:

  • bleeding damage (use Bandage skill)
  • poison damage
  • damage from spells or spell like attacks (burning hands spell or an eel's electrical shock)
  • falling damage (like from a trap or breakaway bridge or cliff)
  • some traps in the game
  • falling off a horse (ZBLAM! try learning more Ride skill)
  • falling due to failed climb attempts (get a rope or learn more Climb skill)
  • Bash skill does a small amount of damage that armour does not absorb
  • room damage (some rooms are on fire or very cold and can do minor damage)
  • drowning damage (get a boat or learn more Swim skill)
  • some attacks that do not focus on a hit location on body

Armour can protect you from the following types of damage:

  • location attacks that hit a specific part of your body
  • opening some damaging doors that are thorny/sharp

Explaining Armour Numbers

There are several numbers that help you to understand what your armour is doing for you and too you. Here are some of the ways you can understand a suit of armour better. There really is not a best armour in the game, but the armour that works well for what you want it to do.

Weight

If you type con <armour> you will get information about how heavy it is. There is no limit to what armour you can wear due to your Str or Con. But if your character is carrying too much weight, it WILL lower your DB, decrease your chance to flee, and increase the rate you use up your movement points. So Str is related somewhat to how heavy of armour you can wear, effectively or efficiently. Con is related to how many movement points you have and how fast those movement points regen. Lighter armour helps with movement but heavier armour helps with absorbing damage.

Stat Adjustments

Some armours you can wear might increase your OB, DB, or PB. Some armours you wear might lower your OB, or DB. Type stat before you wear the armour, then type stat again after you wear it. You will be able to see the differences if your OB, DB, or PB changed. Over all heavier armours tend to lower DB and OB some, and lighter armours can raise it some.

  • Armour penalties go from none to some: cloth -> leather -> chain -> metal
  • Armour penalties also decrease as you go from: 'plain' -> sturdy -> fine

Price/Cost

Generally armour that is heavier tends to sell more or cost more. Armours that are light tend to sell for less and cost less. The condition of the armour affects the price as well. If the armour is worn down or very old, it's value in a shop will drop.

Armour prices from cheap to expensive:

  • cloth -> leather -> chain -> metal
  • 'plain' -> sturdy -> fine

Spell Defense

Some rare armour, shields, or cloaks can also increase your resistance to magic. This increases your chance to save against a spell. The spell has a slightly higher chance of failing or doing less damage.

Moves

This is specifically for any boots or shoes. Very comfortable boots help you to use less moves, or use up your movement points more efficiently. Boots that are very heavy or more uncomfortable are not as efficient, and you can use up some moves faster. But there is a trade off. Boots that are better for moves are not very good armour. Boots that are heavier make better armour and have more absorb. Warriors tend to wear heavier, protective footware. Other classes tend to wear boots that are efficient for moves.

  • Movement efficiency good to poor: cloth -> soft leather -> rigid leather -> metal
  • Feet protection from good to poor: metal -> leather -> cloth

A few warriors even carry a change of shoes in a backpack to switch when travelling.

Some examples of comfortable footware are:

  • fine soft leather boots, black padded boots, smooth black boots, shoes

Some examples of uncomfortable footware are:

  • snowshoes, heavy shoes, metal boots

Absorb

Armour has two values that relate to combat: percent of damage absorbed, and maximum amount of damage absorbed. This is best understood through an example:

You are wearing a piece of armour on your body that absorbs 50% of damage, up to 6 points, and a piece of armour on your legs that absorbs 75% of damage, up to 4 points.

A mob hits you in the body, doing 10 damage. Because the armour on your body absorbs 50%, it tries to stop 5 points of this damage. Since the maximum it can stop (6 points) is higher than 5 points, the armour absorbs 5 points, and you take 5 points of damage.

The mob then hits you very hard on the leg, doing 20 damage. Your leg armour tries to absorb 75% of this, which would be 15 points. However, your leg armour can absorb a maximum of 4 points of damage. Since the damage it tries to absorb is higher than the damage it can absorb, it will stop as much as it can (4 points), the rest goes through, and you take 16 points of damage.

The Armour value that you see when using the STAT command shows the average percentage of absorption your armour provides (this is the average for all places you could be hit; if you have better armour on one spot, it will obviously stop more damage). The Armour value DOES NOT give you any indication of the maximum amount of damage that is absorbed from each hit. So wearing chain mail armour will give you a lower Armour value than wearing fine rigid leather armour, even though chain mail will absorb more total damage.

