Should I keep my Stalker in plain studded leather

Kneller

Side note, I modded my char to be a multi stalker/cleric.

I've been reading about stalkers and everybody recommends Sendai's +2 studded leather for Stalkers in BG1. However, I'm considering sticking with just ordinary studded leather. My rationale is that I can use a ring of protection with it. With the +1, I'm sacrificing 1 AC for +1 saves (fair trade, it seems). With the +2 ring, the AC is the same and now I have +2 to saves on top of that. Granted, the +2 armor frees up a ring slot. However, in BG1, there's not much worth having except for the ring of Holiness (which I always have on) and the Ring of Fire Resistance/Ring of Free Action. Both of these are contextual and I can switch to them when needed.

Is there anything I'm not considering here?

Zaghoul

If your modding already you might try the mod Tweaks Anthology, where there is an option to use rings of protection with or without magic armor. I use the PnP version myself.

Wear Multiple Protection Items
All games except IWD2, PsT, PsTEE

This component allows players to wear more than one "X of Protection" item at a time. Players have their choice of two different implementations (originally from Ease of Use and G3/Tutu Tweaks respectively):

No restrictions. Players can wear as many items together as they wish.
P&P Style: In Pen and Paper AD&D, characters are allowed to wear magical armor with Rings/Cloaks/Amulets of Protection, but only the armor class bonus from one item would apply. This component gives every ring/cloak/amulet of protection the ability to be worn with or without its Armor Class bonus. With the AC bonus, the items retain their usual restrictions from being worn with other protection items or magic armor. Without their AC bonus, they can be worn together. This allows players to gain the benefits of the saving throw bonuses from the items of protection. To toggle between the versions that offer armor class bonuses and those without, use the item's special ability--the new item will be created in your inventory.

Chronicler

Sandthief's Ring is also popular for backstabbers in BG1. Let's you pop invisibility mid combat and backstab again.

Aerakar

There was a mod somewhere on the forum that changed the Shadow Armor to being usable by stalkers (it only changed the one item). My stalker used that. It was also quite stylish!

Kneller

@Aerakar

I'd love to be able to use that, I could use all the stealth I could get my hands on. Plus, it's really the only armor in BG1 that trumps vanilla armor and a ring +2. I'm like a ghost at night, but it gets a bit dodgy during the day or in some lit interiors. I usually end up resting until the night for outdoor areas, though.

sarevok57

i couldn't figure out a way to make it so that the only ranger class that could wear the shadow armor was just stalker, so i made this little mod here that makes it so any ranger class can wear it ( besides it makes sense why they can wear it anyway, so why not let rangers wear it? ) so this take this nifty little file, and place it into your "override" folder, and shazam, good to go

Zaghoul

Aerakar said:

There was a mod somewhere on the forum that changed the Shadow Armor to being usable by stalkers (it only changed the one item). My stalker used that. It was also quite stylish!

@Aerakar I've been using @Tresset 's Shadow Armor for Rangers for that.

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Kneller

But from a pure optimization perspective, vanilla studded and a +2 ring/cloak is doing more for you. Though actually, vanilla studded and the cloak of balduran is the best bet since you also get 25% MR

That being said, with my Stalker/Cleric, I just finished Cloakwood and have probably made about a half dozen saving throws the entire game so far.