D&D 5E Heavy Armour Master, how does a front liner survive without it?

[Syntallah]

Yes if they do bludgeoning piercing or slashing. Not if they do fire, cold, poison, acid, psychic, necromantic, spell, magic, etc...

There are just a lot of creatures that simply don't do non-magic bludgeoning piercing or slashing damage. I am not saying there are not also plenty that do, it's just that as your levels increase, it seems the utility of the feat decreases a lot. You face more challenges that the feat doesn't apply to, and those challenges it does apply to make the -3 damage so minuscule as to not be really all that helpful. The feat is most useful at lower levels, or versus large quantities of lower level (often humanoid weapon-wielding) creatures at higher levels.

If you are facing a horde of kobolds or goblins, it will help a LOT. If you are facing a dragon...it's nearly meaningless. So it's situational. Which is not a bad thing, it's just a thing.

Ahh, my bad. I thought maybe you were saying that the feat only appiled to manufactured weapons, and thus creature attacks were not affected. Which is an argument I have heard brought up...

 

[KarinsDad]

Speaking of which, are any DMs house-ruling this so HAM works against magical slashing/bludgeoning/piercing attacks when you have magic armor? I probably would.

I wouldn't.

Our fighter is gaining so much out of this feat that I would not make it even stronger.

 

[Wrathamon]

At 1st level it is a bit OP, but I dont see this being great at the lvl 8+ but decent, I think at 4th it might be pretty good.

 

[Mr Fixit]

At 1st level it is a bit OP, but I dont see this being great at the lvl 8+ but decent, I think at 4th it might be pretty good.

This feat almost feels like it was designed with basic human in mind (earliest acquisition at 4th).

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I wouldn't.

Our fighter is gaining so much out of this feat that I would not make it even stronger.

What level is the party, though? I could see this feeling a bit anemic at level 15+ if the only major melee threats the party faces all have magic claws.

 

[Elric]

What level is the party, though? I could see this feeling a bit anemic at level 15+ if the only major melee threats the party faces all have magic claws.

From his other posts, the party is quite low level, and the Fighter is a variant Human so he started with it (presumably somewhere before level 4).

Potential small fix to the feat: Instead of gaining DR 3, gain DR equal to your proficiency bonus, to a maximum of 5. That way it scales a bit better and is no longer so strong to take at first level.

 

[Wrathamon]

I have it on my variant human and at first level (now 2nd) the DM is no longer taking average damage against me but always rolls. He doesnt do this for other people so its sorta crappy imo. So far, he has gotten lucky with the rolling and now hurts me pretty bad. I've only once not taken damage.

 

[Theovis]

Potential small fix to the feat: Instead of gaining DR 3, gain DR equal to your proficiency bonus, to a maximum of 5. That way it scales a bit better and is no longer so strong to take at first level.

Really nice fix.

 

[transtemporal]

My fighter is only 4th level but his 20 AC and 44 hp is serviceable enough. I haven't found I needed it yet.

 

[Wrathamon]

From his other posts, the party is quite low level, and the Fighter is a variant Human so he started with it (presumably somewhere before level 4).

Potential small fix to the feat: Instead of gaining DR 3, gain DR equal to your proficiency bonus, to a maximum of 5. That way it scales a bit better and is no longer so strong to take at first level.

Agree. This is an elegant solution that scales with the game. DR 2 at first level is still really good. Avg damage seems to be between 4-6. That is decent damage reduction.