D&D 5E Draconic Resilience & Mage Armor

[Plaguescarred]

IMO a shield would not stack as its an armor. If it was not an armor, then there would be no penalty for wearring one while not proficient;


BR44 Armor Proficiency: If you wear armor that you lack proficiency with, you have disadvantage on any ability check, saving throw, or attack roll that involves Strength or Dexterity, and you can’t cast spells.

 

[tragicjones]

IMO a shield would not stack as its an armor. If it was not an armor, then there would be no penalty for wearring one while not proficient;


BR44 Armor Proficiency: If you wear armor that you lack proficiency with, you have disadvantage on any ability check, saving throw, or attack roll that involves Strength or Dexterity, and you can’t cast spells.

I think the RAW are ambiguous enough to make this a reasonable interpretation.

In my view, armor, Mage Armor, and Draconic Resilience are each intended to set a base AC, whereas a shield (and spells like Shield) are intended to add to that base AC. I’m inclined to think that if Mage Armor or Draconic Resilience were intended to preclude combining them with shields, the language would reflect that – ie., "if you are not wearing armor or a shield."

Edit: I just noticed that the Monk's Unarmored Defense feature does use this language: "while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield"

 

[Lycan]

No.

Both set the base AC of the character; neither provide a modifier to the AC, so they don't stack.

I wrote a little bit about AC in 5e on my blog, which might help clarify things.

Cheers!

but if you look on dnd beyond it puts draconic resilience as its own ac modifier not replacing base ac like mage armor says..? (ex: it says,
10 Armor(None)
+3 Dexterity Bonus
+3 Unarmored Bonus(Draconic Resilience) and mage armor says, The target's base AC becomes 13 Armor + its Dexterity, does that not mean the +3 unarmored bonus would take affect making it 13 +dex +3?????)

 

[Lycan]

Draconic Resilience & Mage Armor... Would a sorcerer with the draconic bloodline gain anything from the mage armor spell?

 

[Charlaquin]

but if you look on dnd beyond

D&D Beyond didn’t exist yet when @MerricB wrote that post.

 

[MerricB]

but if you look on dnd beyond it puts draconic resilience as its own ac modifier not replacing base ac like mage armor says..? (ex: it says,
10 Armor(None)
+3 Dexterity Bonus
+3 Unarmored Bonus(Draconic Resilience) and mage armor says, The target's base AC becomes 13 Armor + its Dexterity, does that not mean the +3 unarmored bonus would take affect making it 13 +dex +3?????)

D&D Beyond is a bunch of hacks to get things to work. It puts things as bonuses which aren't really that in the rules.

 

[Lycan]

Draconic Resilience & Mage Armor... Would a sorcerer with the draconic bloodline gain anything from the mage armor spell?

technically if you look on dnd beyond it puts draconic resilience as its own ac modifier not replacing base ac like mage armor says..? (ex: it says,
10 Armor(None)
+3 Dexterity Bonus
+3 Unarmored Bonus(Draconic Resilience) and mage armor says, The target's base AC becomes 13 Armor(Mage) + Dexterity, does that not mean the +3 unarmored bonus would take affect making it 13 +dex +3?????) but ig all these commenters know more than the official dnd website. rolls eye's in High-Elf

 

[Lycan]

D&D Beyond didn’t exist yet when @MerricB wrote that post.

which means its more relevant to the current rules, no?

 

[Charlaquin]

but ig all these commenters know more than the official dnd website. rolls eye's in High-Elf

D&D Beyond isn’t the official D&D website. It’s owned by Curse, who license the rights to publish digital content for D&D from Wizards of the Coast.

 

[Lycan]

D&D Beyond is a bunch of hacks to get things to work. It puts things as bonuses which aren't really that in the rules.

dnd beyond is fully capable of making that 10 armor(none) say 13 armor(draconic resilience)