So far, I've only seen mention of Dragonknight, Templar, Warden(?), Sorcerer, and Nightblade (?). Don't have very much to go on with Warden and Nightblade, are they confirmed, and what is the Warden? But anyway, what I am really interested in is whether a Battlemage or Spellsword class will be playable. I always play a Breton Spellsword, using magic to give myself the edge in a melee. Now, I know Weapon Types are not locked (I don't know about Armor Types), so depending on how well you can customize your character, I might just be able to make a Sorcerer with Weapon (and Rune, whatever that is) and Heavy Armor. But if Armor Types are locked by class, then we seriously need a Heavy Spellcaster (and a Light Spellcaster too). Any confirm any of this? And what classes do yall want to see?

They said neither weapons nor armor were locked to classes, so playing a sorcerer with heavy armor should work, I hope. Keep in mind that all we really know about the Sorcerer (and the Warden) is the name. The latest "ask us anything" mentioned that classes had been downplayed in the design, but I have no idea what they meant by that.

I would assume downplay in the design means they're allowing it to be more flexible, and the classes are less rigid. That sounds good in theory, but I have no idea how flexible they were to begin with.

@ OP, we can wear whatever armor and weapons we want, we just have no idea what the costs of wearing each is. I'm really hoping heavy armor is viable on any class, but at the same time, I hope light armor provides some benefit over heavy in certain cases so not everyone wears heavy armor. If runes are only one-handed, it's pretty safe to assume that the other hand could be equipped with a one-handed of some kind.

The only drawback with a mage or a caster wearing heavy armor is the lost of magical stats light armor would give him.

Wouldn't light armor have negative consequences though? That's what cloth is for.. it exists you know, don't ignore it XD. Also how do we know there will be disadvantages? I'd very much like to see the source of that claim.

Okay, so Armor not locked, which is good, hopefully. And I am thinking since armor is not locked, the best balance would be Magic and Speed. Cloth gives Magic bonus with either no speed change or speed bonus. Light gives small Magic penalty, with no speed bonus (it IS armor, after all). And Heavy gives a medium Magic penalty and a speed penalty. Reason to not have a large penalty to Magic when wearing Heavy Armor is that Heavy should be viable for a Magic User, just not for a primary magic user. They need to balance Cloth, Light, and Heavy so that the spellcasting Nukes will actually want to wear Cloth armor and make themselves vulnerable, in return dealing massive magical damage or being able to cast tons of spells without tiring. Where as Battlemages/Spellswords like me (and I know I am not the only one) are able to wear whichever Armor we like best, while still being able to cast spells in an effective manner. I'm willing to sacifice SOME magical power to be able to take a hit, so long as my spells still have a noticeable effect.

I am only going on information from previous TES games where a battlemage could wear heavy armour. It didn't lower their magical casting ability or stats, but what it did do was to slow down their mana regen. Which meant while they wore the armour they was limited by how many spells they could cast. Usualy a protection spell, a few fireballs and then to wade in and beat the enemy to death with a huge summoned sword. You would have to chug down a lot of mana potions if you wanted to cast more spells.

As the armour gets lighter the mana regen rate will increase. In Skyrim you could off-set this with the enchantments that you could place on items.

The drawbacks of heavy armor vary by game, I believe. In Oblivion, it actually does reduce the effectiveness of your spells. In Skyrim, it just means you give up the regeneration of mage robes (and the mage armor perk, if you have it). I can't speak for earlier games.

That sounds like a good balance. I forget they did that.
One new thing they could do as well, is based how many enchantments you can apply on what type of Armor. Heavy would only have a couple, but Cloth could have several (not too many though, don't want to be overboard). Light would naturally be in the middle groud. That would certainly help people decide which armor type they wanted to use.

Light Armor gives you Magicka
Medium Armor gives you Stamina
Heavy Armor gives you Health

The good thing is you don't have to go full heavy armor you can just mix your armor.

Yep this. Wish I could find the interview where they stated this, but i know they in fact did confirm that.

That is a simplistic system but it looks like it will work fairly well, if balanced. Mostly heavy with a little bit of light would serve a Battlemage/Spellsword well

This is really a new breed system with common sense excluded. Armor should be armor, it should deflect hits, protect from criticals, with the cost of mobility. I really dont like this new trend where they just make up "random" stats on various gear.

I miss the times when game designers cared to make sense even if just a little bit.

What was the problem with creating your own class in the first place? They really only had to balance skills and they would be set.

These are just the basic boni, you will also unlock more boni when you level your armor.

Armor will also have influence when it comes to sneaking