D&D 5E Can your Druids wear metal armor?

[Jefe Bergenstein]

No, I just don't care for gotcha questions.

Druids will not wear metal armor. If I'm a dick DM and put metal armor on a druid while they are incapacitated they will take it off as soon as possible. Next you'll be asking "but what if it's magical armor that they can't take off?" or some other silliness.

You're ignoring the real question. Why can a druid elect to cut down their own sacred grove, but not wear metal armor? Why it just THIS ONE bizarre thing that removes player will, and literally nothing else in the PHB?

 

[see]

The designers didnt want the Druid to have proficiency with metal armor. But a multiclass Druid can wear metal armor because they get the proficiency from elsewhere.

You are, very simply, wrong about the designer intent. As the ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium makes abundantly clear:

Druids have a taboo against wearing metal armor and wielding a metal shield. The taboo has been part of the class’s story since the class first appeared in Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and the original Player’s Handbook (1978). The idea is that druids prefer to be protected by animal skins, wood, and other natural materials that aren’t the worked metal that is associated with civilization. Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it. This choice is part of their identity as a mystical order. Think of it in these terms: a vegetarian can eat meat, but chooses not to.

 

[Oofta]

You're ignoring the real question. Why can a druid elect to cut down their own sacred grove, but not wear metal armor. Why THIS one bizarre thing, that removes player will, and literally nothing else in the PHB?

View attachment 141597

Druids will not wear metal armor. I don't know how much clearer the answer can be.

I'm done answering the same question from you. Have a good one.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

No, they didn't. Applying a penalty but giving the player the choice is the clearest and most efficient way. "Druids wearing metal armor may not cast spells, use wild shape, and suffer disadvantage on X checks" is far better than a modron like lack of will.

Sure, it probably would be better. Though in practice only minimally. I suspect most people simply accept the restriction and move on. This is again a typical ENworld debate about a marginal issue that will not actually come up in 98.5% of games being played.

 

[Yaarel]

But that's the whole point. It doesn't matter if they have proficiency from another source or not. Druids will not wear metal armor. I don't care if they're mountain dwarf fighter/druid, they won't wear metal armor.

It's not a question of proficiency.

Druids wont learn to be proficient, but Fighters will, Clerics will, Mountain Dwarves will, etcetera.

It can only be about proficiency − nothing else − because it is precisely a restriction in the "Proficiencies: Armor" section of the class format.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Also @Undrave

The rule listing the "Armor Proficiencies" for the Druid class, specifies that these proficiencies dont include metal. The Druid "will not" be proficient with an armor of metal.

Is English your first language???

Pulling up the Druid proficiency list:

Proficiencies​

Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)
Weapons: Clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, scimitars, sickles, slings, spears
Tools: Herbalism kit
Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival

I do not see how you are reading "will not" as indicating a lack of ability or skill as opposed to a personal choice. "Will not" implies, to me at least, that somebody is perfectly capable of doing something but chooses not to. The statement "I will not drive a pickup truck" means that I refuse to drive pickup trucks, but it doesn't say anything about my capability to drive them. See what I'm getting at?

Besides, Crawford has come out and said that the metal armour restriction is flavour and doesn't impact the crunch of the Druid's proficiencies in the Sage Advice Compendium, so don't go arguing that "the designers didn't want to give Druids metal armour proficiency", because the lead designer has openly contradicted you.

Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it.

 

[Yaarel]

Sage Advice:
"Druids have a taboo against wearing metal armor and wielding a metal shield. The taboo has been part of the class’s story since the class first appeared in Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and the original Player’s Handbook (1978). The idea is that druids prefer to be protected by animal skins, wood, and other natural materials that aren’t the worked metal that is associated with civilization. Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it. This choice is part of their identity as a mystical order. Think of it in these terms: a vegetarian can eat meat, but chooses not to."

Druids can wear metal armor − but are not proficient in it. The class chooses to not be proficient with it.

But a character can become proficient with it by other means. Including a feat.

Some Hindus eat meat.

 

[Yaarel]

Is English your first language???

Pulling up the Druid proficiency list:

Proficiencies​

Armor: Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)
Weapons: Clubs, daggers, darts, javelins, maces, quarterstaffs, scimitars, sickles, slings, spears
Tools: Herbalism kit
Saving Throws: Intelligence, Wisdom
Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Nature, Perception, Religion, and Survival

I do not see how you are reading "will not" as indicating a lack of ability or skill as opposed to a personal choice. "Will/will not" implies, to me at least, that somebody is perfectly capable of doing something but chooses not to. The statement "I will not drive a pickup truck" means that I refuse to drive pickup trucks, but it doesn't say anything about my capability to drive them. See what I'm getting at?

Besides, Crawford has come out and said that the metal armour restriction is flavour and doesn't impact the crunch of the Druid's proficiencies in the Sage Advice Compendium, so don't go arguing that "the designers didn't want to give Druids metal armour proficiency", because the lead designer has openly contradicted you.

The Druid class is able to learn to become proficient with metal armor, but chose not to.


Someone can learn to drive a car, but chooses not to.

Etcetera.

 

[ad_hoc]

You are, very simply, wrong about the designer intent. As the ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium makes abundantly clear:

Yep. Cannot be any more clear.

All we have to do is ask ourselves what a vegetarian who eats meat is. They're not a vegetarian. It's in the definition.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

If you feel that, then provide other reason.

Though personally I really don't agree, if the belief reason was communicated before the class selection. Many different classes (clerics and paladins in particular) kinda expect the character to buy into certain belief systems. If the player doesn't want that, they simply can choose some other class.

But each of those can choose to break their vows, suffer consequences, atone, etc. The druid armor issue stands alone. Hell, it's apparently the only thing druids DO care about, as it's the only thing called out in such a fashion, and no other tenants of their faith are specified.

I mean, we could listen to the designers who don't seem to think its a big deal, or we could double down on a literal interpretation.