Can characters cast spells while wearing armor?
Multiclassed and dual-classed mages must abide by mages’ armor restrictions and will not be able to cast while wearing armor. The only exception to this is a character wearing a suit of Elven Chainmail, one that can be found in the game. Bards must also follow these restrictions, although some special armor for bards will be added in BGII:SoA.
Multi-classed and Dual-classed Mages must abide by Mages’ armor restrictions, and will not be able to cast while wearing armor. The only exception to this is a character wearing a suit of Elven Chainmail. However, if there were elven chainmail in the game (and we do mean IF, because it would be incredibly powerful for low level characters) it would allow your elven magic user to cast spells while wearing it. However, Bards will be able to cast spells while wearing armor. While this is contrary to the rules in the AD&D Player’s Handbook, this decision was made to compensate for other talents and abilities that couldn’t be implemented. A lot of their spellcasting and abilities were intended to influence role-playing, which is notoriously hard to capture in a CRPG. Playtesting will determine if this is an overcompensation, and the type of armor which Bards may wear while casting might get restricted. However, they will probably be able to wear some form of armor while casting.
