Armours and Shields

Light Armour
The most agile of armors, it is favoured by non-spellcasters who need to move, but still avoid taking more damage. Those that have a high dexterity modifier tend to gain the most benefit from wearing it.

Made from quilted fabric filled with some sort of batting, padded armor is the lightest of the armors, but it is bulky and restricts movement. Leather armor, though, is the standard, since most light armor proficient classes will start with it. But when you get to higher levels, you can find or purchase studded leather armor, which is reinforced with studs or spikes that can deflect weapons.

Medium Armour
More agile and lighter than Heavy armor, medium armor is for those that require even more protection, but tend not to have very high dexterity bonuses.

The cheap choice of low-level fighters or clerics is hide, which is made from thick animal pelts, but the standard medium armor choice at low levels is the chain shirt, which is made from metal rings and covers the vital areas of the body. Upgrades including scale mail which is like chain but made from overlapping metal scales and includes leggings, a breastplate which is as it sounds a metal plate for covering the torso but not other things, half plate which includes a few more bits and bobs in addition to the breastplate but still isn't a full set, and spiked armor which is a special Dwarven type of leather armor with large, sharp spikes all over.

Spiked armor is usually reserved for a Dwarven Barbarian specialising in the Path of the Battlerager. Wrapmail is similar to leather mixed with Cloth which is flexible and favourable to stealth builds.

Heavy Armour
Heavy armor is for those brave characters that like to attract attention, but don't have much dexterity of their own. These usually have a minimum strength requirement and always give you disadvantage on stealth checks. They're also very expensive.

Most heavy armor proficient classes will start in chain mail which is like the chain shirt above, but includes pieces which cover the rest of the body as well. But if you're looking for a cheaper option, ring mail does the job, though its larger metal rings tend to let smaller weapons and arrows through. After chain mail is splint armor, which is made of metal strips bound to leather and covering all the necessary parts of the body. The popular choice of all the armors is plate, which is made from interlocking plates of metal that cover your character from head to toe. Wood armor is extremely basic and has nothing special to it. As for Stone Armour, it is the toughest of all armours but also the heaviest.

Shield
Carried in one hand, a shield is made from wood or metal. Using them adds to your total AC, but you can only gain the benefits of one shield at a time.

Rare Material Armours
Rare materials used in medium or heavy armors, besides hide, can add special benefits.

While you're wearing Adamantine armor, any critical hit that strikes you becomes normal.

Armor made from Mithril doesn't have a minimum strength score requirement, nor does it suffer from disadvantage to stealth checks.