Armor

 Armor is protective clothing that a Gifted One dons in their
 travels through the Retroverse to enhance their abilities and
 increase their defense.  There are many kinds of armor, ranging
 from typical suits of plate mail, to mystical amulets, to crystal
 glasses, to worn leather armor, and more.  Armor is whatever
 you can find to wear to help you make it through the day.

 When choosing what armor to wear, there are a variety of factors
 to consider.

 The first thing to consider is how to wear armor.  Armor is worn on
 slots, or armor location.  A neck guard is worn on a neck slot, and
 gloves are worn on the hand slots.  If you do not have a certain
 slot, you will be unable to wear armor that covers that location.
 Some armors cover multiple slots in order to better protect you.
 You must have all the slots that a piece of armor covers to be
 able to wear it.  You can see what slots something covers just
 by looking at it.

 The next step is to see if the bulk of the item is suitable for
 your guild.  You can use armor that is bulkier, but you will
 suffer penalties to some spells and skills.  After all, it is
 rather hard for a mage to do delicate gestures when they are
 wearing a breastplate of unyielding metal.  It should also be
 noted that some races have bulk restrictions on particular slots.
 For example, Papuas cannot wear head slot armor that is more than
 minimally bulky.  This is because some races might be fragile
 in certain spots, or wearing too much bulk will leave them unable
 to move very well, or that they simply don't like the feel of it.
 Wearing bulk less that the maximum for a race or guild does not
 provide any benefits or penalties.  Only by wearing too much is a
 player affected.Also, the more bulky an armor tends to be, the
 more it helps its wearer resist the effects of stun.
 
 When you try to put on your armor, it must also be appropriately
 sized for you to use.  After all, a dwarf can't do much in a
 titan-sized suit, and neither can an human fit inside an
 atomy-sized dress.  For bulk slots, one can wear armor up to
 10% +/- their size.  For non-bulk slots items up to 20% +/- of
 your size can be worn.  If armor is too big or small for you to
 to use, it must be resized.  Armor can be resized in merchant
 shops located in some cities, or by players with the appropriate
 resizing skill.

 The other factors to consider when choosing armor are not as easy
 to determine.  The armor's protection value can be estimated by
 wearing the armor and using the eq command.  Some spells will
 reveal the numeric value of an armor.  Be warned, no matter how
 good your PV is, armor does not help against every damage type.
 The greater an armors PV is, the better it is at protecting their
 wearer.

 Some armors also have been enchanted with magical effects, such
 as bonuses to stats or skills.  When testing for these bonuses
 you must wear the item, and wait for it to tell you that it
 'adjusts itself to your body'.  If the items grants any bonuses,
 they should now be in effect.  Once again, some guilds gain spells
 that will identify all the bonuses that an armor grants. Bonuses
 gained are limited by your own body.  When armor does adjust itself
 to you it becomes powered by your own life force.  This is not
 harmful in any way, but it does mean that armor can't be stronger
 than the person who wears it.  As you gain levels, your body is
 increased in life force and thus can support larger bonuses.
 Example: Bling, the fighter has a  breastplate that grants its
 wearer a mighty +10 strength.  However, Bling is a low level, and
 upon his spiffy armor adjusting, he finds he has only gained +3
 strength.  Bling wishes he could get the full +10 strength, but
 he's not strong enough yet.  Bling is still glad for the +3, and
 he looks forward to the knowledge that maybe in a few more levels
 he will get more and more of a strength bonus until he gets the
 full +10.

 When wearing your armor, it tends to get a little beat up as
various monsters do their best to kill you.  As armor takes damage,
it slowly becomes junk.  When it can't hold itself together any
longer, it snaps apart into a pile of rubbish.  Once this happens,
the armor needs to be reforged which is an expensive process.
However, as long as the armor isn't completely destroyed it can be
fixed up good as new.  Various players have skills that can fix
armor, as well as merchant  shops located in various cities.
Sometimes no matter how careful you are, bad things can happen.
There is a very slight chance that the armor might be broken when
someone attempts to fix it.  A high training on the part of the
person repairing it will help prevent damage, and tales of armor
falling apart in combat are the stories of legends, rarely seen by
the common folk who take care of their armor.

 Take good care in selecting and maintaining your armor, and it
 will take good care of you.

See also: help armor conditions, help armor locations help armor
 protection, help armor protection against damage types, help bulk
 help eq, help level limits, help protection value, help remove,
 help slots, help stun, help wear, help reforge, help reforging.