I'm vaguely thinking about another W3 playthrough. This time with heavy armor. However, it appears it's very difficult to actually find heavy armor before crafting the Ursine set at level 20? So I'd need to make do until then. I'd be tempted to install a mod to make the starting armor scale with level and wear it, so I don't have to bother with replacing my armor all the time. Or use Griffin armor and mod it to look like Ursine, so at least I have the look early, if not the stats of heavy armor. Or is it actually possible to score some heavy armor before level 20?

I think I found an excellent mod for you in another forum. Alyxlynn_Freeman wrote:

"A common problem: Players unable to play the game as it was meant to be are unable to cheat too. But there's a solution: Don't use many mods, cheats, the savegame editor ... but a single one!
For timid and/or talentless players gripped with fear of failure asking for cheats before the first start of the game I recommend the mod "Glorious Victorious +". After installation start the game and wait a few seconds, then press „1“ „2“ „+“ (without quotation marks!!!). No fear: You have 38 seconds to do so.***
This will lead you to the end of the game. You get any achievement available, any gear etc. In a cutscene Geralt meets all friends and foes, and even some devs will appear – in disguise. They all praise Geralt and the artful playing of his master at the keyboard/controller. Then a bell rings.
Now you should shut down the computer (!!!) because in the next moment the cast – without exception and as if by command – begins to chuckle.
*** As far as I know there's a cheat which extends this period - 5 minutes, as far as I heard.
This should help. Now restart the game and you can begin a New Game +. Any stats of your equipment are set to "infinite". Somewhat disturbing: There's a permanent background chuckle swelling after each kill. But there should be a mod at nexus ...
Good luck! Hope I could help."

What on earth does this have to do with anything? I'm not asking about cheats, I'm asking about heavy armor before level 20 and crafting the Bear School set.

Muhahahahaha! OMG. Fufufufufu.

Yes, yes, yes: Cheaters are always embarrassed if you call a spade a spade.

Looking through some of the amour pieces here after sorting by level, there are some options before level 20. But I don't recall how accessible they are.
https://witcher.gamepedia.com/The_Witcher_3_chest_armor

If it's mainly the look you are after, perhaps there are mods that give for instance the Griffin set a heavy look. You need to look at nexusmods in that case. Perhaps there is something?

No, I really do want to use heavy armor with a build that suits it. If it was just looks, it would indeed not be a problem. Seems that the first heavy pieces are available around level 16. So that'd take 4 levels off wearing something else, at least. No idea how accessible they are either; I think the generic crap is at least somewhat random.

It honestly feels like the game just doesn't want you to wear heavy or medium armor before a certain level. Both types start dropping around the same time their respective witcher school sets become available, or a couple levels earlier.

As far as i remember right, the first heavy armor you can pick up is north east of the settlement with the dlc quest, i think it's called, piggy magic. There is a point of interest where you can find a burned down settlement, where clues from the underground hideout lead you to a hidden stash. There you can pick up your first heavy armor for the chest. Depending on how fast you get to that point you should be about lvl 7 to 11 at that point.

That would actually be quite helpful. I don't think I've ever done that quest for some reason.

I found this armor, sadly it's worse than the light armor I had crafted myself in the meantime... and it's not worth it to put it on just to get the heavy armor skill bonus. I guess I'll stick to the original plan and use the Griffin set for now.