Materials

Weapons and plate armor come in ten different materials in Daggerfall. Eight have been taken over (with some changes) from Arena, two more have been added.

• Bonus: The damage/armor bonus that is added to the base value of the item. For armor, this base value is always 9. For shields this is irrelevant, since the armor value of a shield is independent of its material.
• Weight: Given relative, with 100 for the most common one.
• EP: The relative enchant points. These may actually vary according to item type, I have given the most common one. For silver, the first value is weapons and the second armor.
• Price: Given relative, with 1 for iron. Price simply doubles with each material.
• Needed for: Some monsters can only hit by a certain material or better.
• Level: The minimum level necessary to obtain the item. See about levels farther down.

Annotations

Iron

Hardly better than chain, but a lot heavier, and of a dull gray, iron armor is not very attractive. Iron weapons can not even hurt an imp, and there are at least two imps in the Privateer's Hold. If in character creation you get the choice of a cuirass, or of a set of armor, these items will be iron.

Steel

You will probably walk out of the Privater's Hold with one or two pieces of steel armor. Along with daedric, steel is the heaviest material.

Silver

Weapons are rarer than most other materials, armor is nearly unfindable. While as strong as steel, silver weighs less, and silver weapons can kill werewolves and vampires. But the biggest advantage of silver is its high enchantability. For armor, it's the highest of all materials.

Elven

Weapons are pretty common, armor comparatively rare. With some luck you will find some elven weapon in the Privateer's Hold, I even found a helmet once! The palette is exactly the same as for silver, some items like boots and gauntlets look the same as their chain counterparts, too. For humans (at least human females) this palette is a little bit inconsistent, for a way to amend this see Polish that Silver.

Dwarven

This seems to be the best material a level 1 character can get hold of. Its lower weight makes this material very useful for low-level characters. The enchantability of dwarven items is pretty high, too.

Mithril

Stronger than dwarven, but lower on enchant points and heavier, mithril is the lowest material that can hurt any creature in Daggerfall. It is also the lowest material you can only get at a certain level. For armor, it is better to stick to dwarven until you can get ebony, because of the weight.

Adamantium

Apart from its higher enchantability, this material is practically the same as mithril, it only costs twice as much. In Arena, adamantium was some sort of purple. You will still find this color in the Daggerfall palette (30–3F), but it is not used for a specific material. Maybe this was changed later in development.

Ebony

In Arena, ebony was the best material available. In the various books in Daggerfall, it is still treated as such. Orcish and daedric were added as an afterthought, it seems. With its incredible low weight ebony armor can still be regarded the best. And it looks real good.

Orcish

Comparatively rare, especially (as usual) the armor. Except as a collector's item this material is not very attractive, since the small bonus compared with ebony (17 or 19 does not make all that much difference any more) hardly justifies the double weight.

Daedric

The absolute high-end material. At higher levels, it gets pretty common, though some armor parts remain rare. In spite of its high weight you will probably wear it; once you have daedric armor, there is very little worth taking in a dungeon anyhow.

About Levels

I am currently investigating how your level effects what equipment you can find. What I could establish so far is:

1. There is no minimum level for finding equipment up to and including dwarven. I have been playing a level 1 character for quite a while now. Meanwhile, she is clad nearly completely in dwarven armor (boots and gauntlets are still missing), and dwarven daikatanas and longbows are quite common.
2. There is a minimum level for everything higher. For details, see the table above.
3. What you actually find is determined by something else. When you play a character that does not level up you will still find better and better equipment over time, within the limits of your level.

Obviously, every item has a kind of value of which material is only a part. Enchant points might be an important part in this. That would explain why silver armor is so rare.

Every character, I suppose, can only obtain items up to a certain value, independent of level. It might be the sum of gained skill points (regardless in what category) that determines this.