Morrowind:Medium Armor

Skill: Medium Armor
Governing Attribute: Endurance
Specialization: Combat
Increase: Hit By Opponent: +1.0

The Medium Armor skill lets one move and defend while wearing durable but flexible armors like chain, scale, bonemold, and Orcish armor. To use any style of armor effectively, the wearer must be trained, conditioned, and skilled in its use.

Character Creation

The following races receive bonuses to their Medium Armor skill:

• +10 bonus: Nord, Orc, +5 bonus: Argonian, Redguard

The following classes have Medium Armor as a Major skill:

• Barbarian, Pilgrim, Scout, Warrior

The following classes have Medium Armor as a Minor skill:

• Archer, Bard, Crusader, Knight, Rogue, Sorcerer, Spellsword

Factions

The following factions include Medium Armor as one of their favored skills:

• Ashlanders
• East Empire Company^BM
• House Redoran

Trainers

There is no Master Trainer for Medium Armor. It was supposed to be Cinia Urtius. Unfortunately, she does not appear in-game, so she is unavailable for training.

• The Morrowind Patch Project fixes this bug.

Other notable trainers are:

• Khargol gro-Boguk in the Vacant Tower in Dagon Fel (up to 82)
• Alfhedil Elf-Hewer in the Upper Level of Falensarano (up to 78)

See Medium Armor Trainers for the complete list.

Books

The following books will increase your Medium Armor skill:

• Cherim's Heart of Anequina
• Bone, Part One
• Bone, Part Two
• 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 22
• 36 Lessons of Vivec, Sermon 33

Notes

• Of the three armor skills, Medium Armor arguably has the most drawbacks. First of all, the variety of medium armor is much smaller than that of light or heavy armor. Secondly, the highest-rated medium armor in the unexpanded game is still inferior to the highest rated light and heavy armors in terms of defense rating. Your highest possible armor rating when wearing the best medium armor available at maxed skill is 145, vs. 168 for light armor or 266 for heavy. Also, the best-rated medium armor available (Indoril armor) is lacking greaves, so if you want the best you can get, you'll have to use Orcish Greaves, which don't match. And it's also worth noting that talking to an Ordinator while wearing the Indoril Helmet or Cuirass will cause them to put you on their death-list for the rest of your life. And on top of all that, the skill lacks a Master Trainer. Most of these issues are mitigated by the medium armor found in the Tribunal and Bloodmoon expansions, however.
• On the positive side, it does provide a balance of protection and speed which will suit some character types and play styles, particularly during early and mid levels when a character wouldn't have easy access to the best light or heavy armor.
• The best sets of medium armor (including those found in the Tribunal expansion) are much lighter than the best set of heavy armor while still giving stronger protection than the best light armor types. The best sets of medium armor are about as heavy as the worst set of heavy armor.
• Ebony Mail ties two heavy armor artifacts for the highest armor rating available from an item. It also has extremely powerful constant effect enchantments, including a 50 point shield.
• Unlike Light Armor and Heavy Armor, most sets of Medium Armor use open helmets that can be worn by beast races.

Armor

Medium Armor is defined by the following weight values. The links provide access to categories that list all of the available medium armor items of each type.

Armor Type	Weight
Boots	>12.0, ≤18.0
Cuirass	>18.0, ≤27.0
Greaves, Shield	>9.0, ≤13.5
Bracer, Gauntlet, Helmet	>3.0, ≤4.5
Pauldron	>6.0, ≤9.0

Excluding the expansions, there are only two styles of Medium Armor that provide complete armor sets; six other styles are incomplete.

Armor Style
Complete Sets
Bear Armor BM	15	85	1,260	660
Bonemold Armor	15	91.4	1,710	1,310
Orcish Armor	30	99.55	3,340	11,280
Ice Armor BM	50	97	4,400	40,000
Partial Sets
Gah-Julan Bonemold Armor (Helmet, Cuirass, Pauldrons)	17	36	840	360
Armun-An Bonemold Armor (Helmet, Cuirass, Pauldrons)	18	36	480	350
Imperial Chain Armor (Cuirass, Greaves, Helmet, Pauldrons*)	20	54.5	300	90
Imperial Dragonscale Armor (Cuirass, Helmet, Shield)	22	40	600	340
Dreugh Armor (Cuirass, Helmet, Shield)	40	49.5	1,200	5,250
Adamantium Armor (No shield)	40†	79	3,800	35,600
Indoril Armor (No greaves)	45	90	4,500	21,600
Royal Guard Armor TR (No shield)	55‡	87	4,400	23,050

* These pauldrons are heavy armor even though they are of the chain type.
† The helmet has an armor rating of 70 while the rest of the set has only 40.
‡ The greaves have only 40 armor rating and the boots have only 50.