Encumbrance from Armor?

[SacredPath_82]

The description says have armor can slow you down, and I think I remember as much from the early games. Now does anyone have some data/ experience on this?

 

Also, does encumbrance from armor (if it exists) incur a penalty on your dodge bonus?

[Lilith]

Encumbrance has been changed since the first three games. There are now two kinds: weight and to-hit penalty. Your weight limit is shown on your inventory screen: if you wear more than that, you'll have fewer action points than normal each round.

 

To-hit penalties are shown for each individual item if you right-click to see their stats. Apart from reducing your chance to hit (which is usually insignificant because you'll almost always hit most things anyway), they can also prevent mages from casting spells. Without Natural Mage, you can only have a -5% penalty to hit; anything more than that and you lose the ability to cast mage spells. With Natural Mage, you can have up to -20% of total penalties. Equipment that gives a bonus to hit will help cancel out this penalty -- so giving your mage the Flaming Sword, for example, will help them to wear heavier armour.

[SacredPath_82]

So there's no additional penalty on AP if you wear heavy armor (as long as you have the carrying capacity)?

In that case, I don't expect it to impose a dodge penalty either. And there I was thinking the Fast On Feet Nephil tank finally was going down.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: SacredPath_82

So there's no additional penalty on AP if you wear heavy armor (as long as you have the carrying capacity)?
In that case, I don't expect it to impose a dodge penalty either.

Correct.

[youssef]

fortunately no. Your only encumbered by a certain pounds, would then you lose 1 action point usually(more if you raise your encumbrance) which would slow you down, but it is not suppose to reduce quick action.

[youssef]

there are no dodge penalties

[Alorael at Large]

Dodge penalties would be largely meaningless anyway. After the first couple of chapters everything can hit you unless your character is so heavily optimized for dodging that it can't do anything else. By the endgame even that won't stop you from getting pummeled.

 

—Alorael, who at least finds this accurate. Nobody ever survived a melee by being jumpy. Not repeatedly, anyway.

[SacredPath_82]

Originally Posted By: Love the cosine, hate the sin.

Dodge penalties would be largely meaningless anyway. After the first couple of chapters everything can hit you unless your character is so heavily optimized for dodging that it can't do anything else. By the endgame even that won't stop you from getting pummeled.

—Alorael, who at least finds this accurate. Nobody ever survived a melee by being jumpy. Not repeatedly, anyway.

I can't agree there. In A4, dodging was useful on my tank until the end. You do have to specialize in it though.
And you can still have a good offense. Elite Warrior naturally pumps your Blademaster skill, plus it also pumps Parry, so you don't have to rely on dodging alone. I would suggest raising Parry even more after buying ranks in it, since you will open it up naturally on a dodge tank (because you will raise Defense and Dex). With the best armor + shield + parry, you don't have to rely on dodge alone. And with high Dex + Defense + Luck + Gymnastics + Enduring Armor + Arcane Shield + Fast On Feet, you will still dodge a few blows until the end of the game (at least, that was true in A4).
I found dodging to be especially nice against magic attacks, since they will flat out devastate you on Torment.

edit: also, just a few points in Quick Action and Quick Strike helped to boost this guy's offense A LOT. That should be even more true for A5 with the Batte Disciplines working on double hits from Quick Action.