Armors
Well duh, obviously you want a sweet suit of armor if you're reading this. And Wizards has come through for you by making four or five sweet suits of armor mixed in with a thousand piece-of-crap armors that are useless. Fortunately I've got your back and have dug through all the armors so I can tell you what to take and what to avoid.
I'm going to ignore the obvious trash armors, like stuff that gives you a mere +2 to reflex defense and no other benefits. You should realize that's not worth wearing already.
Special
Mandalorian Neo-Crusader Armor (KOTOR 202)
Reflex Bonus: Varies
Fort Bonus: Varies
Max Dex: Varies
Extras: +++++++++++
Price: None
The best armor ever, there's actually several different types. Move along, you're not allowed to have it. It has no price and was written up before they made the armor modification rules, so Neo-Crusader armor is stupidly customizable with about five times more upgrade slots than anything else in the game. If you get some you're going to break the game with it without even trying. Amusingly it turns Mandalorians from total badasses into Piñatas: everybody wants to hunt them down and nick their armor.
Beskar'Gam (Scum 48)
Reflex Bonus: Varies
Fort Bonus: Varies
Max Dex: Varies
Extras: +
Price: Varies
The replacement Mandalorian armor, made for players unlike Neo-Crusader armor. Beskar'Gam lets you apply DR to lightsaber attacks and comes with two upgrade slots as well as a bonus on intimidation. In general, Beskar'Gam armor gives a point or two better armor/fort bonuses than any other armor in their weight class. If you happen to be Mandalorian, the armor costs 30,000 credits less at which point it's vastly cheaper than any other armor in it's own weight class as well. Bottom line: If you're Mando you want this armor. If not, you can't afford it and should buy a cheaper alternative.
Energy Shields (KOTOR 72)
Reflex Bonus: Varies
Fort Bonus: Varies
Max Dex: Varies
Extras: +
Price: None
Energy shields give you SR up to 30, very nice, once per encounter that can't be restored like a ship's shield. Each shield has 5 charges and it's not clear if they can ever be recharged, if your GM says no they're still worth pulling out for boss fights but not for anything else. If they can be recharged you should always have the best shield you can afford.
Note that even though an energy shield can only be used once per encounter, there's no particular reason you can't at least have one on each arm, maybe even a couple in your belt pouch for a very long boss-fight.
Light
Light armor has no penalty to anything so it's a good choice if you need to move, such as if you're playing a Trandoshan Tank and want to get close enough to hit somebody with your sword. Generally just not as good an armor bonus as medium armor, though.
Thinsuit (Clone 64)
Reflex Bonus: -
Fort Bonus: -
Max Dex: -
Extras: ++
Price: 900
The thinsuits an interesting edge case. It provides vacuum seals a +5 to fort defense vs. high or low temperatures, and it can explicitly be worn underneath any other armor, so if you happen to want, which you do because the thinsuit does little else by itself. It's basically an extra free slot for the bargain price of less than a thousand credits.
Marine Armor (War 43)
Reflex Bonus: +5
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 5,500
Marine armor is superb for a light-fighter who doesn't know where the campaign is actually going to go, or if you just know your GM likes planet-hopping and odd environments. It's got decent stats at a low low price and comes with both an aquatic kit and a vacuum kit, which means there's jack-all places you can't go once this suit's on your body. For a straight-up tank who won't be playing in the water, it's stats aren't as good as some other choices and I have to drop it a grade. It's cheap enough to be a good choice at very low levels but you'll want something better as you get more money.
Camo-Scout Armor (War 43)
Reflex Bonus: +6
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 6,000
Slightly better defense than Marine armor, this stuff's an equal to stormtrooper armor at a lower price, and with more goodies. It comes with a nifty +5 bonus to stealth. So why is it rated so poorly? Because two pages down you can find a poncho that costs almost nothing and provides the same +5 bonus to stealth (doesn't stack) and can be worn over any old suit of armor, making Camo Scout's camo redundant. Still beats out Stormtrooper armor simply because it has the same bonuses for a lower price, and who knows, you might want to wear a different cloak and still get the stealth bonus, like an all-weather cloak in the cold.
