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

[Yaarel]

I have asked you in the past what happens if you start out with proficiency in metal armors and then become a druid. You didn't answer before.

For example, if a mountain dwarf with metal armor proficiencies becomes a Druid, this dwarven Druid can cast Druid spells while wearing a metal breastplate. No problem. This Dwarf didnt learn the use of metal armor from the Druid training, but did learn it from the dwarven upbringing.

 

[J.Quondam]

So... how many of you think this "It is a rule - it is not a rule" argument will ever resolve?

Or now is it simply an endurance contest? The last one to say "It IS!" or "It IS NOT!" wins?

Well, if it's any indicator, the great "Tastes great! Less filling!" debate started in the early 1970s, and still flares up occasionally.

 

[Yaarel]

So back when this actually mattered (cause we were trying to play) one of the arguments was weather studied leather had to have metal in it…

Heh, studded leather armor is impossible nonsense. You might as well explain that "studded leather" actually means "fur bikini".

Presumably, the "studs" are metal rivets, and therefore the Druid cant wear it. Not that decorative rivets would offer any real protection.

On the other hand, if the DM defines "leather armor" to mean a hard leather cuirass (whether solid leather breastplate or leather scale shirt) then the DM can replace the nonsense studded armor with "full leather armor" that also limb protection. The Druid is proficient with this light armor.

 

[Umbran]

Please show me where that's actually written.

"The rules don’t account for every possible situation that might arise during a typical D&D session."

When the game admits, in its introduction to the GM, that there's not a rule for everything, saying, "That's a house rule," does not give your argument much weight.

So, while across 70+ pages of argument this has been mentioned before, let us return again to Sage Advice:

What happens if a druid wears metal armor?
The druid explodes.

Well, not actually. 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.

A druid typically wears leather, studded leather, or hide armor, and if a druid comes across scale mail made of a material other than metal, the druid might wear it. If you feel strongly about your druid breaking the taboo and donning metal, talk to your DM. Each class has story elements mixed with its game features; the two types of design go hand in hand in D&D, and the story parts are stronger in some classes than in others. Druids and paladins have an especially strong dose of story in their design. If you want to depart from your class’s story, your DM has the final say on how far you can go and still be considered a member of the class. As long as you abide by your character’s proficiencies, you’re not going to break anything in the game system, but you might undermine the story and the world being created in your campaign.

That last bit holds the key there for your interchange with Oofta.

If you really wanna keep beating your heads against each other in the face of what is, for once, some pretty solid advice about running and playing the game... well, there's 70 pages here of that already, isn't there? You think more will be better?

There's lots of great space to talk about cool reasons for why Druids might stick to this. And things they can do instead of metal armor. Maybe that's better then this IS RULE/IS NOT RULE thing.

 

[Yaarel]

Sage Advice: "Druids dont lack the ability to wear metal armor."

But, Druids do lack proficiency with metal armor.

Every character can wear full plate armor. But non-proficient spellcasters cannot cast spells while wearing it.

 

[Umbran]

Heh, studded leather armor is impossible nonsense

In a game with fire breathing flying dragons, referring to anything as "impossible nonsense" is... a questionable approach.

If it really matters, leather armor with various stuff stuck on or into it to add protection is historical. While the game's classic tiny and widely spaced studs don't make sense in the real world with real weapons, for our games there's plenty of space between "leather" and "scale mail" to have "leather with some stuff stuck on it, but not as much as scale mail".

At which point, we can enhance leather with lots of different hard stuff. Turtle shell plates. Bars of antler segments. Studs of ironwood, or whatever.

 

[Iry]

Fun twist: Talk to your DM about wearing metal armor while you are wildshaped, and having it merge into your body when you return to normal.

 

[Yaarel]

The Sage Advice mentions that Druids can wear "studded leather". I suspect that permission is an error. Probably the response only had the medium armors in mind that are normally metal - chain, scale, and breast - and was less careful about what the "studs" of light armor "studded leather" are made of.

If the permission was intentional (which I doubt) it can only mean the "studs" are non-metal. If so, then the studded armor is even worse nonsense, and what it might be is even more inexplicable.

On the other hand, if the Druid is proficient with metal studded armor, then the explanation about some kind of "taboo" becomes even more problematic than it already is.

 

[Undrave]

A taboo that cannot be (hypothetically) broken is not a taboo at all. It's some sort of compulsion or law of nature... You can't have it both ways.

 

[Yaarel]

In a game with fire breathing flying dragons, referring to anything as "impossible nonsense" is... a questionable approach.

If it really matters, leather armor with various stuff stuck on or into it to add protection is historical. While the game's classic tiny and widely spaced studs don't make sense in the real world with real weapons, for our games there's plenty of space between "leather" and "scale mail" to have "leather with some stuff stuck on it, but not as much as scale mail".

At which point, we can enhance leather with lots of different hard stuff. Turtle shell plates. Bars of antler segments. Studs of ironwood, or whatever.

With regard to Druid proficiencies, exactly what "studded leather" is or isnt matters. It has ingame mechanical consequences. The fact that it is unimaginable nonsense becomes problematic here.