Disclaimer some of this absorb information came from other players, and they described it or said it well, I could not improve upon it, so I borrowed it for this guide. Thank you! p(Argor), p(Androg), p(Belond)

Quality of Armour

Several types of armour in MUME come in different tiers or quality. As the quality goes up the value of numbers also goes up, in your favor. Higher quality armour gets more expensive, maybe lighter, better protection, less stat penalties, and often harder to find. Simply put, 'fine' armour is better then 'plain' or 'sturdy'.

To help upgrade your character, you want to strive to find the 'fine' armour and sell or replace your 'sturdy' armour. Fine armour tends to be much more rare on mobs, but check armour shops regularly.

The following suits of armour follow this trend:

  • soft leather
  • rigid leather
  • chain mail
  • metal

The pattern for armour improving is 'regular' or 'plain', then sturdy, then fine.

  • 'regular' -> sturdy -> fine

Here are some examples of this pattern for actual armour in the game:

  • Soft leather boots -> Sturdy soft leather boots -> Fine soft leather boots
  • Rigid leather trousers -> Sturdy rigid leather trousers -> Fine rigid leather trousers
  • Chainmail sleeves -> Sturdy chain mail sleeves -> Fine chain mail sleeves
  • Metal breastplate -> Sturdy metal breastplate -> Fine metal breastplate

Skills and Armour

There is not alot in the game that skills can help with for armour. Here's some suggestions that pair well with using alot of heavy armours.

Wilderness

This skill can help you use moves more efficiently in wild rooms, like a dense forest, or hills. Wearing armour can be tiring, so this skill might help your moves last a little longer. You can also build campfires faster to rest at for more movement regen.

Parry

If you are trying to be hit less, then ranks in the parry skill will help. Parry also stacks with wearing a shield for better parry. For every 5% you practice in Parry skill, your PB goes up by 1%. So if you practice 50% Parry, your PB is +10%. Then if you wear a shield that has +20% PB on it, your parry now rises to +30%.

Dodge

When wearing heavy armour or carrying a heavy shield, it is possible that your DB could drop from either the weight OR from the DB penalty the armour has. Practicing the Dodge skill is a way to get some DB back. If you only practice it to like 25-30% it will not hurt your warrior skills. For every 5% you practice in Dodge, you get +1% DB.

Endurance

This skill slightly increases your max movement points and slightly increases your movement regen. This is very important in heavy armours as you will use up your movement points faster. One of the most important skills when it comes to heavy armour and shields. It also slightly increases your hit points and hit point regen, possibly putting you back in the fight faster.

Suits of Armour

There are several types of suits of armour to choose from in MUME. This guide will attempt to provide a description of possible sets and the pros and cons of each type. Also which types of classes often choose to wear them.

Some suits of armour offer more protection, but are expensive and heavy. Some are very light weight and cheap, but the protection is lacking. There are many reasons to try out different suits of armour.

Cloth

  • Classes: casters, scouts, thieves, archers
  • Cost: very cheap to buy, mend, resize, or rent, often costing less the a couple of silver
  • Stats: very light weight, raises your DB, no absorb
  • Protection: only increased DB, no absorb
  • Examples: plain hood, green shirt, grey pair of pants, cotton sleeves

Cloth armour is very affordable, being the cheapest in the game. You can buy or loot it almost anywhere. It is the lightest armour in the game, and being light weight does not hurt your DB, flee chances, or use up movement points faster. It does have the draw back of if you are hit, you are likely to really notice it, since it has no absorb. It is meant for avoiding blows, not absorbing blows. It can be worn with any Str or Con.

It does pair very well with the Shield and Armour spells, which casters use. For backstabbers being light weight helps your moves last longer, and seems to help backstab chances very slightly. For shooters, you are likely to be hit less, so interrupts less shots.

There is also some cloth armour that makes you effective vs cold, which means it can help resist getting the flu. Like a warm blanket, scarf, wool coat, or wool tunic.

There are some 'magical' cloth choices that robes that help with your spell defense slightly or sleeves that can make you resistant to poisons. But those are much more difficult to get.

Leather

  • Classes: scouts, thieves, defense warriors, low level warriors, armoured casters
  • Cost: cheap to buy, mend, resize, or rent, often costing less then 1 gold for a full suit
  • Stat: light weight, doesn't hurt stats, good low damage absorb
  • Protection: fine rigid leather good absorb vs lower level mobs, soft leather poor
  • Examples: fine soft leather gloves, fine rigid leather gloves, fine rigid leather boots

Leather suits of armour are split up into 2 major groups, soft leather and rigid leather. There are a few other items here and there as well. Leather armour is fairly light weight, very affordable, and does not come with very many negative side affects of wearing, like lower DB.

