Bill

What would be a good armor set for irregular skirmishers notoriously low on money, also known as adventurers, soldiers of fortune or knight errants?

Gambeson, possibly with jack chains, and a kettlehelm. 

A thick gambeson is near-impossible to cut through, and will offer passable protection from thrusts and blunt-force trauma as well. I’d throw in some gauntlets as well, because if you can only afford one piece of solid armor, make it a helmet, and if you can afford a little more, get steel gauntlets. Your head is the most important part of your body, and your hands are the most vulnerable in a melee fight. 

Jack chains are small bits of armor that attach to the sleeves of gambesons like so; they offer decent arm protection, and they also obviously allow you to use your arms to block blows that are targeting vulnerable bodyparts. 

If you have a little more money to spend, the next step would be a byrnie(maille shirt), a breastplate, or the often overlooked leg protection. In many cases, solid leg protection may be more valuable than chest protection, as you can easily use a shield or weapon to protect your chest, but if you have a shorter weapon your legs are extremely vulnerable to attack by an opponent with a longer weapon. 

Longer weapons like two-handed swords and all manner of polearms can change targets/positions extremely quickly; a common strategy employed by users of these longer weapons against shorter weapons is to feint a thrust to the legs, making the opponent lower his weapon/shield to his legs to defend, and then quickly attacking the chest or head. If you’ve got full-coverage leg protection, you can not even worry about lowering your weapon or shield. Also, if you’re an human “adventurer”, I can see you going into fights with much shorter foes, such as goblins, dwarves, giant rats, kobolds, etc. who couldn’t care less how solid your breastplate is because your thighs(and femoral arteries) are right there at shoulder-height. 

- mod Sallet

This just in: I have no idea how to weapons.

Have a Man-at-Arms Reba. How she sees out of that kettlehelm, no one will ever know.

The art of planishing has been mastered by our boy Dez Armstrong @dez_armstrong 👊 This Kettlehelm or “war hat” is coming along nicely. The PH-36A #baileighplanishinghammer smooths the roughed in panel like butter #baileigharmy #baileighmetalshaping @dez_armstrong @dez_armstrong @dez_armstrong https://www.instagram.com/p/CBdRC9YDF10/?igshid=utkll0eo25kf

High fashion

#knightsofnovember day 9: The Dude aBidens. North European, late 13th to late 14th century. With really short spear, for close spearing #brim #knight #knights #knightknight #knightknightknight #guardduty #spear #kettlehelm #kieraknightly #yycarts #yycdrawing #lateknight https://www.instagram.com/p/CHbuhgQh0uu/?igshid=kngthjcln13p