Karranthain

Even worse, it's wearing a metal skirt!

Probably not much at all, but the protection it offers makes up for it. It's not so bad once you get used to it. Take some cardboard, a set of scissors, tape, and you can easily simulate looking through a sallet or any other type of visor if you place the cardboard over the face of a hockey helmet. I did that when I was in elementary school. Being used to the helmet already, the transition wasn't difficult. I'm actually writing all my posts while wearing that. Fair point - it probably isn't so bad with enough practice. And it does make you look intimidating, so well worth it! I'll be making a longer post about helmets later; there's plenty of very interesting designs our there, which sadly aren't represented often enough!

Probably not much at all, but the protection it offers makes up for it.

Moving right along... Here's a very interesting piece, highlighting sallets (very intimidating and cool looking helmets), various polearms (pollaxes, spears, halberds and a voulge) as well as some nice gambesons, worn over the armour.

I bet one person in particular is pretty happy about how things turned out...

Hmm.. there was some mention/question/racognition of the problem of multi-function weapons, will you stab or slash or crush with these. Can you choose between piercing and slashing damage with a sword? With 3 options to choose from, these would need a solution just for them, which might or might not seem like the thing to do. Good point. But I seem to remember that it's been mentioned that some weapons have multiple damage types and basically apply the most optimal one on a target basis (i.e. if you're attacking someone highly resistant to slashing attacks, your weapon will deal piercing damage instead - if it has that capability, of course). If that's the case, automatic selection of optimal damage, then one of those with hammerhead, axeblade and a spear point would seem like a really, really versatile pick. Be it a longer polearm or a shorter one, good meaty pollaxes for everybody. Indeed, pollaxes really were quite versatile (not to mention fearsome), as were the halberds - so much in fact, that it's diffcult to pinpoint their significant weaknesses. Pollaxes were definitely mentioned a couple of times, so I think it's a safe bet we'll see those in PE; here's hoping we'll also see halberds :

Hmm.. there was some mention/question/racognition of the problem of multi-function weapons, will you stab or slash or crush with these. Can you choose between piercing and slashing damage with a sword? With 3 options to choose from, these would need a solution just for them, which might or might not seem like the thing to do. If polearms are in, I hope they will be dealt better than in D&D, as a bunch of identical 1d10 weapons to avoid. Good point. But I seem to remember that it's been mentioned that some weapons have multiple damage types and basically apply the most optimal one on a target basis (i.e. if you're attacking someone highly resistant to slashing attacks, your weapon will deal piercing damage instead - if it has that capability, of course).

Good news - pikes are definitely in (they've been mentioned several times now), so I assume that the spears are as well. I'm hoping that we'll see at least some of the weapons out of this set :

Most prosperous!

Not saying I agree with the idea, but hey, had I the confidence to enter a fight in my swimsuit, I would. Course, I'm a dude, and a short and unathletic one at that, so really it would be more depressing than sexy. "Come at me vile creatures! I bring your demise!" "Eww, no. Come on guys, this one scares me." "You ought be scared! I've felled trolls! Wyrms! Dragons!! Cities!!" "And you did all that in your underwear, did you?" "Well ... no. It's a swimsuit." "Right. Right. So ummmm, I'm done raping and pillaging for today, how about you fellas? This one's too into it. Gives me the creeps." *yep, mhhhmm, nods* "Wait, come back! I'm putting on my armor now, see? Guys? Come on!" And thus ends the story of Pipyui the galant, the chaste, the exhibitionist. ... So what I'm trying to say is, langerie armor might not be a good idea.

You never know. You're welcome, glad you liked it! That they are! Both come from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, a decidedly high fantasy game. The artists obviously researched the Renaissance period arms & armour, but they didn't slavishly copy the source material - instead they came up with something original (and yet quite recognizable). I think it's a very interesting approach, one which reinforces verisimilitude, but still leaves a lot of room for creativity. Warhammer setting is a nice example of utilising such method, I reckon; it has an instantly recognizable aesthetic - just take a look at this piece, for an instance : P.S. I do believe that obyknven is trolling, as usual

Some interesting examples on how historical designs could be used as a springboard for fantasy influenced arms & armour : With the former clearly referencing the Reiters and the latter the Landsknechts.

