Armour (skill): Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 20:13, 16 May 2026

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

The Armour skill improves the effectiveness of your armour and reduces most of the penalties associated with the more cumbersome varieties of body armour.

Aptitudes

At	Ba	Co	DE	Dg	Ds	Dj	Dr	Fe	Fo	GC	Gr	Gn	Hu	Ko	Mf	Mi	MD	Mu	Na	Op	On	Po	Re	Sp	Te	Tr	VS
3	2	-1	-2	-1	-1	0	N/A	N/A	1	0	1	8	0	-2	-3	2	1	-2	-1	N/A	-1	N/A	-1	-3	1	-2	-2

Felids, Draconians, Octopodes, and Poltergeists cannot train Armour due to their body restrictions.

Useful Info

Each level in Armour skill will:

Give bonus AC, equal to ~4.5% Base AC per level. ("Base AC" is the combined AC of all your armour, after considering multipliers like Deformed, excluding AC from their enchantment)
Reduce body armour encumbrance by ~2.22% per level.

This reduces the penalties to evasion, spellcasting, and Ranged Weapons. Note that body armour also penalizes the Dodging skill directly; this penalty is not impacted by Armour skill. Armour skill won't reduce the stealth penalty, either.

Strategy

Armour skill provides a percent boost to AC and a percent reduction to encumbrance. Therefore, there is no specific threshold of Armour skill "required" to wear a given body armour. If you're playing a Fighter, for instance, you'll want something heavy like chain mail or plate armour - whether you have 3 Armour skill or 15 Armour skill.

Strength has a big impact when determining what body armour you should wear, arguably more so than Armour skill. As an arbitrary example, say a player has 10 strength and are considering swamp dragon scales. For this specific character, gaining +2 strength would have a greater impact than ~6.92 levels of Armour skill (the exact value also depends on Dodging skill).

In the early game, the impact of the Armour skill is relatively small, so it is better to train offensive skills first.

History

Prior to 0.33, the AC bonus from Armour skill did not take into account Deformed-type multipliers.
Prior to 0.32, AC was not tracked to 2 decimal places; only whole points of AC mattered.

Skills
Weapons	Short Blades • Long Blades • Ranged Weapons Axes • Maces & Flails • Polearms • Staves • Unarmed Combat • Throwing
Physical	Fighting • Armour • Dodging • Stealth • Shields
Magical	Spellcasting • Invocations • Evocations • Shapeshifting
Spell Schools	Air • Alchemy • Conjurations • Earth • Fire • Forgecraft • Hexes • Ice • Necromancy • Summoning • Translocations

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{version031}}
+{{version034}}
 The '''Armour''' skill improves the effectiveness of your armour and reduces most of the penalties associated with the more cumbersome varieties of body [[armour]].
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 {{skill aptitudes|Armour}}
-[[Felid]]s, [[Draconian]]s and [[Octopodes]] cannot train Armour due to their body restrictions.
+[[Felid]]s, [[Draconian]]s, [[Octopodes]], and [[Poltergeist]]s cannot train Armour due to their body restrictions.
 ==Useful Info==
 Each level in Armour skill will:
-* Give bonus [[AC]], equal to ~4.5% Base AC per level. ("Base AC" is the combined AC of all your armour, excluding AC from their [[enchant]]ment)
+* Give bonus [[AC]], equal to ~4.5% Base AC per level. ("Base AC" is the combined AC of all your armour, after considering multipliers like [[Deformed]], excluding AC from their [[enchant]]ment)
 * Reduce body armour [[encumbrance]] by ~2.22% per level.
-: This reduces the penalties to [[evasion]], [[spellcasting]], and [[Ranged Weapons]]. Note that body armour also penalizes the [[Dodging]] skill; this penalty is ''not'' impacted by Armour skill. It won't reduce the [[stealth]] penalty, either.
+: This reduces the penalties to [[evasion]], [[spellcasting]], and [[Ranged Weapons]]. Note that body armour also penalizes the [[Dodging]] skill directly; this penalty is ''not'' impacted by Armour skill. Armour skill won't reduce the [[stealth]] penalty, either.
 ==Strategy==
-Armour skill provides a percent boost to AC and a percent reduction to encumbrance. Therefore, you don't need a specific amount of Armour skill to wear a given body armour. If you're playing a [[Fighter]], for instance, you'll want something heavy like [[plate armour]] - whether you have 3 Armour skill or 15 Armour skill.
+Armour skill provides a percent boost to AC and a percent reduction to encumbrance. Therefore, there is no specific threshold of Armour skill "required" to wear a given body armour. If you're playing a [[Fighter]], for instance, you'll want something heavy like [[chain mail]] or [[plate armour]] - whether you have 3 Armour skill or 15 Armour skill.
-In the [[Early Game Character Building|early game]], the impact of the Armour skill is relatively small, so you may want to train offensive skills first.
+[[Strength]] has a big impact when determining what body armour you should wear, arguably more so than Armour skill. As an arbitrary example, say a player has 10 strength and are considering [[swamp dragon scales]]. For this specific character, gaining +2 strength would have a ''greater'' impact than ~6.92 levels of Armour skill (the exact value also depends on [[Dodging]] skill).
+In the [[Early Game Character Building|early game]], the impact of the Armour skill is relatively small, so it is better to train offensive skills first.
+==History==
+*Prior to [[0.33]], the AC bonus from Armour skill did not take into account [[Deformed]]-type multipliers.
+*Prior to [[0.32]], AC was not tracked to 2 decimal places; only whole points of AC mattered.
 {{skills}}
 [[Category:Skills]]