Skyrim Gear 4: Heavy Armor

For Skyrim, I previously shared some of my favorite modded clothing for mages, Akiviri-related gear, and light armor mods. This post covers some nice heavy-armor mods.

difficulty levels

I usually play mages and stealthy rogues leaving heavy armor choices for followers. Recently, I gave the paladin style a try with a warrior, Regulus, adventuring as an agent for Mara. The experience has been a reminder on how unbalanced the difficulty settings are in TES games. Choices in difficulty only adjust damage given by the player character (PC) and damage taken by the PC.

modifier for damage given by PC - received by PC (eldescrolls.wikia):

• adept: 1 - 1
• expert: 3/4x - 1.5x
• master: 1/2x - 2x
• legendary: 1/4x - 3x

Stealth and magic (mostly) remain the same. Followers always fight 1-to-1 with NPCs, so giving the follower the best armor and weapon is a good strategy.

Some frustrating moments, but for the most part, Regulus manages okay on master difficulty. He must remember to fight smarter: take advantage of terrain and traps; hit hard with ranged weapons; push his follower in front and keep her healed. What hurts most, though, he sometimes feels humiliated watching his follower shrug off multiple hits from large two-handed weapons, but he bleeds profusely when rapidly stabbed by butter knives. Two-handed weapons are very deadly with 2x or 3x damage! On master, might as well ditch the armor and run faster.

I enjoy the game best on expert, and add challenge by limiting schools of magic or making different choices based on role-playing. Regulus fights fair by announcing his intentions and respecting occupied forts. He admonishes necromancy and hunts vampires. He chooses not to use dark soul gems believing the use restricts souls from reaching their destination. Summoning daedra is for the weak.

Regulus’s face uses “Better Males” “YoungerFacesMergedWithMenByGeonix”, “Beards” by Hvergelmir texture update, “The Eyes of Beauty” by Gabriel Mailhot, and Superior Lore-Freindly Hair by skyrimmaguas. His armor of choice: “Dragon Carved Armor Set” by hideto84.

Heroic armor

As mentioned in my post on Akiviri gear, “aMidian Blades Armor” by CaBaL texture replacer (top screen capture and above on left) updates the gear for high resolution and a more refined look. I also like CaBaL’s work on “Amidian Ebony” set increasing the detail and colors of the nice original ebony armor, and this retexture comes in color choices. I chose silver. Retextures like these make for easy swapping if decide later to try another color variation or something else. Below, “Selene Kate” shows off “aMidian Ebony” for wrathman.

“Stormlord Armor” is a stand-alone replacement outfit for Ulfric that the player may obtain inside Hjerim. Or scavange from Ulfric’s corpse.

In spirit of Nordic carved armor, “Dragon Carved Armor Set” has a strong Nord look made from steel, iron, leather, and ebony. Like Nordic carved, forging requires advanced craft perk for armor, but included weapons may be forged with any smithing skill. The author mentions this armor was designed for wearing with cloaks from “Winter is Coming”. For a knight, goes nice with “Horse Retexture” and “Horse Armors for Skyrim”.

Dark armor

“Daedric Reaper Armor” includes glow color options if you want something other than red. I like purple.

I like the original deadric armor, but this mod offers a strong look and some nice options such as the faceless hood. I like the male version, but less so with the female armor. It appears top-heavy without enough lower body coverage. Turning a normal daedric armor into “Reaper” requires first creating some corrupted hearts from human hearts, soul husks, and ash spawn. After that, start conversion first with the gauntlets then work through the rest of the set. Hood options include normal, faceless, and colored wigs.

Find the craft book on top the tower above Arcwind Point which makes the trip to this remote location more rewarding. If you’re looking for how to reach Arcwind, first go to Froki’s Shack and find a path a short distance southwest. This path circles around passing two burial sites and a number of sraugr along with the most powerful dragon for your level (legendary if above level 69). Climb the peak and up the tower. Don’t forget to grab soul husks during the journey into the Soul Cairn. Other ingredients are found in Solsthiem.

Male/Female:

• aMidian Blades Armor by CaBaL
• aMidian Ebony by Modd3r and CaBaL
• Stormlord Armor by Christian Paskota
• Dragon Carved Armor Set by hideto84
• Daedric Reaper Armor by Deserter X

Horses:

• Hale - Horse Retexture by Halendia
• Horse Armors for Skyrim by Mystikhybrid - Gabriel Gullbergh