D&D 5E What armor can druids wear? Is there a way to get a decent AC?

[Maestrino]

So... setting aside the barkskin argument, the easiest way for a druid to get decent AC is to get to a big city, find a shop, and say "hey, any chance you have a set of half-plate made out of umber hulk chitin?" To which the shopkeeper either says "Sure, that'll be 1,500 gold" or "Yeah, right! You wanna bring me a dead umber hulk and I'll have it made for you, tough guy."

 

[CleverNickName]

So... setting aside the barkskin argument, the easiest way for a druid to get decent AC is to get to a big city, find a shop, and say "hey, any chance you have a set of half-plate made out of umber hulk chitin?" To which the shopkeeper either says "Sure, that'll be 1,500 gold" or "Yeah, right! You wanna bring me a dead umber hulk and I'll have it made for you, tough guy."

Well, depends on what you are calling "easy," but yeah...that's certainly one way to do it.

The point I was making was less about NPCs and chitin, and more about engaging your DM. You should check with your DM and ask if there's a way for your druid to get some Medium or Heavy armor that isn't made out of metal. Maybe you can have it made for you. Maybe you hear a rumor of a legendary suit of dragon-scale armor. Or maybe the answer is a blunt "no," and that's fair. But you gotta start somewhere.

 

[Weiley31]

From nature, Druids can rely upon Bronzewood, Ironwood, Darkwood/Zalatan, Bluewood (if your on the Eastern part of the world,) and scale/vines/hide/Chitin/Treant.

This also goes off the idea if your making it that Druids, ala older editions, can't use metal weapons either. In which case, I'm doing that and allowing the respective magic woods handle that with the idea that the age and magical properties, of a tree, can have an influence on whether the weapon will have a +1/+2/+3 when crafted from it.


But then your druid can be a follower of Mielikki, who allows her Druids to wear metal. Which would let you handwave the whole issue in 5E.

 

[Weiley31]

But really, one can simply just reflavor a Medium suit of armor into an armor made outta durable magic wood. You would need the downtime to make it, a Druid Grove that has said magic wood available to give out for the request, and the time and money to have it crafted.

 

[tetrasodium]

Hello all,
My reading of the druid is that of the PHB armors, they can wear leather, padded and hide for certain. Studded leather is unclear (is "made of metal" the same as "has some metal"?)

This seems really painful for a druid--it's hard to build a casting (one who is generally not wild shapped), even with armor feats or multi-classing. The AC is just really low and even barkskin doesn't help much (concentration). Is there anything other than wild shapping that helps? Am I understanding the armor rules correctly?

At level 1 with no multiclassing or feats: Padded, Leather, Studded Leather, Hide, Chain Shirt, Sale Mail, Breastplate, Half plate, & Shields. Add the Heavy armor Proficiency feat, a level in the right cleric domains, or start as a fighter/pally who multiclasses out to druid from level 2-20 & you can add Ring mail, Chain Mail, splint & Plate just like any other class.

While phb65 pays lip service to FR's druid of Mielikki with that will not wear metal armor clause, there are far more interesting druidic sects not based on a tree hugging hippy who would care about other things & like paladin oaths there is no mechanical penalty for ignoring it. Here are a few from Rising, Darksun also has some druidic overlap to it with it's druids.

Granted you should talk to your GM because the limitation used to be for balance purposes due to how barkskin & few other things worked but sometimes people will act like you are bringing up the idea of raping another PC or something far beyond the pale.

 

[Weiley31]

At level 1 with no multiclassing or feats: Padded, Leather, Studded Leather, Hide, Chain Shirt, Sale Mail, Breastplate, Half plate, & Shields. Add the Heavy armor Proficiency feat, a level in the right cleric domains, or start as a fighter/pally who multiclasses out to druid from level 2-20 & you can add Ring mail, Chain Mail, splint & Plate just like any other class.

While phb65 pays lip service to FR's druid of Mielikki with that will not wear metal armor clause, there are far more interesting druidic sects not based on a tree hugging hippy who would care about other things & like paladin oaths there is no mechanical penalty for ignoring it. Here are a few from Rising, Darksun also has some druidic overlap to it with it's druids.
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Granted you should talk to your GM because the limitation used to be for balance purposes due to how barkskin & few other things worked but sometimes people will act like you are bringing up the idea of raping another PC or something far beyond the pale.

I use some of the Rising Druid Orders+Humblewood's Tenders Druid Order as the different Orders for Druids in my games.