Over all soft leather is mostly used for fine soft leather boots (good for moves) and fine soft leather gloves (good for OB). The rest of the soft leathers are not really used by players because cloth or fine rigid leather are better options. Soft leather can be worn with any Str or Con.

Fine rigid leather is a really good choice for lower level thiefs and warriors. It does not really negatively impact your character, and has actually decent absorb against lower level mobs. It is not great for trying to tank high level mobs like mountain trolls or cavebears. But for general leveling up, it works -wonderful- against a pack of wolves, giant rats, bandits, bats, etc... So if you are reequing or working on saving up cash, this is an outstanding choice. Just don't try to tank any supermobs with it. Rigid leather can be worn with almost any Str and any Con.

Chain

  • Classes: defense warriors, low level warriors, armoured casters
  • Cost: somewhat cheap to buy, mend, resize, or rent, often costing less then 8 gold for a full suit
  • Stat: medium weight, slightly lowers stats, medium damage absorb
  • Protection: good absorb against low level and mid level mobs
  • Examples: fine chain mail coif, white chain mail sleeves, scale leggings, fine chain mail hauberk

Chain mail suits of armour include choices like fine chain, white chain, and scale mail. Over all the scale mail is heavy, so most players switch to something else as soon as they can afford it. A majority of players use fine chain mail. White chain has slightly better absorb, but is MUCH more expensive and heavier.

You'll need something else for your feet, as there are no chain mail boots. Players often choose fine rigid leather boots or fine metal boots. Chain mail armour can be worn with any medium Str or higher, and a good Con helps.

This armour absorbs a medium amount of damage, and is middle line heavy. So characters without max Strength can try and use it. If you wear a full suit of cloth armour then switch to fine chain mail, you will really notice a difference in how long your hit points last. Many lower level warriors start out with fine chain because it is more affordable, and later switch to other armour. Some mages use this type of armour while tanking for charmies or using Quake spell.

Metal

  • Classes: tank warriors, battle clerics, some armoured casters
  • Cost: expensive to buy, mend, resize, or rent, often costing as much as 10 gold more more each
  • Stat: very heavy weight, lowers OB and DB, high damage absorb
  • Protection: great vs any mobs except some supermobs
  • Examples: full metal helmet, plate vambraces, fine metal gauntlets, fine metal greaves

Metal armour is what you will see most warriors wearing. This is very high damage absorb. But it's also very heavy, lowers your DB and OB some, and is expensive. There are some different choices, depending on if you have max Strength or not. For example Plate is a little bit lighter then full metal, with just slightly less absorb. Metal and plate armour should be work by high Str and high Con characters.

Shields

Shields provide protection in combat by helping to increase your Parry Bonus (PB). The higher your parry is, the more attacks you might block. However, your parry can be decreased with parry split (being attacked by more then one mob). Shields are generally split up into three categories. Some are lighter (for low Str characters) and some heavier (for high Str characters).

If a shield is in very bad shape, it might not offer it's full PB bonus, be sure to mend it to help.

Over all the heavier the shield is, the more PB it provides. This is even true for the lighter shields.

Over all metal shields provide more PB then wooden shields, but wooden shields tend to be lighter.

Parry bonus increasing trends from lighter to heavier:

  • wooden -> metal
  • target -> small -> large -> full -> large+full -> wall -> large+wall

Weight increasing trends from lighter to heavier:

  • wooden -> metal
  • target -> small -> large -> full -> large+full -> wall -> large+wall

So in summary, a small wooden target shield is very light weight and very poor protection. A large metal wall shield is very heavy and great parry protection.

Buckers

These shields tend to be pretty light weight. You can wear them and wield any weapon, but they are specifically designed to be used with two handed smiting weapons. For two handed weapons you cannot wear a shield while wielding one, unless it is a bucker. Unfortunately since they are such small shields, they offer a smaller PB bonus then other shields.

Bucklers would be worn while wielding a two handed sword, heavy warhammer, two handed axe, quarterstaff, bastard sword, halberd, etc...

  • Classes: 2 handed smiting warriors, DPS warriors, and rarely some combos
  • Examples: Small wooden target shield, Small metal target shield, Metal buckler

Light Shields

All shields are heavy, but these are less heavy. They can offer some decent protection, but are a little bit less parry then heavier shields. Better for characters with lower Str and Con scores.

