NOTE: ALL INFORMATION IS RELATED TO THE NES CONSOLE
The most basic form of armor is cloth. This can be used by all characters; while it has only an evade of 2% and an absorb of 1, it is cheaply available in Corneria for 10 G. Wooden armor is a step up, for all your characters except your wizards and blackbelts, with an evade of 8% and absorb of 4; this is also available in Corneria or Pravoka for 50 G.
For your fighters, ninjas, knights, red mages and red wizards the Silver Armor can be found in the Dwarf Cave, Melmond, or Crescent Lake. This armor offers an absorb of 18 and 8% evade. For your fighters, knights, and ninjas only you can use chain, iron, flame or ice armor. The chain armor can be obtained in Corneria or Pravoka for 80 G and offers an evade and absorb of 15. Iron armor can be found in Pravoka, Elfland, the Marsh Cave, and Corneria Castle for 800G, conferring to your characters an absorb of 24 and an evade of 23. The flame armor is found in the Gurgu Volcano and in addition to giving you an absord of 34 and evade of 10, this armor is effective against Ice attacks. Ice Armor is found in the Ice Cave and has the same stats as the Fire armor, except protects you against Fire attacks. The armor with the highest evade is Steel armor, which can only be used by fighters and knights and is found in Melmond. It's also the most expensive armor at 45,000G, but the 34 absorb and 33% evade are worth the cost. Dragon armor is available for knights only, and offers an absorb of 42, an evade of 10% and is effective against Dragon attacks. You can find this in the Mirage Tower. There are also shirts. Ninjas and black wizards can use the black shirt, which gives a 24 absorb and 2% evade, and casts Ice in battle. White wizards can use the white shirt, which has the same shirt stats, but casts invisible2 in battle. Both of these are found in the Sky Castle. The Opal armor can be used only by knights and offers an absorb of 42 and evade of 10%. This is found in the Sea Shrine only. While wizards can use the cloth and shirts, all the armor you really need for your wizards are the bracelets. All bracelets offer an evade value of 1% and can be used by all characters. The copper bracelet can be found in Elfland and the Marsh Cave, and offers an absorb of 4. The silver bracelet is also found in the Marsh Cave or in Crescent Lake and has an absorb of 15. The opal bracelet is found only at the Sea Shrine, with an absorb of 24. The opal bracelet cannot be bought, only found, so look carefully for it. Lastly, the gold bracelet is available in Gaia or at the Castle of Ordeal for the high price of 50,000 G: it will offer an absorb of 34, the highest available for this type of armor