I figured this video (by youtuber: Shadiversity) discussing armor may be of interest to some of you, so I'm sharing.
Scale armor. I don't know much about armor, but I know that scale armor was pretty good, and it wasn't as expensive as plate armor. "The best armor? Plot Armor of course!" -Andrew Jackson.
Isn't it situational ? In some cases, leather armor imbued with nimbleness can be the best, you don't want 30 kg plate armor while trying to dodge something, whereas in others it's the opposite. He's got a really interesting accent on the word armour though. One thing he's excluding, is the different materials though. Fantasy worlds tend to have way different monsters and resources from our world, so who's he to exclude all types of leather armor, because cow or deer leather armor aren't up to his standards ? And fantasy tends to have magic, blessings and other things as well, which can have pretty major impacts on anyone. Blessings of feather weight or lightness could make heavy armor weigh next to nothing. And he's neglecting a very simple solution. Mounts. Sure, starting adventurers might not afford mounts, nor really heavy armor to begin with, but veterans or elites would be able to afford them or even be given them as rewards, gifts or just loaned to get them where they need to go quickly. As for mages... they tend to be some of the scrawniest adventurers. He went on about constitution affecting what armor they should wear, but mages would have very little in strength (unless they're the type that wants to brawl in melee, but they're insane). People needed training to be able to wear heavier armor for longer periods of time, and i'm not sure mages could even do that. And then he mentions the one element that would be worst against wooden shields.
Not really situational. Leather is always inferior to plate, unless you want to swim with it. A trained person can do backflipps in fullplate, which clocks in between 25-30kg.Might sound like a lot but its surprisingly light once it is donned. And we can assume any adventurer, even the mages, to be reasonably well trained. Enough for a chestplate at least. And dont get me started on the priests. You put your healer into the best armor you have, or keep them as far away from the battle as possible.