Dark Armor, Light (Jedi 61)
Reflex Bonus: +4
Fort Bonus: +3
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 10,000
Expensive, weak reflex save. It does get a free bonus from the Sith Alchemy armor mods (Not available anywhere but on dark armor), but these bennies are kind of weak, either turn off lightsabers that hit you or +2 to certain use the force checks. Nothing to get excited about, although since the turn off lightsabers option shuts a lightsaber down for a full 2 minutes, that is something to get excited about if you hunt down enemy jedi. 12 rounds of losing their lightsaber will ruin any Jedi's day. But this is still a pass-me-by, get the vastly superior medium dark armor instead.
Stormtrooper Armor (Core 132)
Reflex Bonus: +6
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 8,000
Stormtrooper armor is overpriced for what you get. It's very decent armor with a good set of bonuses and a helmet package, but you can do better for far fewer credits.
Seatrooper Armor (Rebellion 126)
Reflex Bonus: +4
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +2
Extras: +
Price: 6,750
Weak. If you want to play in the water buy Marine Armor, Seatrooper armor is inferior in every way and it's water-seal fails if you go deeper than 660 feet, unlike Marine Armor that's good to any depth, and adding the cherry on it's sundae of suck, it costs more than Marine Armor. Avoid this.
Jedi Battle Armor (Jedi 62)
Reflex Bonus: +3
Fort Bonus: +3
Max Dex: +4
Extras:
Price: 4000
Well it has a decent fort bonus, but the reflex bonus is too weak to make this desirable, and it has no special abilities and no extra upgrade slots.
Shadowsuit (Scum 49)
Reflex Bonus: +1
Fort Bonus: +1
Max Dex: +5
Extras: -
Price: 600
Ha ha! This suit is a joke. Pitiful armor bonus, it's draw is supposed to be it's nifty +5 bonus to stealth, which as you'll notice in the entry for Camo-Scout Armor, is easily replaced by a dirt-cheap poncho. Even worse, it's stealth bonus only applies when you've already got concealment specifically from shadows. So it's stupidly situational and should never be worn by anybody except
Militant Vegetarians.
Medium
Krail 210 Personal Armor (Scum 49)
Reflex Bonus: +7
Fort Bonus: +1
Max Dex: +3
Extras: ++
Price: 16,300
Very nice mid-grade armor that's good enough to be handy even at level 20. The Krail is a little bit pricey but not bank-breaking, and it has a lot of integrated options like a built in jetpack, cable dispenser, vacuum seal, and 2 upgrade slots. Overall an excellent choice at mid-levels that won't serve you wrong even at high levels, though if you can get a Katarn Commando Armor instead you should absolutely go for it.
GTU AV-1S Scout Armor (Scum 48)
Reflex Bonus: +7
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 15,000
Slightly cheaper than Krail armor, slightly better fort bonus, not as many cool things built in. Has a stealth jetpack like it's big brother that's a bit slower than normal jetpacks. Two upgrade slots. Not bad, not quite as good as Krail due to having fewer goodies.
Imperial Knight Armor (Legacy 83)
Reflex Bonus: +8
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 7,000
Very inexpensive with a better reflex bonus than almost any other medium armor, and an obvious choice if you get a chance to play an Imperial Knight. This armor's extras are pretty good, it lets you apply any personal DR to lightsaber attacks. Since Imperial Knights can get a lot of DR from one of their talents this is helpful against enemy Jedi.
Knighthunter Armor (Legacy 83)
Reflex Bonus: +7
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +++
Price: 6,000
Far superior to Imperial Knight Armor. You lose a little bit of armor bonus but it's special ability is pretty good; a +5 will defense bonus vs. hostile Force Powers. This is almost an Aqua power but, well, with the Grand Army of the Republic Training you're already applying your armor's fort defense to all will saves, not just against the force, and properly chosen armor is giving you +4 to will defense all the time so this benefit becomes tiny and situational for the most effective armor builds.
It's an excellent choice if you can't stretch your feats enough to get Grand Army of the Republic Training or simply can't justify the feat.
Dark Armor, Medium (Jedi 61)
Reflex Bonus: +7
Fort Bonus: +4
Max Dex: +2
Extras: +
Price: 15,000
Far superior to it's lighter incarnation, Dark Armor still gets a weaksauce sith alchemy bonus, (again, turn off lightsabers, far more valuable than +2 to a certain type of UTF check) but now it's base stats are as good, perhaps superior, to other medium armors and it's price isn't outrageous anymore. Solid if you have a good reason why you're wearing Sith Armor.
