Oblivion:Armor

Armor  
 
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!colspan=2  }|Contents
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|colspan=2  }|Armor Rating
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|colspan=2  }|Leveled List Info
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|colspan=2  }|Non-Random Items
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! }|Light Armor
! }|Heavy Armor
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| }|Fur Armor
| }|Iron Armor
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| }|Leather Armor
| }|Steel Armor
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| }|Chainmail Armor
| }|Dwarven Armor
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| }|Mithril Armor
| }|Orcish Armor
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| }|Elven Armor
| }|Ebony Armor
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| }|Glass Armor
| }|Daedric Armor
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| }|Images
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Armor is a type of apparel, along with clothing and jewelry, that can be worn on the player character's body.  Shields, which are wielded by the player, are also categorized as armor.  Armor comes in two classes: Light and Heavy. This page lists the base non-enchanted varieties of both kinds of armor. Other non-enchanted armor is listed in Specialty Gear, along with some unique items. The category Oblivion-Armor provides lists of all of the individual pieces of armor available in the game.

Armor Rating
The Armor Rating displayed in the table represents the percentage of damage the piece of armor absorbs.  A player's combined rating may not exceed 85%. The listed armor rating is modified by the player's Skill in the armor type (Light Armor or Heavy Armor) and the armor's condition by the following multiplier:
 ( 0.35 + 0.0065 * Skill ) * ArmorHealth%
Note that Skill is modified by Luck before it is used in this formula, and is constrained between 0 and 100 as usual, meaning the maximum value for the skill portion of the multiplier is 1 - i.e. skill values below 100 make armor worse, until at 100 you get the full value.

Armor protects the wearer from damage due to weapons, but not from magical damage (at least for non-enchanted armor).  For each blow that armor absorbs, it becomes damaged, although the exact mechanism for determining which armor pieces you are wearing take how much damage is unclear.  Armor can be repaired using the Armorer skill.

A shield only contributes to your armor rating if you have both it and a one-handed weapon equipped.  If you have a two-handed weapon, a bow, or no weapon  (i.e., any combat would be Hand to Hand) equipped, the shield is assumed to be unavailable because you would not be able to use it in combat.  This can be a problem for spellcasters who wear armor but never use weapons, and therefore would tend to never bother equipping any weapon.  It may be worth carrying around a dagger and having it equipped just to maximize your armor rating.  However, any enchantments associated with an equipped shield will be effective no matter what type of weapon you do (or do not) have equipped.

When your skill stats reach 100 for both light and heavy armor, both types will be weightless (only while wearing them), and light armor will be at 150 % effectiveness. This makes Elven equivalent to Ebony and Glass equivalent to Daedric.  However, heavy armor will still last longer without needing repairs.

Leveled List Info
Most items are randomly spawned from lists based on the player's level. The following table describes the minimum level at which an armor type begins to show up for the player; lower level armor will also randomly appear.  Enchanted versions of each armor type will begin to appear 2 levels later; see Generic Magic Apparel for more information.  See Leveled Lists for details on how these lists are used to determine the probabilities of individual items appearing.



This table applies to the vast majority of the armor you will encounter, both on enemies and in loot.  One general exception is vendors in stores: they will not offer Chainmail/Dwarven armor until level 10 and Mithril/Orcish until level 15.  Vendors will never offer the higher quality equipment, with the exception of certain unique items, such as The Birthright of Astalon.
There are very few places where randomly generated armor will appear at lower levels than listed in this table.  Some of these exceptions are:
Dwarven shields and Light Iron shields (Chainmail-quality shields) can be found starting at level 1 on tribal Goblin Berserkers.  Leather shields and Steel shields are also possible starting at level 1 on either tribal Goblin Berserkers or on tribal Goblin Skirmishers.
Chainmail armor can be found starting at level 4 in middle-level and upper-level houses.
Elven shields can be found starting at level 10, in particular on marauders and other NPCs who wear heavy armor.  Elven shields were substituted for Orcish shields on several leveled lists (which also means that orcish shields can be more difficult to find than other orcish gear).

Non-random Items
Some armor is also available as non-random loot.  These armor pieces will always be found in a specified location (or on a specified NPC), and will always be of the same quality type, no matter what your character's level is. Most non-random armor is low-level armor, generally fur/iron or maybe leather/steel armor.

For exceptions, see:



Notes
Your Spell Effectiveness will be reduced if you wear armor.


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  A full set of Rusty Iron armor or Rough Leather armor does not exist in-game.  The only time you will find that quality is in the tutorial, and it does not have a full set of either.

Rusty Iron Armor

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 Leather bracers are wrist armor that can be worn in place of gauntlets; they are not considered to be part of the full set of leather armor.  They can be purchased at The Archer's Paradox in Bravil; they are worn by Baurus, Jalbert, Kurz gro-Baroth, Shaleez, one of the Clarabella pirates, and some Imperial Legion Foresters.
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Light Armor Images
  

 
Heavy Armor Images