PB's Random Armor Guide for Cosmetic-lovers

[PsychoBlonde]

Heyo! I'm working on a project to give people an idea of how the random armor appearance generation works, to make it easier for those who care to find random armors they might like for cosmetic purposes.

More posts to come!

P.S. I don't save most of these armors (no one has that much storage space) so please don't send me messages asking for them.

[PsychoBlonde]

I'm going to dispense with this one first, because even looking at Hide armor is generally a waste of time, because there are a very strictly limited number of unders and overs at ALL LEVELS that can appear on hide armor. Once in a blue moon you'll find an oddball one, but for the most part they're ugly as sin.

Here's two variations that show the common hide upper and unders:



So, it's either Grandma's Shawl or Owlbear Head. They do vary somewhat in color, but the under-part remains that dull brown on pretty much any variation. You can sometimes get them without the accouterments on the legs/hips, and I've found the occasional rare suit that is "naked" (no upper part). But largely, variations on the above theme is the best you can expect from Hide armor no matter the level (plain, skirmish, feycraft, spiritcraft, celestial).

[PsychoBlonde]

Scale is almost, but not quite, as boring as Hide. The main problem is that something like 90% of the scale armor sets you'll find have ONE under that has NO color options, and only FIVE options for uppers.

Here we have (1) the common under, (2) a "cannith" under that is Celestial level only, and (3) a very rare alternate under


And here are the other two upper options:



So, Hide and Scale armor are both pretty darn lackluster.

One more ULTRA-rare scale under I found:



This is actually scale:

[PsychoBlonde]

Robes have a truly staggering number of under possibilities and EXACTLY SEVEN different uppers. The uppers can come in different colors, almost always producing some epic, horrifying, ghastly clashing ensemble. Finding a robe that actually looks decent is going to take a long, long time.

[PsychoBlonde]

Okay, here's where it starts to get complicated, because the armors from here on out don't just pull from one list. You can get (relatively rare) combos where Chain has a Leather under (or breastplate, half-plate, or plate). So I'm going to list the unders that are main for that type, just keep in mind that any armor further on the list CAN get unders that are on earlier lists.

Also, there are a few types that only show up in a specific combo (usually unspeakably ugly, so it's like getting some kind of booby prize). These, helpfully, can appear on ANY tier, too. Also, you can get the Hide appearances listed above on Leather (usually low level like Skirmish Leather).

So, here are the possible Leather unders. The categories are just named for convenience, they all show up on "Leather" armor.

Padded:



Leather (the first three appear to be Spiritcraft and Celestial only, the rest are all over the place):



Studded:



And here are the uppers not yet shown:

[PsychoBlonde]

So, to start chain, here's the booby prize:



That black-and-white under ALWAYS appears with that grody chain upper. I've NEVER seen it in ANY other combination. The chain upper can come in different colors, and sometimes has leg-plates, but it still looks bad.

Here's what I call "Basic Chain":



The Basic Chain uppers (with or without leg plates) can appear on any kind of leather OR chain under. The other chain uppers take only a chain under.

Chain Unders:



The last one with the orange straps also comes in a version with dark brown straps, but I couldn't manage to find an image of that one.

And here's the upper options not shown:



I've never seen the skull or collar ones (first and last) on anything but that "cannith" under.

I was wrong, you can get the skull collar on other chain armors:



Here's the dark brown strap chain under:

[PsychoBlonde]

Breastplates can have any leather or chain under, as well as these two new unders that apparently only appear in higher level breastplates (planeforged and Mountain). The only exception is that I don't think I've ever seen the green scales under on a Breastplate.



There's also a tremendous variety of possible Breastplate uppers, some of them rather fantastical:





These are shared with Half-plate and Plate:



Some are spectacularly rare. For some reason Planeforged Breastplates are in a "sweet spot" for armor appearances and you can get the weirdest and coolest combinations there.

[PsychoBlonde]

Half-plate has not one, but TWO booby prizes:



Back in the day, those were Splint and Banded mail. Now they're just fugly. Although on rare occasions, you can get the splint topper on a padded under, but it looks EVEN WORSE:



Half-plate is kinda hard to explain, because you can get ALMOST all the same stuff as breastplates AND plate, but there are variations. In general, you don't get leather unders on half-plate, EXCEPT with this one specific type of leaf upper:



Also, the sticking-out-shoulder style has more plates on half-plate:



You can also get the "green scales" under, which you can't get on a breastplate. However, half-plate doesn't get a "cannith" style.

There are a LOT of possible very cool variations.

[PsychoBlonde]

Full Plate has the same set of shared uppers as Breastplates, and the same booby prizes as half-plate. However, it tends to have "platier" unders, like so:



Note that Half-plate can have those unders as well. The first is exclusively Mountain style, the second is exclusively Planeforged. The rest are more or less random, although the lower-levels have very basic plate that pretty much all looks like this:



It's not uncommon to buy four suits of low-level plate and have ALL of them look EXACTLY THE SAME. So if you want variety, you want the higher-level stuff, which is also where you get into the Big Shoulder options:

[SpartanKiller13]

I'm amazed by your dedication

Thanks for the guide! Looking forward to plate, because that's what I usually use. I'd be interested to see if any randomgen is worth cosmetics, I typically think only of named loot when considering such.

[PsychoBlonde]

Chain updated.

[Annex]

Thank you for doing this, Psychoblonde! I avoided replying to this thread before now to avoid messing up your posting order.

It may be worth noting that many randomly generated armors with an outer layer may be found without that outer later as a named item. For example, the "Booby Prize" armor at the beginning of Post 6 appears without an outer layer as the Desecrated Leathers.

[FuryFlash]

I'm amazed by your dedication

Thanks for the guide! Looking forward to plate, because that's what I usually use. I'd be interested to see if any randomgen is worth cosmetics, I typically think only of named loot when considering such.

In my experience, a lot of halfplate lootgen has really nice cosmetics, particularly at the higher levels. The majority of aesthetically-appealing lootgen armours I have stowed away are halfplate for this reason.

[Mindos]

https://i.imgur.com/cYPImOb.jpg

I like this one!

[PsychoBlonde]

In my experience, a lot of halfplate lootgen has really nice cosmetics, particularly at the higher levels. The majority of aesthetically-appealing lootgen armours I have stowed away are halfplate for this reason.

Planeforged breastplates and half-plate are some sort of magical Mecca of cosmetic awesomeness.

[PsychoBlonde]

It may be worth noting that many randomly generated armors with an outer layer may be found without that outer later as a named item. For example, the "Booby Prize" armor at the beginning of Post 6 appears without an outer layer as the Desecrated Leathers.

The backpack is an outer layer. I've never liked it on the Desecrated Leathers. It ticked me off that they stuck it with that nasty-looking clashing chain for random armor.

[PsychoBlonde]

Breastplate updated.

[PsychoBlonde]

Half-plate and Full Plate updated!

[GramercyRiff]

I want this armor.



Also this armor.



Also I was hoping to see that god awful splint mail again. What a disaster.

[Aelonwy]

Awesome job! You're missing at least one upper for Full Plate. Its a metallic collar, sometimes with other accessories. I'll see if I've kept an example or have an image somewhere.

Here's an image of the whole upper accessory layer on full plate. But to be completely honest, I've only seen the collar portion recently.