What is best armor for melee-centric Kiku worshiper

[EnigmaticFellow]

I usually play either pure casters or mostly pure melee fighters, but I have been smitten by Kiku lately and have been play a number of HOGl and HONe Kiku worshipers. I've been playing them in heavier armor such as scale and chain mail, but I have been hearing some people prefer to play them in leather armor. I usually find myself only casting Animate Skeleton and Animate Dead, but I have played SpEn^Kiku and know how great Death Channel and Simulacrum are.

Supposing I'm playing a HO that wants to get 20 in axes and 27 in fighting, would lighter or heavier armor be better for such a character? I've been leaning more towards heavier armors mainly due to liking higher GDR, but I can't deny how useful it is to flood levels with Animate Dead/Simulacrum and Death Channel. Either way, I'm going to give such a character a high necromancy level since pain-branded battleaxes are really good weapons which would also make single-school low-level spells easy enough to cast. Would being able to cast Simulacrum and Death Channel make up for the lower AC and GDR?

[tabstorm]

GDR dosen't affect your chances to win any given fight very much, you shouldn't make armor choices based on it. If you're using level 4-6 spells, an armor with lower ER is best, so something like swamp DA or MDA would be good.

[Sar]

Really? I though plate was the armour for a HO^Kiku to wear.

[seren]

I would say is heavily dependent of your character strength, I played a Ghoul who had a strength around 20-25, I was able to cast Death Channel and Simulacrum with a failure around a few percent with Pearl Dragon Armor or Fire dragon armorc (Encumbrance at 11 IIRC)

[nago]

Really? I though plate was the armour for a HO^Kiku to wear.

If going pure necro then yes plate casting with a HO^Kiku is easy - but I'd avoid simulacrum and just get death channel as lv.6 necro spell, unless having a +wiz source.
I think if one want to add other spells in the mix then going with something lighter could be good - mottled being probably the lightest sensible choice, as that char is gonna to have crap dex so there's no point to invest in dodging.

[Badtown]

I'm a fan of Fire/Ice/Pearl dragon armor as a happy medium for this sort of thing. Necromancy is also a school where you benefit nicely from investing heavily in the skill for extra spell power/Pain brand power, so that may help you overcome the spellcasting penalties related to armor.

I've had good luck with long blades and maces with Kiku if you plan on doing extended. Kiku's pretty progressive (for an evil god) when it comes to using holy weapons, so it can be real nice to get a holy wrath weapon going alongside your pain weapon.

An axe of pain is probably stronger for the base game though.