In the end, reflavoring is key if necessary. So I firmly believe Druids DONT have to rely on Barkskin all the time.

 

[Gradine]

On the note of the weirdness/specificity of the spell's wording; is there an abundance (or even just a presence?) of abilities that would lower someone's AC, if not for barkskin?

 

[DEFCON 1]

On the note of the weirdness/specificity of the spell's wording; is there an abundance (or even just a presence?) of abilities that would lower someone's AC, if not for barkskin?

That was always the most amusing part for me about the whole argument regarding whether cover or shields stack with barkskin (and what the magic of the spell actually does to people when it is cast.) That through the specific order of doing things that adjust your AC... you can make the case that indeed, your AC should go down if cover/shields bonuses are applied the same way.

I talked about it over 5 years ago, but what the hell... I'm just waiting for my kids to go to bed so why not type it all out again cause I find the argument and explanation so amusing! Here we go!

- A naked druid with no DEX bonus has an AC of 10. Cast barkskin on them, their body hardens like bark and they gain essentially 6 points of "armor" making their AC 16. Simple!

- Same naked druid holding a shield has an AC of 12. Cast barkskin on them, they now gain only 4 points of "armor" and their AC is 16. We are now left to wonder why the druid's magic has gotten worse just because the person was holding a shield. LOL!

- Same naked druid behind an arrow slit (3/4ths cover) now has an AC of 15. Cast barkskin on them, the druid's magic only grants them 1 point of "armor" to make their AC 16. Wow... that druid's magic really sucks now! Same exact spell keeps getting worse! For some reason... the primal gods apparently just don't like druids to stand behind large objects when facing their enemies!

- Same naked druid gets barkskin cast on them to start with, granting them 6 points of "armor" and an AC of 16. Great! The magic is working at full power again! Yay! But then... someone hands the druid a shield. And the shield does nothing for the druid whatsoever! Their AC is still stuck at 16. Which begs the question... did the magic of the barkskin get worse at that exact moment automatically by 2 points through no effort or work on anyone's part (because the two points that kept the AC at 16 were now granted by the shield)... or did the shield itself stop working? The barkskin spell stayed exactly the same, but the laws of physics regarding large metal objects held in front of a druid no longer applied? Questions... questions...

- And now the kicker... same naked druid stands behind an arrow slit and gets the +5 bonus for AC for 3/4ths cover. The druid is then handed the shield for +2 more points of AC, giving them a grand total of AC 17. The druid then has barkskin cast upon them. What happens?

Does the magic from the spell just not work at all... and thus the druid's AC remains at 17 due to cover and shield... or do we go along with the second point in the previous example, where the magic stayed the same and it was the shield that stopped working?! If that's the explanation, then does the druid's AC drop from 17 back to 16 under the argument that if the shield stopped working when used with a barkskinned druid, then cover should stop working too! Barkskin gives 6 points of AC all the time... and the other things that adjust a druid's AC just don't work. Neither the +2 nor the +5 apply towards AC calculation, and the only thing that works is the flat AC 16 from the spell.

Druid Magic! Gotta love it! It either powers itself down for absolutely no reason whatsoever in certain situations... or it somehow renders large objects placed in front of druids completely incorporeal! Which one is it? Hmm? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?!?

 

[DEFCON 1]

I do have to say... I absolutely love the visual idea that the barkskin spell on the druid fades on and off as they move out from and back into cover while dropping and picking up the shield.

The naked druid stands out in the open with their skin the color and texture of tree bark and has an AC of 16. Then they walk 20 feet to the left while picking up a shield and going behind a tower wall... and their skin immediately turns less barky as the spell shuts itself off because the AC points are now gained from the shield and cover instead (for now a total of AC 17).

Then the druid decides to walk back out from behind the tower wall and loses the 5 points of cover AC... while the barkskin comes back online immediately to regain 4 points of AC and get back up to AC 16. Then finally the druid drops the shield and loses 2 points while the barkskin repowers itself to full to give the druid the two points of AC back. So the entire time the druid's skin goes barky then soft then barky then soft, back and forth back and forth as they jump to and fro behind a wall while picking up and dropping the shield. D&D everybody! Heh heh!

 

[Weiley31]

You know, if you guys WANT Half-Plate for your Druid that badly, there IS an adventure league module, supposedly, that allows you to get Half-Plate armor made of Petrified Mushrooms.

So a Druid wearing Shrooms is one way to go.