I am having yet another crisis. I cannot decide between heavy armor or light armor for my paladin. On one hand, the heavy armor obviously gives me more protection, and it probably fits the Paladin more in a role-playing perspective. It also has a useful attribute for a Paladin (endurance). Then on the other hand, it weighs a lot more, and since I'm an Imperial, I'll have a lot less room in my inventory combined with my two handed weapon, compared to a Nord. And also, the guard uniform like Chorrol looks pretty [censored] cool! And it makes my paladin look more heroic.

It doesn't need to be an either/or issue. You could start your character out in Light Armor and then switch to Heavy Armor later on...say, when he's "earned" the right to wear Heavy Armor.

Personally I would go with heavy armor, mainly because of the reasons you mentioned. Weight is a bit if a problem early on, but will most likely become a minor concern from mid-game. I also feel like the light armor does not have the look I would expect from a Paladin. On my Crusader(Paladin-ish pre-made class and I use the philosophy of the Morrowind Crusader) I use enchanted steel armor.

id go for heavy armor, fits the generic look more, plus your going to want to sustain a few hits then heal after combat, as opposed to getting hit to much using light armor and having to run away and heal

I'd take a look at all the armors and see which you like the look of best and let that guide you if you are going to choose between heavy and light.

Weight? The diff between what a Nord and an Imperial can carry once both have 100 in strength is exactly zero. Either will want 100 strength for the damage boost anyway. Heavy and light both weigh 0 to a master wearing only that type.

A master of either should have no trouble maxing their armor rating to 85. The diffs between the two that remain are looks and durability. Looks are subjective. Heavy has the edge for durability. This would tend to suggest heavy for a character that expects to get hit alot so his armor will hold up well during a fight.

However. . . like Pseron Wyrd, I normally train armor wearers in both. I like mixing and matching and hate not using a piece of armor because it doesn't match my skills. Training both is very reasonable if you expect to play slowly and for a long time. Sure it takes more time and is less efficient, but looks and flexibility win the day as far as I'm concerned. Normally with such a character, every level, I would buy some training in whichever skill (heavy or light) was lower.

Steel armor looks pretty paladin-like to my, but so does mithril.

Do you have Knights of the Nine? It is excellent for a paladin, and comes with a suit of armor you would probably like (since you said you liked the guard uniform). One of the best things about it is that the game will give you either a heavy or light version of it, based on which of your armor skills is highest. It will also level up with you (after you put it on its special rack), so you can keep it the entire game.

Also, if you are on the PC, it is not at all difficult to mod the game to create alternate heavy/light versions of whichever armor you like. I wear armor based upon the looks, and like you, I hate playing the "do I work on heavy armor or light armor?" game. So if I decided to go with a light armor character, but want to wear iron armor for the first few levels and switch to something like mithril or elven later, I just use a mod that makes the iron armor light instead of heavy. Problems solved.

I like having my paladin wear either/or, too. Dian's favorite set of armor (Elven armor) happens to be light. But it looks so bad-ass on her! That's what it's all about for me....she has this look to her. With her red hair, Dyan looks very unique in her game.

She'll wear heavy armor, too, for certain fights. She was actually wearing Blackwood armor as she finished up the Fighter's Guild quests. Even though she's Lawful Good, and Blackwood is arguably evil, she wore it because the protection it provided was superior to Elven.

But if she's just off dungeon-diving a bunch of NPCs, it's usually the Elven suit she'll be wearing. I like to think that when bandits, marauders, sorcerers (etc.) see her in her Elven armor, they sometimes shake a little with fear, because like Xena, they now know who their about to face. :blink:

Were I you, I'd go with light armour, purely because I think it has less penalty on Spell Effectiveness at lower skill levels and Mithril Armor just perfectly fits a paladin (enchant to give more protection obviously).

Ha ha... you still have not made this character yet?

On your topic. I did glance at other posts briefly but the who premise behind a Paladin is a knight in heavy armor, like a Knight, but utilizes faith.

I am pretty strict on this. Light armor/ cloth would be cleric... Heavy armor is Paladin... cloth armor is Priest.

If you do want to roleplay a Paladin, you may have to compensated in areas. Especially if you are truly roleplaying... I never try to max my character's weight limit... because lets be realistic... armor is a hindrance enough.. without the 300 extra "pounds"

So strict on this.. Paladin is Heavy armor

Although... I could see the going from Mithril, or even Elven armor to heavy armor route tho. Just think you will run out of game or get bored with character by that time.

Honestly... it would cover their gaps.

I have thieves in leather armor

I have a cleric in Elven

Archer in Glass

And of course a Knight in Amber? or is it Madness....

On my "DeathKnight" I plan to use deadric. Other than that I have never found much use in the other armors.

Steel cuirass and greaves with the rest of the armor in mithril should give a decent Paladin look.