On the topic of cloaks and capes, here's something rather out of the ordinary :

This'll be my primary method of problem-solving during my travels in the world of PE :

I hope that they retain their (earlier mentioned) philosophy of a large degree of flexibility within the classes. And, unfortunately, I too must agree that I don't particularly fancy the MMO influenced roles (something which 4E of D&D also had, as far as I know). That doesn't mean that I think that the earlier editions of D&D had it completely right, though. It's just that I don't like this particular direction. But as usual, I'd wait until we hear more. Thanks for putting in the effort of gathering the information for us, Sensuki.

I'd love to see animal hides used in conjuction with various armour pieces : And for something with a fantasy influence :

I'd be more than happy with that. A few narrated sequences here and there. In my opinion, a talented voice actor (Sara Kestelman, Rodger Bumpass etc.) can paint a scene much better than any cutscene, no matter how technically marvelous the latter is.

I can't find the source, but I think it's been mentioned that the various cultures inhabiting the world of PE will have rather varying levels of technological advancement; with Vailians and denizens of Dyrwood enjoying the technical advancements of the Renaissance era and the rest of the world being somewhere between Early (Glanfathans) and High Middle (Aedyrans?) ages. And I agree, there's definitely some disconnect between the Vailian and Aedyran attires - making the latter look rather anachronistic. Dyrwoodian clothing also looks rather odd in this context. Sadly, we don't know that much about cultural armour designs just yet. Should Aedyran designs by inspired by Roman/Greek culture, Eastern Roman Empire would be a nice source of inspiration, particularly for later period arms and armour.

Indeed, the pose with the two pistols on the shoulders is the epitome of badassery.

Since we know that the cultures in the world of PE will have varying levels of technological advancement, I'd love to see some designs inspired by the Varangian Guard :

I do believe that it is, accompanied by a gigantic mace and a glaive. I'd say that the size of the weapons is intentionally inflated to ensure they're nicely visible on screen. Josh has also said that there will be a quite large diversity of different weapons in the game, many of which are very rarely seen. The inclusion of the estoc is one of the things I'm most excited by, to be honest. Considering the fact that this is a fantasy game, we've also got the larger races (ogres?) to deal with. So some of the weapons in that screenshot might just be decorative, but we could still see them being wielded by a larger enemy combatant. I do believe that it is, accompanied by a gigantic mace and a glaive. I'd say that the size of the weapons is intentionally inflated to ensure they're nicely visible on screen. Josh has also said that there will be a quite large diversity of different weapons in the game, many of which are very rarely seen. The inclusion of the estoc is one of the things I'm most excited by, to be honest. Considering the fact that this is a fantasy game, we've also got the larger races (ogres?) to deal with. So some of the weapons in that screenshot might just be decorative, but we could still see them being wielded by a larger enemy combatant. Another thing to consider - it's also probable that the weapons present in this particular scene are just decoration - i.e. not necessarily representative of actual weapon models.

I agree, the armor and the sword is really nice as well. With 1,6m length that sword is like a small one handed pike. Pretty cool, I wonder how effective it (Estocs in general) was to defeat armor. Could it penetrate chain mail? Could blocking other swords damage the thin blade? I have my doubts as well, to be honest. Perhaps someone on these forums has had some experience with this weapon? Koncerz, I imagine, was pretty devastating - it was, after all, (as you mentioned) a small pike, to be used during a charge. When that much kinetic energy is concentrated on such a small area (the blade's very thin) the results must've been gruesome.

Whoa! I had seen koncerz in pictures before, but thought it a way smaller! Like.. the blade is almost twice as long as I'd have expected. Again, total badassery from the hussars, "we'll take that two handed sword but make the grip such that it can only be used one-handed". In later period, it ordinarily measured about 1,6m (some were even longer than that); due to that, however, it was only viable when fighting on horseback. They were used usually as a backup weapon, substituting for lances (hence the one-handed grip). Since we mentioned Estocs : I love this particular piece.

Just found a nice rendition of how a Vailian duellist could look like :