Armor

No armor / Cloth armor

• Having no armor means zero limitations, but also taking increasing damage from physical attacks
• Cloth armor infers no protection benefits other than those inferred from the magical properties of the item
• Used by mages and other primary spell casters

Light armor

• Removes the penalty from physical damage of having no armor, but that's it
• Makes it hard to cast spells without the appropriate feats
• No other limitations
• Used by archers and dexterity melee fighters

Medium armor

• Gives a penalty to dexterity, but no limit to movement and speed
• Negates a percentage of damage, or a flat amount, the lower of the two
  • So it can't fully negate a physical attack
  • Nor does it scale automatically
• Used by melee fighters who care about movement

Heavy Armor

• Negates any dexterity bonuses
• Reduces the character's walking speed
• Only armor that can completely negate physical damage
• Used by tanks and heavy hitters