So why wouldn't wizard's and druids wear plate armour? If it's too heavy you can just cast a spell to make it lighter...

Robes are a status symbol among magic users. If you don't have a proper robe, you can't even call yourself a wizard: at that point, you're just a hedge mage.

You see a man walk onto a battlefield wearing nothing but a flimsy piece of cloth? That's the dude you wanna watch out for.

Of course, practical battle mages usually use protective charms. Some will even sew armor onto the robe, then cast a glamour on the armor to make it look like a mundane robe.

You can't magic iron user, this is day 1 of wizard school stuff.

They could in old Stormbringer.
Hell, demon armour of any magnitude was the shit.

According to the lore, spells are supposed to have super precise hand movements for the most part and wearing armor interfered with the movement enough to fuck up the spells.

Of course that was before half the shit was able to just be cast using words negating that lore and it was just kept because REASONS.

I think the dnd argument is that it fucks up the ability to wave your arms and wiggle your fingers in just the right way, keeping you from consistently casting spells.

Personally I like my mages heavily armored and carrying melee weapons

Go back home. Even your argument is really really shit. All 3 of them.
Like the entire point of robes, is to WEAR THEM OVER STUFF.
>You see a man walk onto a battlefield wearing nothing but a flimsy piece of cloth?
lololol. Its such a nice literature meme, but on the battlefield its where its the least true, because slings, bolts, arrows and formations are things that exists.

I could give you an in game reason they made up but honestly? Balance, that's the only real reason.

I actually really like how Morrowind handled magic in terms of everyone should use a little bit, even fighters in plate armor. My only gripe is how you have to be a Breton or Altmer to have decent magicka.

Wizards get ultimate power, fighters get style

Balance

Depends on the setting, but for most settings that I know of:
>plate armor does not allow for 100% flexibility for somatic components so its easy to fuck up shit while wearing it
>druids don't like using metal shit because muh nature

But then you have clerics. Ultimate power and style.

I guess Deus Vult you to look like a badass?

In GURPS they can and do wear armor. Though normally it is just to protect head and vitals. If there is enchantments to make armor lighter fighters will use them too and wear even more armor thus keeping the parity.

Armor is just a Removable Toughness/Protection power so there's nothing really stopping you.

I mean, you're not playing a system that has you trying to make convoluted excuses as to why a class couldn't wear heavy armor, right?

>There are systems where armour doesn't affect casting at all e.g. shadowrun.

Mind you in Shadowrun mages usually have less armor due to lower body which governs how much you can wear without being encumbered and a mage has to jack all their karma into 3 separate casting stats (trad stat 1, trad stat 2, MAG) and there's normally a limit on how much Karma you can put into stats at chargen (not that you would have much left since you need to spend it on spells too)

CONDUCTIVE MATERIALS SUCH AS IRON AND COPPER ARE DISRUPTIVE TO MAGICAL FORCES, WHEREAS MATERIALS WE WOULD CONSIDER TRADITIONALLY INSULATIVE ARE BETTER FOR CONDUCTING MAGIC - PARTICULARLY IF THEY ARE ORGANIC/LIVING. AS A RESULT, MAGES INCENTIVIZE WEARING NATURAL FABRICS AND ARMOR PEICES MADE OF BONE, WOOD, OR CRYSTAL SO THEY CAN CAST EFFECTIVELY, AND ELITE SOLDIERS WEAR AS MUCH METAL AS POSSIBLE TO GIVE THEM INCREASE MAGIC RESISTANCE.

They aren't trained in it's use.

Because non-magic armor is irrelevant on the FCT.

>make it lighter.
If your plate armor is too heavy you're either a dumbass or morbidly obese.

>Doesn't stop it from chafing.
Wut

>trained in its use
Put it on, training done

>wear a helmet
>arms are crippled

Druids don't wear metal armor and use very specific weapons because of oaths made to their gods. You break that oath, you get no spellcasting or shapechanging. Period. End of story.

The reasons casters don't wear armor is because when they were first learnign magic, they needed their hands free and unemcombered by heavy crap to learn how to cast spells properly. Peasants - because that's what most spellcasters start off as because the chances of having the talent for magic are higher per capita in the peasantry - don't have the money to afford armor. So they never learn to cast in it. So when they DO have the money to afford armor....their gestures are thrown off by the new and unfamiliar weight of the armor. That's why there's a spell failure chance instead of an outright failure chance. Clerics, magus, and other casters who wear armor trained to to cast while wearign armor, so it doesn't throw them off. So a caster has to speand time and effort to relearn to cast with armor, and they never really get truly used to it.

Feel better now that you realize you're a fucking retarded dipshit?

Druids tend to live in the wilderness so they don't have the infrastructure necessary to forge plate armour (plate is actually easier to make than mail if you can forge both, but you need considerably more advanced tool and knowledge of metallurgy to forge plate armour while anybody with a shitty forge and basic tools can make ok-ish mail armour given enough time and raw materials). Also, they are often forbidden by their faith from using forged tools and equipment.

For wizards there really isn't much of a reason beyond game balance/thematics, and a vague explanation that the armour interferes with magic/restricts movements needed to cast spells (since wizards apparently need to wave their arms and wiggle their fingers a lot to cast spells, which would be a little difficult while wearing heavy armour, although this begs the question of why they wouldn't just wear a breastplate and helmet, leaving their arms free while still offering protection to their vitals).

Because stygian horrors from beyond the ken of man can tear open plate armour like can-openers.

It's also a lot easier to run away when you're not wearing armour.

I remember last time I saw one of those threads I wrote this. Still a little proud of it.

Also a little follow-up, phoneposting forbids me from combining the two.

I didn't say it made sense

Because all that metal suppresses your dope magical powers. Also, wearing armor fucking SUCKS. Just use your insane sorcery to protect yourself.

>If it's too heavy you can just cast a spell to make it lighter.

This is another problem with too high power level on magic. Why not just make the armor light and silent? Freedom of movement should prevent any weird effects of not being able to maneuver for your casting.

If you want to get really stupid, just have your magic system allow you to create a set of silent, weightless, super strong armor and laugh at the martials.

Doesnt stop mages in Runescape from designing armor meant to stop Martials from killing them. Their armor built around using impact resistant materials combined with the robes. By endgame they have the equivilant of Stoneflesh armor

Because Iron is the star killer. Once a star starts fusing iron, it's on its last legs. Similarly, it disrupts magic.

You also have to wiggle your ears to cast properly.

>Doesnt stop mages in Runescape
HAHAHAHAH
grow the fuck up