Finakly getting round to creating a sword and board character and I wanted to equip him in steel plate armour.

My only problem is the helmet is IMO aesthetically the worst looking of the entire game. As such was intending to wear an imperial offices helmet instead.

Does the 25% matching set bonus apply since its a steel item?

I've got my fingers crosses on this,.. lol

My guess would be no. In fact even Horned Scale Armor misses up the Scale Armor matching set.

A quick way to check is to just check your AR with either helmet on.

I'm really not crazy about any of the closed helmets either.

UESP says the Officer's Helmet qualifies for Matching Set when worn with the rest of the Imperial Heavy items. It falls under Steel smithing in terms of perks but Steel Plate is a whole different set/type of armor. So my guess would be "no."

Yeah I figured that was the case, thanks.

Wished they had an alternative armour for each type. I mean they have it for basic steel and leather.

This particular helmet is easily the worst in the game, those little wings on the side are kinda lame.

thats what i thought about the NofN helmet back in Oblivion

I actually think that Steel plate has one of the better looking helmets. I think many of the helmets in the game look bad.

My Nord wears Dragonplate without the helmet. My Khajiit wears glass with a hood instead of the helmet.

I'd take the Steel Plate helm over a lot of the helmets in this game. The iron helm makes you look like a goat.

You could always just not buy the perk, and then use smithing and leveling up your heavy armor in order to hit the easily obtainable 567 cap.

You can also buy or craft and enchant jewelry to make up the difference of not wearing the helm.

Steel Plate with Dragon Priest Mask is a match made in heaven. The markings on the masks are nearly identical to the markings on the armor and the hood flows nicely over the armor.

I'm a little uncertain on this as well, so a clear answer would be sweet.

On a side note, the steel helmets are the best looking ones in the game, especially the horned one. After the ancient nord helmet that is =)

I rather like the steel plate helmet. It looks more authentic than most helmets in the game (it's fantasy, I know...I know). I also feel all the helmets (except the scaled one with the two horns sticking out of the front--what were they thinking) in Skyrim are an improvement over Oblivion's helmets. The Dwarven is awesome, me thinks.

I think it does not work.

Since you know that you won't be using the steel plate helmet, you can just elect not to take the matching set perk.

I just take 3 juggernauts and well fitted and it takes me to max armor with steel plate set.

The Matching Set perks work on the keyword system, if you have a sum total of 4 keywords for the function WornApparellHasKeyWordCount of the specific armor material type, the perk applies. Anything less than 4 and it does not work. Also be aware that shields are not counted for the purposes of this calculation so you can have any type of shield equipped or not be using one at all and it has no impact on these perks working or not.

The Imperial Officers Helmet has a keyword of ArmorMaterialImperialHeavy - this is a specific armor material type in the game mechanics that all of the heavy Imperial equipment have in their armor entries. Only other heavy Imperial equipment has this keyword, so using the helmet with the rest of your equipped armor being all Steel Plate will give you a count of 3 in ArmorMaterialSteelPlate and a 1 in ArmorMaterialImperialHeavy. Since neither add up to 4, the perk will not apply.

This was checked and verified with the Creation Kit open in another window, so hopefully this will answer your question with some certainty.

What? The Nordic plate helmet looks awesome!!! Better then the hide...

daedric takes my ugliest hat award...

If your on PC and your looking for a knightly look, check out this pic of my white knight:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/community4art/ScreenShot11.jpg

and yes the HK armor is supported by the matching set perk.

HAH funny do you know what a Hedge knight is? Its a lord less knight who is basically a glorified sellsword.

I love steel plate armor, except the helm COULD be better. I think a helm with dragon wings would rock, and only the Dragonborn could have it. Like a badge of office, sort of, "Yes, I am the big, bad son of a [censored] who's gonna save you all. Now stand back, shut up, and don't get in my way." Everyone would know you on sight, and be afraid, or respectful, or appreciative... but mostly afraid. I mean, seriously, look who you are, and consider how you're treated. Your very existence should strike fear in lesser mortals, and even in immortals, because all of history spins on your actions, but you're treated like just another wanderer, some idiot out trodding the roads.

So, er, um, yeah, armor. Give me some armor to suit who I am.

Dang it.

Actually if you wear full daedric Those wack head vigilants attack you on site.

Are you sure about this? I had one of my characters wear daedric armor set and I don't remember ever getting attacked by Vigilantes of Stendarr.

I actually like the steel plate helmet.

I find the whole armor and weapon system in skyrim a little too linear, though. It would be fun if you could choose your favorite armor and weapon 'type' and specialize in it such that it became fantastic. Granted, a few differences between armor and weapons from different 'types' would make for interesting options and choices, but to have everyone goal themselves to have daedra or dragon armor is a bit boring.

I had one of them attack me because of my daedric sword.

But that's ok, I like them about as much as the Thalmor. Kill on site kind of friends.

As for the steel helm. I'd rather be wearing that than most of the other poorly designed garbage in the game. Hornes!? on nearly everything? really?

I like the helm, it makes my paladin feel divine

Ditto. I wore the full set and carried all Daedric weapons at one point. And I did that for a long time with that character, for maybe 15-20 levels. I kept waiting for the Vigilants to go hostile, but they never did. As far as I know they never went hostile when I was carrying Daedric artifacts around that I picked up from various quests. I only had one go hostile on me ever, and I suspect that was because she was fighting something else and I attacked it trying to help and then my follower joined in and used some spell that hit the Vigilant and then she attacked us. I was playing a Dunmer who was doing pretty much every Daedric quest I came across, and I did pick up quite a few of the more controversial artifacts - Ebony Mail, Mace of Molag Bal, Ring of Namira... but I tended to keep them as trophies rather than carry them around using them. It's possible I had one on me at the time but I never kept them on me long so it's doubtful.

At any rate I can confirm that wearing Daedric armor does not = hostility on sight from the Vigilants. If it did I would remember because I would've been fighting them constantly on that one playthrough.