Armor skills

Armor skills are a group of skills that govern the character's ability to gain protection from different types of armor. These include Light Armor, Heavy Armor and Shields.

Mechanic
Equipping a piece of armor without having learned the corresponding skill incurs a penalty to Armor Rating - the chance that an attack on the character will miss. Increasing armor skills past the initial skill point reduces the rate at which armor degrades and the amount of additional noise the character makes while wearing armor (affecting the ability to move silently), as well as increases Damage Reduction (see below).

In Book II and Book III, each Shields skill level above level 10 provides a 2% chance to deflect projectile attacks. For example, at Shields skill level 17, the character will automatically deflect 14% of all attacks. Preservers and Nightshades - characters with the Druidic axiom and the Fighter class - are automatically given the Shields skill during Character Creation.

Damage Reduction
The Light Armor and Heavy Armor skills also contributes to the character's Damage Reduction (DR) rating, which is the chance that an attack on the character will only deal half of its normal damage. The character must be wearing any armor on the head, torso and/or legs to benefit from DR.

Skill books

 * Book I
 * Light Armor Field Guide (Light Armor)
 * Heavy Armor Field Guide (Heavy Armor)


 * Book II and Book III
 * The Scout's Guide to Defensive Attire (Light Armor)
 * The Soldier's Guide to Heavy Armor (Heavy Armor)
 * Shields Up! (Shields)

Trainers

 * Kirk (Book III)