Originally posted by CritMasterFlex:

On the topic of your near future, I agree with everyone else saying it's more efficient to just wear troll armor and skip bronze until you find something better... but I like the bronze armor. It looks great, and it makes you feel really tanky in the Black Forest. Running from a troll while shooting arrows is neat, but parrying a troll and tanking a couple hits before you own them is borderline sexual.

Troll armor + stealth is totally doable instead, but if you want to feel like a badass (and you're not in a rush to play though the limited content available) get yourself some bronze armor and a big shiny bronze shield. You're not ever going to have sneaky armor again unless you just keep wearing the troll, so it isn't as though leveling sneak really has any value outside of early game hunting (which also works fine in non sneak+ armor)

The difference between troll and bronze is literally 6 pts of armor. 6 points does not make you any more tanky. That's at best negating 6 points of damage per hit.