Armor equipment is worn by various species to supplement their natural armor attribute (most species available to players have no natural armor at all, and therefore rely on equipment to provide it). Each pieces of armor that is worn will increment the character's armor attribute in some way. Most armor is worn in one of three armor slots: head, chest, or legs. A character can wear at most one piece of armor in each of those slots. Further, a character may use a single hand to wield a shield, if desired.
Worn armor must be equipped to be effective. The time it takes to put on, or take off, a single piece of armor varies based on the heft of the armor (1 minute for light armor, 5 minutes for heavy armor), but in both cases is too slow to happen if the character is in danger.
Worn armor can be applied to three different slots: head, chest, or legs. Further, worn armor comes in two quality levels: light and heavy.
Each piece of light armor worn adds +1 to a character's armor attribute. Each piece of heavy armor worn adds +2 to a character's armor attribute.
There is no penalty for wearing any piece of light armor. Each piece of heavy armor worn adds a penalty depending on the slot:
A character can find a quality piece of light armor for 20 crowns. A quality piece of heavy armor will often run 50 crowns.
Shields are wielded like weapons, but provide armor attribute bonuses when the Defend action is taken. There are two types of shields: light and heavy.
A light shield requires one hand to wield, and adds +1 to a character's armor attribute on successful use of the Block action.
A heavy shield requires one hand to wield, and adds +2 to a character's armor attribute on successful use of the Block action.
A character may not wield multiple shields at once.
A light shield can typically be purchased for 10 crowns, while a heavy shield will cost 30 crowns.