Jedi Battle Armor, Medium (Jedi 62)
Reflex Bonus: +5
Fort Bonus: +5
Max Dex: +3
Extras:
Price: 6,000
Very inexpensive for it's abilities and the best fort bonus in it's weight class, better than even most heavy armors. Combine it with Grand Army of the Republic training and your will save will be unbeatable. The reflex bonus is still, strictly speaking, not good enough to compare favorably with armors like the Krail and it has no special abilities, but the other save bonuses are very nice.
Battle Armor (Core 132)
Reflex Bonus: +8
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +2
Extras:
Price: 7,000
The Battle Armor is medium armor with no frills, just a straight up excellent bonus to reflex and some good Fort bonus as well, all for less than a suit of Stormtrooper armor. Nice for the medium-armor wearer on a budget if you're primarily interested in save boosts. The Stalker armor beats it for special features due to having more upgrade slots.
Stalker Armor (War 43)
Reflex Bonus: +7
Fort Bonus: -
Max Dex: +3
Extras:
Price: 7,500
Meh, I say. Stalker armor gives you decent bonuses at a low price and it has three upgrade slots, making it highly customizable. But it doesn't give you any other bonuses and comes with no extras to draw the attention. You'll get more mileage out of Battle Armor for strict attribute boosts unless you've got a specialized build in mind to use all the upgrades, and even then there's better options that have that many slots. Still beats a Corellian Powersuit.
Corellian Powersuit (Core 133)
Reflex Bonus: +7
Fort Bonus: -
Max Dex: +3
Extras:
Price: 10,000
It's just not good enough to compete with later armors. The Corellian Powersuit gets two upgrade slots, because even though it was written long before the power armor rules, said rules say any armor with “Power” in the name or text blurb gets two slots. It's only benefit is a +2 bonus to str checks to lift stuff, and you can buy much better stuff for the price that has that.
Heavy Armor
Katarn Class Commando Armor (War 43)
Reflex Bonus: 9
Fort Bonus: +4
Max Dex: +1
Extras: +++
Price: 30,0000
Katarn armor is very nice, possibly only eclipsed by the Venom Assault Armor for defense, but better than the Venom for customization. Very technically it is medium armor, but you only get it's helmet package bonus if you have heavy armor proficiency, and once you've got said proficiency you're going to strip it (making it heavy armor) for an additional mod point anyways, so it's almost invariably found on heavy-armor PCs. Very hard to buy legally (according to the fluff, it's rately at merely “Military” in the stat block like most armor) so you need to have a noble pal with the talent for buying illegal goods to get it properly.
So what's great? Great attributes, great features. It's got a ton of beneficial devices built in that you simply can't get anywhere else because they're unique, like Bacta injectors that will auto-heal you (with a sweet +10 equipment bonus) in a pinch. On top of that, it has three upgrade slots, making it the most customizable armor in the game. The only sour note on the Katarn package is the price tag, it's too expensive to get at low levels, more than some entire starships, so you simply won't be able to get it until your party has quite a bit of petty cash available.
Venom Assault Armor (Legacy 140)
Reflex Bonus: +10
Fort Bonus: +4
Max Dex: +1
Extras: +++
Price: 17,000
Venom Assault Armor rocks for survival in hostile conditions. It has even better armor value than the Katarn armor, an excellent fort bonus, and since it's described as power armor in the text it gets 2 upgrade slots. It's jets let you move in zero G normally and it gives you a str bonus, not a bonus just to lifting and carrying, you get an honest-to-god straight up +2 str for everything, great for melee builds. But the real beauty of Venom Assault armor is it's text blurb, where it states that the armor will keep you alive for 24 hours in vacuum
or other hostile conditions. Stuck in the desert of Tatooine? Venom armor keeps you cool. Bottom of the ocean? Venom Armor has your back. Frozen solid on Hoth? Not for 24 hours you're not. Arguably it's vague enough to apply even in absurdly hostile conditions like being submerged in lava or walking in a radiation bath from a neutron star. All that and it's a fairly inexpensive suit. Shame it's only available in the Legacy Era.
Matrix Armor (KOTOR 71)
Reflex Bonus: +9
Fort Bonus: +3
Max Dex: +1
Extras: ++
Price: 9000
This stuff's awesome. Matrix Armor is the cheapest suit of +9 armor available in the game. And okay, it doesn't have the long list of excellent features found on the Katarn or Venom armors and only one upgrade slot, it's very strictly protective armor that won't serve you as a James Bond style gadget holder. But it has the unique ability to grant you DR30 against any one attack, once per encounter. Now usually I abhor once-per-encounter powers, I like to pull my powers out more often than that. But a well-built armor-beast will only be hit on a natural 20, which means. . . you'll very rarely get hit more than once per encounter, and this armor will negate that one hit. If Venom armor is the King of hostile environment endurance, Matrix Armor is the Queen of battlefield survival.
