*minor spoilers....****

Last night was the first time after 10 days I was able to commit more than an hour or so to the game. Damn real life getting in the way of my gaming. I finally made some decent progress into the campaign. Anyway, I now got my starting warrior to about level 17, just past the wild boar and past a few knights in Undead Parish. I also got the drake sword. I'm still decked out in all my starting armor and got a nice shield off of one of the knights. As soon as I equipped it I realized i went over 50% load. I had started a bandit and gave him up for bit and now I kinda wish I had the lighter bandit starting armor. I liked the bandit a lot but early on I decided I needed more armor since I sucked at the game. Instead of starting over I was wondering if I was near any NPC or something to grab some lighter armor and just keep this character going? Any ideas? I thought about starting over as a Bandit since I could probably get to this point in the game in a couple of hours but I thought I'd ask this question first. Thanks!

You can find every starting armor in the game, and get others that are really light like the Shadow set in Blight town. The quickest one you can probably find is the Wanderer set which is in Darkroot Basin (before you face any enemies). Other than that, there is a chainmail set sold by the merchant in undead burgh, although I'm not sure if that's lighter or not.

Optionally, you could just increase your endurance to get your load so it's less than 50%

For now I would suggest mixing and matching different pieces of different armor to give you the highest rating while still remaining under the 50% threshold. The best light armor for your time is easily picked up immeditely following the ringing of the second bell after Blighttown. If you run into the Demon Ruins and across the bridge right after the bonfire, there is a long path leading up to a boss and an altar, with probably the best light armor in the game, the Gold Hemmed robes.

Picking it up will activate the boss encounter, but a death here is no big deal as you already have the armor.

There's lots of loot to be found, but I'm not too savvy on that so I won't send you the wrong way.
Instead, I unequipped my helm/gloves at times to get beneath the 25% load (or whatever % you fancy).
Also, any weapon equipped, meaning your main hand/offhand and your quick slots for it, count as weight.
I used to carry just scimitar and shield as any back up weapon or even a bow would drag me over the limit.
 
Put some points in endurance I'd say.

There's a set of Hard Leather armour in the Lower Undead Burg, before you fight the Capra demon, in the last little house that the thieves burst out of.

You can go there right after you've rung the first bell, so probably in about an hours time, depending on how well you do against the gargoyles (tip - double hand the drake sword and apply Pine Resin for lots of damage)

OK, thanks for the quick responses. Some very useful tips here.

If you are planning on sticking to it and being a tough warrior invest a lot in stamina to boost your load equip limit, and stamina bar is great for blocking.

Also with some of the best armors and shields it's possible to pretty much never need to dodge (at least in the first playthrough)

Uh actually it is the leather armor that is in the darkroot basin not the wanderer armor, also the set in the lower undead burg is the thieves set not the hard leather armor. Hard leather is in the room with the gaping dragon and also coincidentally the same set warriors start with... Don't forget you can also always do something crazy like... take off your helmet, raise your endurance, or just deal with it for a little longer. The game really opens up after the undead parish and once you hit blighttown you will not be lacking a selection of light armor.

Try the chainmail armor from the merchant in undead burg. My cleric is currently wearing it. It doesn't seem that heavy.

@Karkarov: Oh right I couldn't quite remember which one it was. Is the Thieves Set called Black Leather? The boots are great at least.

@gerrid: Yeah it is called black leather, all but the hood anyway which is called Thieves Mask or something. I actually use the hood in this game, I think it looks pretty cool with the wanderer chest armor.

Will definitely get back into raising up endurance. I spent a few points to get STR to wield the Drake sword. I realize I'm very early into the game so I'll stick it out a bit more and try and get some more points into endurance. I also am going to try for Havel's ring. I got owned by him a few times but I found a decent guide on how to beat him so hopefully just a few more attempts :)

@anticucho: backstabs with the drake sword will sort him out pretty quickly. There's no need to use a shield because at that point he'll one-shot you regardless, so double hand. If you can get a drop attack on him with both hands it'll do quite a bit of damage.

@anticucho: Yeah, I have a level 60 warrior and I had the same problems.

Warrior class it not really a light armor class like thief but it is not a heavy armor class like knights. I just ended it up upgrading the hell out of the default armor until I could wear a better heavy armor that would not still slow me down due to my level, which eventually made me to wear armors that were obviously under level. Don't try to wear a full armor sets. It's not really worth it. Mix and match until you hit that right note where you feel comfortable with. If you need a better armor(or even weapons, for that matter), don't be afraid to use your souls. I know souls feel so valuable right now but trust me, you can always gain more souls, easily. Sooner or later, you will be gaining souls everywhere you go. Don't get attached, if you feel like you need it, buy it.

You can buy a chain mail set from the 1st merchant if you need it right away.

Shadow Armor from Blighttown is what I'm using atm.

I started as a deprived and actually picked up the chainmail in undead burg, which is actually kind of heavy. It has a weight of 6. However you should experiment with even less armor, under 25% load actually makes your character animations extremely fast. I'm now on a search for light armor also, but again don't be afraid to try unarmored. It's how I beat the gargoyles with essentially a melee character.

Go kill Havel and get his ring, it increases your load big time.

@imsh_pl said:

Go kill Havel and get his ring, it increases your load big time.

This is good advice.

Or drop like gloves or something and farm for a few lvl's for some endurance points.

@gerrid said:

@anticucho: backstabs with the drake sword will sort him out pretty quickly. There's no need to use a shield because at that point he'll one-shot you regardless, so double hand. If you can get a drop attack on him with both hands it'll do quite a bit of damage.

Thanks yea I did read a guide that recommended that. I've gone naked against him with just 2 handing the drake sword. I've gotten him down to like 5% health twice and died both times :( I wish I had more time to play this game! I work 8-9 hours coding all day, pretty intense project right now (I am ignoring client's IMs as I type this post) plus training so it leaves me exhausted by the time I turn on my PS3 at 8pm. I play for about an hour and I'm falling asleep with the controller in my hand! Ugh, gotta prioritize my life and get more time to play this fantastic game. Thanks for all the tips. I picked up a lot of useful info from all of you.

@imsh_pl said:

Go kill Havel and get his ring, it increases your load big time.

Yes do this and spend hella points in endurance.