I'm still in the early levels of the game, so maybe the difference just isn't noticeable yet, but it appears that heavy armor doesn't slow you down in any way. However, one of the early NPCs says something to the effect of "leather armor doesn't protect as well as heavy armor, but it lets you get in close quickly to slice a throat".
Is this just a quote to give it some flavor, or does heavier armor actually slow you down relative to lighter armors? From what I've seen so far, the only real difference is that robes tend to have mana bonuses, lighter armor tends to have crit bonuses, and heavy armor tends to have block bonuses, as clearly illustrated in the item's stats.
More generally speaking, are there any "hidden" properties of robes vs light armor vs heavy armor other than the stats you see specifically on the item?
Best Answer
If there is it's barely noticeable.
IGN had a 2 hour live stream and the character they were playing had already beaten the game (I think he said he was 36) and was in full plate, rolling around and sprinting like a madman. The producer they had as a guest mentioned something to the effect that they didn't want to penalize the player on such an important game aspects because of their armor choice.