Important characters and Armor question

[GamerTorres]

I am new to this game I have logged in a few hours have not looked into walkthrough or anything ( do not want to run into major spoilers, minor ones really don't bother me) is there any characters I should avoid killing/ enslaving while in support of a specific faction?

-My question for Armor is, do I have to do 100% rebel/orcs supported quest to get their final Armor? Can i kill a few rebel quest related and still get the paladin armor? Can I be a mixture of both and still enjoy the benefits or would I have to strictly support one faction?

[Sugar]

Orc reputation is tough to get.To get their final armor(not heavy orc mercenary)you need to have actually chosen to play for the orcs(destroy rebel camps,bring them the fire chalices etc.)Getting Paladin armor isn't that much of a hassle really.The reputation is fairly easy to get,but the problem is getting that 190K gold.For orcs you need 75% reputation and doing things(don't want to spoil unless you really want to know),but you get the armor for free and a tutor to teach you some of the very late game combat abilities(regeneration and something else i believe).Thing is,that it i remember correctly there barely any orc quests,which gave you orc reputation besides the ones for destroying rebel camps.There are other ones but these gave you the most and always did.For the rebels final armor you need 60% reputation and 190K gold.Difference is that you can get this armor from most rebel merchants.And that's pretty much it.The reputation doesn't really effect much else,besides giving you access to certain spots and armor.
For your question about the quests.There aren't that many quests that require you to actually kill someone from the opposite faction.Most of the time you will know when a certain quest will make the other one hostile.Like destroy rebel camp X or liberate town Y.To answer your specific question about the paladin armor-yes it is possible if you dont murder too many of them.Oh,dont destroy 3 rebel camps/liberate 3 towns because then the faction whose encampment you destroyed will be always hostile to you.

[Doombringer]

Final orc armor takes 75% orc rep.
Final rebel armor can be purchased in reddock once you have 50% rebel rep.

Improve Armor (smithing) gives a 25% boost to ALL defense items.
Improve Robes (ancient knowledge) gives a 100% boost to ALL defensive items when you wear a robe. Does not stack with Improve Armor, so taking both skills is pointless.
Yes, light armor is better than heavy armor in this game, go figure.
You can get a good robe for free in Al-Shedim (SE of Mora Sul), although it will take a little while.

Under the shamans house in Geldern the is a difficult locked door with a good helmet behind it. I recommend not taking anything besides the helmet and the key from there, because the theft limit in Geldern is low and there are better things to steal there.

For new players: I recommend NOT doing any liberate missions until later in the game. It will cut off a bunch of quests/merchants. Once your rep gets too high with a certain faction their opposing faction won't want to deal with you.

[Heretic]

Something I'd like to say to new players that wasn't obvious to me from the get go (or maybe I'm just slow?). Pay attention to the color of all NPCs' names.

White = neutral. Provoking and hitting them might change color to orange. Can only be killed in melee by a finishing blow when downed. Doing this is murder and will make anyone nearby hostile.
Orange = suspicious. Don't anger them, provoking might change color to red. Same as white as for finishing blow.
Red = hostile. Go near them and they will attack. Hitting them will make everyone nearby attack you.
Green = friendly. Still, don't steal from them when in sight.
Blue = in your group. Pathfinding in this game is horrendous, keep an eye on them if you want them to survive and not get lost.

If the whole town is orange and you didn't cause the trouble there, you've gone far enough in an opposing faction's quests to make everybody suspicious of you. Even the "amnesia" spell can't change any of them back to neutral.

Liberating orc cities in Myrtana will make all orcs in Varant hostile and cut off quests. Also don't kill the orc patrol near Faring or the whole town might go hostile (don't know if this has been fixed or not).

[Doombringer]

Doesn't that orc patrol walk out of Faring in the morning?
Anyways, avoid attacking non-hostile people/orcs except for the patrol and farm near reddock.

The hostile orcs in Nordmar and in and around Vengard can be dealt without anyone getting mad.

The temple ruins (Al Shedim and Mora Sul) count as hashishin cities as far as liberation goes, so if you want to get into Ishtar (peacefully) you might want to avoid liberating them until way later...