  • Classes: favored by scouts, thieves, archers, defense warriors, and some casters
  • Examples: Reinforced oaken shield, Shield of Arthedain, Shield of Cardolan, Gilded round shield

Heavy Shields

These shields are very heavy, and usually used by characters with higher Str and Con. They do provide good PB bonuses, if you can carry them around.

  • Classes: tank warriors, defense warriors, battle clerics, some combos
  • Examples: Large metal full shield, Large wooden wall shield, Metal wall, Large metal wall

Cloaks and Furs

These items you wear on your back. They can provide many different benefits, such as some protection or help you to hit a target. This will describe the different general types. If a cloak or fur is in very bad shape, it might not offer it's full DB or OB bonus, be sure to mend it to help.

Dodge Cloaks

Many cloaks in the game provide bonus to DB. Even a plain cloak is +3% DB. So if you are looking for some protection, wear a cloak. Several cloaks also offer a movement regen bonus as well. Some more rare cloaks might also come with some spell defense, to help resist spells, or other benefits. Cloaks are fairly light weight and are often worn by any characters of any classes.

Some dodge cloaks that new players should strive for are:

  • a plain cloak -> worn traveller's cloak -> forest green cloak

Offensive Furs

Some warriors and warrior type combos might instead choose to wear fur gear on their back. These tend to be heavier and increase OB. Some of these furs are so heavy, it could become an issue for lower Str or Con characters.

  • Examples: fine lion pelt, cave-bear fur, black warg fur, fur-cloak

Combating Armour

Fighting targets wearing armour can be tricky. If the target is wearing cloth or soft leather don't worry about it. Those armours do not provide very much protection. If the target is wearing rigid leathers, they might be absorbing a small amount of damage. Still not a big deal.

Targets wearing chain mail or scale mail will be absorbing a noticeable amount of damage, but you can over come it. Just the fight might last a bit longer. If they have metal armour on, you will very much noticed that your attacks are not doing as much damage as they should be. A good example of this is using a piercing weapon vs a target in metal armour... you will just be doing a few damage every hit... the fight can seem to last a very long time.

Some mobs in the game also have 'natural armour' which offers them some protection. So it will seem like they are wearing some armour when you fight them... even if they are naked. Bear mobs, giants, trolls, statues, trees, hobbit feet, and others will seem like they have this natural armour.

There are a few ways or strategies to try and over come this protection:

  • backstab - can do so much damage, that a few points of it being absorbed doesn't really matter
  • poisons - can still effect you, even if you are wearing armour
  • damage spells - ignore worn armour and do their full damage
  • missile weapons - simply do so much damage, it helps some with it being absorbed
  • smiting weapons - simply do so much damage, it helps some with it being absorbed
  • concussion weapons - 1 or 2 handed, most of them are effective vs metal targets, doing bonus damage

Don't forget these tricks will also work against you if you are wearing armour!

Spells of Protection

There are several defensive spells in the game that will also help to protect your character. This is a quick summary of how these spells can protect you.

Bless

This spell gives you +3% OB and +2% PB if you are on wimpy. So a little help with parrying.

Strength

This spell makes it easier to carry around heavy shield or armour. It could help help you to raise your DB some, if they armour or shield is to heavy. Or use up moves more efficiently.

Armour

This spell works somewhat like worn armour. It has a % chance to absorb some damage, and a max amount of damage it can absorb. It will show up on your stat command by improving your % absorb. It also has a set amount of hit points it has (that you cannot see) and once it has absorbed that amount of hit points, the spell drops. Once nice thing about this spell is it absorbs the same amount over all body hit locations.

Protection from Evil

This spell gives a small 'delay' or 'lag' of evil mobs trying to attack you. It gives you another second or two to move along before they try to attack you.

Sense Life

This spell slightly increases the chance you might see someone sneaking or hiding. It could maybe help you to prevent a sneak attack or backstab. Do not rely on this spell, it is not very good protection.

Shroud

This spell grants +10% DB, but it drops almost instantly when you are in combat. So it only helps to protect on the first swing or 2 of combat. Many lower level mobs cannot even see you to attack.

Shield

This spell increases your DB, making you more likely to not be hit in combat. Pretty needed by all casters and some combos in the game.

Sanctuary

This higher level spell gives you a damage cap. So for example, if you are hit with a fireball for 100 damage, but have a 20 hit point cap Sanctuary spell up... you only take 20 damage, and the remaining 80 damage is ignored.

Link back to the wiki guides:

Retrieved from "https://mume.org/wiki/index.php?title=Newbie_Guide_to_Suits_of_Armour_and_Shields&oldid=9111"