Well with velious looming over the corner, Erudite cultural armor won't be far away either and some of the steelsilk pieces aren't too shabby.
Erudites get crappy starting STR and stats in general. But they do get this:
http://wiki.project1999.com/Shield_of_the_Stalwart_Seas Which is basically the second best shield in game outside of Velious and you can pick them up for like 1k.
Of course I'm biased as I play an Erudite Paladin, one of the rarest class/race combos in the game!