Equipment: which to use and what to avoid?
 

With the, not exactly small, collection of items in this wonderful game to find and/or forge, what are some of your equipment approaches and/or favorites?

As I mentioned in my other post, I'm still quite the newbie to the game, and some of the item descriptions are dubious at best.(Bearclaw Talisman anyone?)

Personally, I've sofar been trying to get as much offensive ability on my non spellcasters, so I often end up with 2 weapons on my stuff, usually completely ignoring defense unless I don't need more weapons.

Is dual wielding, regardless of weapon types, preferable to a 2 handed weapon?

2 copies of the same one handed weapon tend to deal more damage then it's 2 handed counterpart.(I think?)

Anyone here ever tried wielding 4 weapons on the 4 armed commanders/pretenders? If so, just how deadly did they get?

I've noticed the Air and Fire domains let you build RP boosting items, always a good investment I'd assume?

I can definately see the usefulness of items which generate magic gems, especially if you don't have a Turmoil+Luck scale setup or the item makes a gem type you don't have easy access to.

Re: Equipment: which to use and what to avoid?
 

4 weapons is fun but generally speaking 2 area of effect weapons are enough to clean around you. And life drain is so great that fire brand, frost brand, and the 2h life stealing sword make a fine combo.
I wouldn't ignore defese if I were you. You're very likely to lose your super equipped combatant if you do that. Charcoal shields are great for both defense and offense for instance, as they can kill your opponents.
The owl quill is auite poor. Death has a much much better research item (skull mentor). Fire is quite good too.

Re: Equipment: which to use and what to avoid?
 

Wielding multiple weapons causes penalties based on weapon length and limited by how ambidextrous you are. Some of us have made ultra-killer multi-armed units, though I've had limited luck, but didn't try real hard. Most units should consider fatigue, as well.

A single heavy weapon may do more or less than multiple weapons, depending on type of weapon and target. If protection is close to or greater than damage, then the highest damage may do more than two hits at lesser damage.

I pick equipment based on what units and enemies I have.

Re: Equipment: which to use and what to avoid?
 

(assuming base game):

Most all-purpose items:

Luck pendant, frost brand, anti magic amulet, starshine skullcap, boots of flying, charcoal shield, ring of regeneration, marble armor, lifelong protection pact.

Strong Niche:

Reinvig items (especially boots of the messenger), almost anything providing an elemental resist, eye shield, rime hauberk, other luck items, quickness items, horned helmet.

Avoid:

Crystal heart, bear claw talisman, red and blue dragon armor, silver hauberk, crystal shield, hammer of the mountains, bane blades, any whip, evening star, star of heroes, star of thraldom, boots of giant strength.

Owl Quills
 

Clearly the death item mentioned rocks - but it isn't necessarily so that owl quills are a bad idea.

If I have a small caster, something like a 1-2 path with 1-2 levels in each path, and a drain scale, so my net research is 5 or so...

spending one character action to add 3 build points is worthwhile (imo).

Re: Owl Quills
 

Avoid the crystal shield? It can be invaluable to my mind.

Re: Owl Quills
 

On a SC? It seems pretty overpriced and heavy for that position.

EDIT: Owl quills are pretty marginal in most cases, skull mentor have their niche, but lightless lanterns are even better.

Re: Owl Quills
 

The question concerned items in general, not just scs, though.

Also, why avoid red/blue dragon but not green? Is poison res that much better than fire/cold?

Re: Owl Quills
 

Why not bane blades? They seem like a decent early weapon.

Re: Owl Quills
 

Hmm, I read it more as for building SCs, but in any case I'm not convinced on the crystal shield for any purpose. If you have the astral to forge one communions and power of the spheres can almost always fill the niche.

On dragon armor, really green armor is pretty bad too, but unlike the other two there are cases where you might totally lack access to armor with a decent protection value other that.

Bane blades are basically trinkets requiring more research. Most trinket weapons are slightly better in stats and the decay effect (in that context) is almost 100% useless. When equipped on a SC, weak things will die quickly anyway, and it's quite ineffective agaist enemy SCs.