Lightweight armor for casters/support

[AussieGrimm]

Originally Posted by Dalin

Another idea to throw into the mix would be to buy Fit and/or a few levels of Hard to Subdue. Both are cheap for their utility. These would improve the odds of remaining conscious long enough to heal your injuries. For a cleric, you could even attribute the increased hardiness to divine favor.

This is not to suggest that more DR isn't a good idea, but there will always be attacks that will blow past your armor (if only because some of them are balanced for the knight).

I will read up on those. We are averaging around 2-4 xp points a game, so most increases will take a while to get. I took half-orc as my race, so I'm a little harder to ko than others already, but extra toughness would help :)

[Black Leviathan]

I feel your pain.

Our cleric has been dropped two out of two game sessions. I think you just need to be more tactical about his welfare until good lightweight armor is available.

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by AussieGrimm

. . . but I'm finding I'm still pretty slow wearing even quite light armor (heavy cloth suit) while still carrying healing/support gear with an average move of 4 it's well behind the rest of the party making escape difficult sometimes.

An encumbered move of 4 yards per second is probably not that shabby. Maybe the other members could start distributing the load so that you're not slow in relation.

How fast do your teammates travel, and how do they manage that?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

I think you just need to be more tactical about his welfare until good lightweight armor is available.

The game not-so-subtly rewards this. If the group breaks up and runs around out of formation, like so many one-on-one duelists, it's going to be hosed eventually. "Protect your casters, especially the healer!" is a golden rule.

Originally Posted by Tom H.

How fast do your teammates travel, and how do they manage that?

This is an important question. Generally, you have high-Move, low-ST people who move fast despite their encumbrance; high-ST, low-Move people who don't move more slowly because of encumbrance; crazy almost-naked people who carry no encumbrance; and people who cheat by using magic (spells or items) to simulate one of the above. If everybody is moving faster than you, then you're the only one not doing one of these things.

The key is not to spread your resources too thin . . . decide if your thing is going to be buying up Basic Move and/or casting Haste, buying up ST or Lifting ST and/or casting Might, ditching armor and shields and relying on Armor and Shield spells to survive, or investing in gear that's unusually light by virtue of equipment modifiers or magic (usually meaning the Lighten enchantment). Then do that, and do it well. Only incorporate parts of other strategies when you've reached the limit of what your character points and cash can do for you in the area you've chosen to focus on.

[Kalzazz]

Buy a quick release backpack for 300

Put the 15lbs of stuff in it, as a free action drop when fight kicks off

Spend 22k buying Lighten 50% epic plate for 48lbs

48lb lighten 50% epic plate is lighter than 36lb heavy cloth plus 15lbs random stuff

[ArchonShiva]

Get a wheelbarrow, certainly.

For overland travel, *not* wearing your armor is a valid option. Outside monsters tend to be less deadly and allow full recovery between fights. If you’re layering, wearing only the under layer outside is pretty good.

Wizards have some really good options that I think cleric’s and druids should have:
Levitation is affected by weight for casting cost, but not Encumbrance — guaranteed Move 3, which you can do even while concentrating! (casting at an additional -2).

Lighten Burden is expensive to maintain, but at 10 mines duration, it can be kept up forever by a low Energy Reserve,which recharges while walking.

As for shoes, look at the example characters and see if they have separate shoes when not wearing foot armor.

[ArchonShiva]

A Strength Potion last an hour and add 1d ST, which is pretty good at all levels. It costs $250, or $200 if your wizard friend makes it. If you have a Bless on (why wouldn’t you?), it adds 1d+1 instead. You can use Luck on that roll at the start of the delve, it’s often worth it.

Now for the stuff that might get you looks from your GM:

A Universal Scroll of Lighten Burden (-25%) is $120, $300 charged. It maintains for 2 FP per 10 minutes, so with Energy Reserve 1 (available to all delivers from Quirk points etc.), you can keep it up for 6 FP per hour (self-recharging ER covers the other half), zero while resting (since your own FP recovers at the same rate). You can also get a caster to Lend Energy during pauses to cover FP lost to other sources. A single scroll will last through most delving days.

Adding Fit for [5] lets you recover faster during pauses, and it’s not like +1 HT rolls is bad!

Elves (or getting Magery 0 in some other way) get you 50% off the price of scrolls.

[Neveron]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Get a wheelbarrow, certainly.

While this is good advice, do note that a wheelbarrow takes two hands to use and thus leaves you less ready for combat. Also, probably more importantly, stairs can be an issue as can ledges, ladders, pits, etc.

The same goes for bringing in a pack mule or hireling or whatever, with the added caveat that you'll want to keep them from dying to traps and monsters. It's not a perfect solution, but it's probably better than not having a wheelbarrow et. al. (If nothing else, you can have more treasure in a wheelbarrow than you can in a backpack!)