A leather breast piece is a good bet for the beginning adventurer. It protects and warms the wearer and gives good protection. The standard in armor protection throughout Antonica, chain mail and ring mail provide much better protection than leather but are also a magnitude more difficult to make and far more expensive. Chain consists of thousands of small links of wire, each shaped into a ring and riveted together to close the ring. The more links in a given section the stronger the mail will be.
Chain gives relatively good protection against all types of attacks.
Plate Plate is the best type of armor available. It is made of sheets of steel shaped to fit the wearers' body through forging, and tempered to a tough hardness. Plate is extremely hard to make and much more expensive than chain. Few items can match the status one enjoys when wearing a breastplate. Many are lovingly crafted with designs and fluting, but whether fancy or plain, this is the armor to stop your enemies cold in their tracks.