Heavy Battle Armor (Core 132)
Reflex Bonus: +10
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +2
Extras:
Price: 15,000
It's. . . dull. Like the other core battle armor, this has good stats and no frills. It's the cheapest suit of +10 armor in the game. But why take this when you could buy the Venom armor for only 2,000 credits more, or the Matrix Armor for 6,000 credits
less?
GTU-AV-1C Combat Armor (Scum 48)
Reflex Bonus: +9
Fort Bonus: +4
Max Dex: +1
Extras: +
Price: 25,000
Mechanically this matches Katarn armor in base stats, nice defense bonuses, expensive price. But it's extras are nothing to write home about, a stealth jetpack and two upgrade slots instead of three (and since you can strip it to heavy, the Katarn really has four). The text box suggests it's easier to find than Katarn armor but both are marked “Military” as their restriction level so they are treated the same under the rules. It's not so much that it's lousy armor, it's just deeply inferior to Katarn armor for almost the same price. I suppose the stealth jetpack might be useful for an infiltrator type.
Dark Armor, Heavy (Jedi 61)
Reflex Bonus: +8
Fort Bonus: +5
Max Dex: +1
Extras: +
Price: 25,000
For base stats it's nifty fort bonus beats out even Katarn armor, and +8 is just as good as +9 for armored defense purposes since you round down after dividing the bonus in half. Still gets a weaksauce sith alchemy mod, but otherwise lacks special features so just not as good as the armors above.
Zero-G Stormtrooper Armor (Rebellion 126)
Reflex Bonus: +9
Fort Bonus: +3
Max Dex: +0
Extras: ++
Price: 21,000
It's not too brutally expensive for a +9 suit, but it has no dex bonus allowed at all. It's got a massive amount of weaponry on it and not much else, and you have to make Pilot checks just to move around in it. What's it good for? Presumably it can fly around in space since it's described as “a small starfighter” but there's no stats given for it to do so, talk to your GM and if you can agree, it can be a nice suit with space utility in that case. Otherwise it's pretty blah, go with the Venom armor instead if you can.
Just For Droids
Droids get a few specific armors and are pretty much tops at armor wearing. Here's my top choices for them:
Shields (Core 196)
You want shields if you're trying to tank, the best ones you can afford.
Durasteel Plating, Durasteel Battle Armor, Duranium Battle Armor (Core 196)
Reflex Bonus: +6, +8, or +10
Fort Bonus: -
Max Dex: +3 (+2 on Duranium Battle Armor)
Extras:
Price: 3,600, 9,600, and 10,000 x cost factor
These three basic core armors each have the best balance of protection and price for their weight class in light, medium, and heavy. They don't do anything else but they don't need to do anything else for these prices. If your droid is humanoid I'd still take Matrix armor over Duranium Battle armor but if you're a probe droid or such you can't wear that.
Duravlex Shell (Scavenger 54)
Reflex Bonus: +4
Fort Bonus: +10 (Heat Only)
Max Dex: +3
Extras: +
Price: 1,000 x cost factor
Not good enough armor to be useful, but outstanding heat resistance at an extremely low price. I can really only recommend this if you expect to wind up on Tattoine or similar, but for those locations its really nice for gadgeteer types.
Laminarium (Scavenger 54)
Reflex Bonus: +4 or +12
Fort Bonus: +2
Max Dex: +3 or +2
Extras:
Price: 3,000 or 20,000 x cost factor
Very nice, Laminarium not only carries one of the highest armor bonuses in the game, it's one of the few droid armors that grants a fort save bonus. This is only so-so since droids rarely need a fort save, but since that also boosts your damage threshold it helps protect you from CTKillers and ion cannons and the like. There's two levels of Laminarium, and the lighter one doesn't have enough armor bonus to be worth the time.
Crystadurium (Scavenger 54)
Reflex Bonus: +10
Fort Bonus: +0
Max Dex: +2
Extras: ++
Price: 50,000 x cost factor
Stupid expensive, but it also reduces the effects of incoming blaster fire by 1 point per die. Overall good for protection but not a lot else and too expensive for what it does.