I've been getting back into arena and for the past few hours I've been trying to build myself a small fortune with simple quests while slowly moving into Hammerfell where I'm equipping myself and I plan to start doing some dungeons. Thing Is I noted when I found some armor it negatively impacted my armor when I put it on I guess it's just worse then my default armor? I have about 900GP so I could buy a decent bit of armor. Thing is I want to know what the armor I'm about to buy is like before spending money on it. Do I have to just save game-buy items-compare-load game-buy items? That would be annoying but I'd be okay with that. I'm going to explore this town some more and mark some more locations, do a few more tavern quests so hopefully someone can answer this for me.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forums. As is customary to new members, you get a fishy stick: http://en.uesp.net/w/images/c/c4/Fishystick.jpg

First of all, note that lower protection values actually mean better protection. So if you had armor that had a value of -7, it actually offers more protection than armor that has a value of -4. The numbers indicate damage reduction. It is really weird, but that's how Arena does it.

As for your question, IIRC there isn't a way to check the stats or armor as you are buying them. So I think you might just have to buy the armor and see how it works. But here is a guide to the types of armors and how generally protective they are so you are prepared: http://uesp.net/wiki/Arena:Base_Armor

Also, don't forget you can haggle with blacksmiths too. I would always haggle 3 times before agreeing to whatever the offer was at that point (don't know what would happen if you pressed your luck further though).

Alright thanks. Very confusing indeed. I appreciate the help and the link to the guide!

Welcome to the Bethesda Forums! Like Rader, I wish you a warm welcome!

Some background info: Armor values are based partially on the Dungeons and Dragons edition at the time, 2nd Edition. Both 1st and 2nd edition had armor values measured in the negatives, meaning that (from my understanding), you took that penalty when rolling your to-hit dice. You'll see this in the Baldur's Gate series, which was released about 4 years later.

Although Arena is not a Dungeons and Dragons game, the devs were fans of D&D, and essentially imported their D&D custom setting into the game. Elder Scrolls lore has (obviously) largely departed from its origins as a D&D custom setting since then, starting with Daggerfall and seemingly finally crystallizing in Morrowind.

Indeed, Tamriel was originally a world for the Bethesda employee's D&D games