D&D 5E Question: Beast Companion and Barding Armor

[leonardoraele]

Ok, the Barding description in PHB says that "any type of armor shown on the Armor table in this chapter can be purchased as barding", as long as you can afford it. I assume that the beast can add it's Dexterity modifier as long as the armor allows it. (none for heavy armor, 2 for medium armor, all for light armor) But what about natural armor and the bonus granted by Ranger's Companion feature ? (bonus to AC equals to your proficiency bonus) Also, beasts doesn't have any armor proficiency, so how to handle that?

Question 1. Does the natural armor sums with the armor's base AC?

Consider the Wolf creature. (MM 341) The wolf has AC 13 (natural armor) and Dexterity 15 (+2). What becomes it's AC when it equips a Scale Mail? (AC = 14 + Dex modifier (max 2))a) AC 16 = 14 (Scale Mail) +2 (Dex)b) AC 17 = 14 (Scale Mail) +2 (Dex) +1 (Natural Armor)

Question 2. Now, if the wolf above is a companion of a level 3 ranger/beast master (proficiency bonus = +2), does it receives +2 AC bonus from the Ranger's Companion feature even if it's wearing armor?

Question 3. Does the wolf have armor proficiency? Barding description doesn't says anything about armor proficiency. (neither that the creature needs nor that it doesn't needs proficiency to equip the armor without drawbacks) Can I equip any armor, from Leather to Plate as a player with proficiency would? (I assume it still needs to have the minimum Strength and receives disadvantage to stealth checks, depending on the armor it wears)

Also, consider the Warhorse creature and the box Variant: Warhorse Armor. (MM 340) The box says that the warhorse can wear any armor withtout changing it's CR. I'm confused weather the CR isn't modified because the horse receives disadvantage on attack rolls (for using armor without proficiency) or it's statistics doesn't change. The text box isn't very clear about these details.

What are your thoughts and how would you handle this matter?

 

[Neorealist]

Question 1: No it does not. You'd use the beasts natural armor (if any), 'or' that of the barding, whichever is better. In your example, the wolf would have 16 AC: 14 for scale mail, and +2 for it's Dexterity bonus.

Question 2: Probably yes. The bonus the wolf receives from the ranger is added to 'the beasts' AC', regardless of which source it is coming from. That said, talk it over with your DM; as the wording could be interpreted to read (the beasts' 'natural' AC) rather than (the beasts' 'current' AC).

Question 3: No animals have armor proficiency. Not a single one to date. Ergo (and imho) armor 'designed' for them to wear should factor that in, as part of why it costs four times as much if nothing else. That said; if your DM was feeling saucy they could easily stay it still causes the disadvantage on strength and dexterity checks since nothing in the barding description explicitly states otherwise.

Your example with the warhorse does not indicate that changing the armor of the warhorse would apply any sort of penalty to the animal either, but again, it doesn't explicitly state it 'doesn't' either.

 

[jadrax]

I think [MENTION=43571]Neorealist[/MENTION] is on the ball here.

Personally, as a GM I would probably only rule that Warhorses come with proficiency in worn armour. Although I might allow you to train other animals to gain armour proficiency in downtime.

 

[jodyjohnson]

I'd allow an animal to learn barding proficiency in 250 days. Just making some of the armors will take longer than that.

 

[Pauln6]

I would generally allow any monster to gain a +1 to AC from any kind of armour or the AC or the armour itself if higher as suggested above. I just think there should always be a benefit to wearing armour no matter how tough your flesh is.

 

[Toon]

Add however much Armor Class the armor gives the humanoid with a natural armor of 10. So a PC who wears Leather Armor has its AC improve by 1, to 11. A Donkey with a Natural Armor of 12, would improve its AC by one to 13. A Tarasque has a natural AC of 30. Putting some leather armor on that Tarrasque would not reduce its AC to 11. It would increase its AC by 1, to 31.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

Good thinking to consider armor for the pet (plus what else is the ranger going to spend his/her gp's on?). I would go the full Battlecat route and put spiked fangs on it (dagger or short sword damage depending on the critter), then the wizard can cast magic weapon the "fangs" (unless you have so many magic weapons that you could spare some to be "fangs"), and then the wolf can fight demons like the best of them.

 

[Ben Jobe]

All animals should have proficiency with barding as barding is to not hinder a beasts movement in any way. The armor is created in such a way to ensure that the beast in question has nothing in its way of moving naturally. Warhorses, dogs, and even elephants have worn armor during battles and castle sieges irl. That brings up the second point. I would award a small AC boost for armor even if it would be negated by the "natural armor" the reason being that elephants irl have been equipped with armor to help survivability even though the have very tough hides. Regardless how tough something is it will be harder to damage with a layer of leather or metal on it

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I would give the animal proficiency with the armor after a short training period (1-2 long rests for animals already trained to do other things like warhorses or rangers' animal companions) or a long period for animals with no training (definitely a downtime activity). It isn't a matter of the design of the barding, but wild and semidomesticated animals (not to mention some domesticated animals) don't take well to having to wear stuff and may try to squirm out as soon as you aren't holding them, and even for trained critters, it could affect their balance even it doesn't affect their freedom of movement.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

I would probably allow any animal companion that comes from a class feature to be proficient in the barding automatically. So ranger companions, paladin steeds and druid summons don't have to spend any time training. In my mind these creatures are special and should get some extra perks.

Any animal that is bought and is not previously trained would require some training sessions for the animal to get used to it.