Hey everyone. Young Barbarian here. My trial is up in 2 days and I just subscribed to premium :)

I started out with leathers and got that up to 100. Didn't seem like it was protecting me as much as I would like. I switched to LC/HC combination and have them up to 100 ranks each and have the burden worked down to insig.

I was looking at maybe upgrading my augmented LC hauberk to an HC version of the augmented hauberk. But that hauberk has a hinderence of 'great' instead of the 'moderate' that my LC hauberk has.

So I started thinking.. if I'm willing to go up to great hinderence for the extra protection of the HC hauberk... why not just go with HP. I've been reading through this forum and it seems like with a capped forged half plate, HP helm, and LP greaves/gloves I may end up with more protection for the same hinderence.

Unless there is a mechanic I'm missing, like Barbarians can work off a higher percentage of chain than plate... any information you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.

>My main question: Will somewhere down the line after hundreds and hundreds of ranks in HP/LP, will that added protection ever outweigh the evasion penalty?

It's hard to say, because combat soon will get a huge makeover, specifically to offset the fact that at high levels getting hit is death, pretty much regardless of your armor.

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Hunta Talna Kortok, built by Gor'Togs, for Gor'Togs
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/home.html
Blunts for Sale:
http://www.elanthipedia.com/wiki/User:Caraamon#Wares
Combat Balance Sheet:
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/caraamon/balance2.xls

Yikes.

It sounds like I may want to keep my main as LC and perhaps mix it with some HP/LP accessories so that I'm covered whichever I like better in 3.0.

I do recall reading something about HP and LP being combined in the changes.

Do we know if the ranks we've already earned in those skills will be combined or if they will just take the higher of the two and drop the other?

If they are taking the higher of the two then I guess I should just LC Hauberk + HP Helm/Gaunts.
If they are averaging/combining them somehow then I would think LC Hauberk + HP Helm + LC Gaunts may be best.

<<I don't care about stealth.>>

If you've already made up your mind no problem, just be forwarned backtraining stealth when your at like 600+ ranks in everything else really really really really sucks, and you probably will want it later, although there are a lot of HP wearing berserking barbs who don't train it. Stalking and hiding are just so easy to move, and its a free easy secondary skill set to grab some ranks, since your in combat anyway. Just my two cents, not work one cent.

If your going to completely forget stealth, then definitely go HP you might as well...

>>I say use leather body and LC helm/gloves. You may not care about stealths, but later on you'd need 8 survivals to circle. You can get most, if not all, while in combat if you use stealths.

Like people have indicated, as combat-trainable Survival skills, stealth is a big, big deal for Barbarians. Granted, it takes ten minutes to lock Foraging, and if you carefully manipulate your critter ladder it's possible to train Climbing and Swimming in conjunction with where you end up, but you're really better off just training Hiding and Stalking. They train easily right along with Perception and Evasion, which makes your Survival requirements much simpler.

The extra protection from chain or plate armor begins to seem less vital at about 200 ranks and evaporates entirely by 500. Most Barbarians train two armors simply because it's easy to, and it allows them to hedge their bets somewhat against the future, not because there's any driving need for extra protection.

These are all things that the GM team wants to change in 3.0, but how and how it will fall out is up in the air on several counts.

>>I'm going to slightly contradict my fellows here.
My advice is to train whatever you find fun to train. If you want to train stealth, do it, if not, don't.
It seems far too often people forget this is a game. Do what you enjoy.>>

completely agree with this, however, I'm NOT enjoying back training stealth right now up to 600 because I neglected it. Just sayin'

How do you train climbing in combat, you can't climb practice on a tree or something while in combat can you?