My character is a Sneak/Archer and I have been smithing away to get decent armor and have smithing at 100%.

However I recently got the 'near invisible' sneak perk and it dawned on me....

I don't need no armor.

I have in one house a set of very posh clothes that look cool on my dude so my question is this.

Is it possible to fortify my clothes with some armor enchantment that will give me a slight layer of protection should the unthinkable happen and I get attacked by a bear or what not?

Or is this a fools path and armor is the only way?

Whats wrong with armour?

Nothing, but it makes a noise (till you unlock the perk), you must smith to get good armor (points could be used elsewhere), some clothes actually look pretty cool, the game is kind of geared towards people wearing armour so not wearing it is doing something different... I like the way my character looks in these posh clothes I found.

Also once you get near invisibility/undetectablility the armour is basically pointless.

Hence my question...

I only need a bit of protection so can I enchant clothes to afford some?

Comprende?

I haven't been able to find anything to enhance the armor rating of clothes, and I was looking for myself before you asked this.... I do not believe you can enhance cloth to be better for armor rating, you can learn the wards or other spells from trees that sound like they'd be really far from what you want for your character... or you can just be that good and not get hit. some of the clothes are gorgeous and if you don't have to wear all the other stuff, be secsy in street clothes and make everyone else jealous with your style. LOL

I already wasted a load of perks on smithing, might have to start again.

Two choices: level up alteration for the armorskin spells, or don't get hit!

Actually, as a thief, the "don't get hit" isn't completely out of the realm of possibility.

But no, there's no +armor types of enchantments. There are enchantments to increase your skill in using armor, but none that actually grant armor rating to the enchanted item.

I use smithing for my weapons and to deck out my companion. It was neat fighting Krosis and his dragon in fine attire. You can't give clothes armor rating, but you can enchant some to be +alteration to boost AC spells (stoneskin type stuff). Put some perks in alteration and I'd think it could work quite well indeed.

Cool, I'll give it a whirl.

I think Beth missed a trick here by not catering to people who might want to try something different.

Chalk it up.

Although you could take the Lord Stone for its 50 points of armour.

Cheching!!!!!

I need to look that stone up!

Thanks x

My character is currently wearing just enchanted clothing, fur boots and a fur bracers. All you really need worry about is upping your health. Make a fortify health ring, fortify your clothes with health regeneration and your pretty much golden. If your lucky enough to have put perks in enchant then you can put two enchantments on one item. I haven't done that. I upped my carry weight with boots and magica with a circlet and then fortified my gloves for one handed.
700 hps that regenerates extremely fast with only minimal armor works pretty well.

If I had put perks into enchant I would make gear as such.

amulet: fortify health, fortify stamina
helmet: fortify magicka and magicka reg.
ring: fortify health reg. and stamina reg.
Clothing: fire and ice resistance
boots: carry weight and muffle
gloves: weapon skills, (whichever ones your using.)
Shield: shock and disease resistance.

Seems like they wanted to get away from the wearing clothes but armour is 85% thing in Oblivion. Makes sense, armour should have benefits over clothing. Vyvexthorne is absolutely right though, shielding means less damage taken, but fortifying health has the same effect, you take less hits before you die, which is what it's all about.

i play a thief-kind of character. the only armor i use is the nightingale boots. with lots of stamina and a companion to take the worst blows, it's actually fairly easy to keep myself alive. although i don't know what level you are, it's definitely possible.

Actually, reading all this, I think it could be doable.

Using the enchants mentioned above, and using regular clothes for chest, nightingale for boots and dark brotherhood for hands (head is player's choice, but some kind of hood would probably look more the part of a thief-assassin).

That way, along with the Lord's Stone, you have at least a LITTLE bit of armor, so if you DO manage to get hit, it's not necessarily fatal. Key will still be to avoid getting hit, though- preferably by killing any threats before they know you are there.

I'm level 30 playing on Adept and i've put no perks into armor.

If I get 'discovered' NPC baddies whup me good.

i haven't put any perks into armor either, and have only leveled up health a couple of times. level 37 atm. i generally don't carry health potions or use restoration spells.
i use dual swords or daggers, hit the enemy a few times until my health drops, then run, shoots arrows at them until my health gets back up, then repeat. shadowmere usually distracts them for me.

Other than the Alteration Spells to give Dragon Skin, Fortifying Health is probably the best way to go unarmored in this game.

I do miss the Unarmored Skill, it allowed a quite effective, if challenging, alternative to draping my character with metal or bug carcasses or ceramics.