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

[Charlaquin]

Don't be over dramatic! You don't sign away your player agency. You agree to accept a trope of the class when playing said class.

You agree to let the book tell you what your character will and won’t do. That’s signing over agency.

Well, no. Clerics actually do receive their powers from gods and wizards actually receive their powers from magic books. These things are not optional either and they do have implications.

Clerics don’t necessarily receive their powers from gods; at least in 5e they receive them from faith, which might be in a god or gods, or might be in some other cosmic force. Wizards learn magic from study, but not necessarily from studying books. Could be scrolls, or oral instructions, or even Jedi Holocrons if the DM agrees. Moreover, these things describe what these characters do, not what they won’t do.

And serious question to you and everyone: has this actually ever come up in game? Has there ever been a situation where this actually mattered? Or is it perhaps that people just play druids, do not try to equip metal armour and the whole thing never comes up?

It doesn’t come up often, but it has. Typically before play, when a player who’s interested in playing a druid asks about how I handle the metal armor restriction.

 

[Charlaquin]

Only for those who insist.

What does that mean?

 

[Charlaquin]

It’s a small and specific part of your player agency but I agree with you that the lack of stated conséquences takes away your ability to make a choice as a character.

im fine with it because I’m the kind of DM that likes the latitude of this imprecise rule, but the PHB is of no help here. For all we know, you’re simply kicked out of your circle and may longer benefit from the organisation you never cared about anyway…

My interprétation, which has no foundation in RAW in any ways, is that wild shape is an ability that allows druids to « wear » the skin of animals (or other form) as long as they don’t wear the skin of a metal-clad warrior. To take the form of animals, animals must be their armor. It’s a Celtic-like geis, if you violate it, you lose your wild shape. For how long? I don’t know. From a moon (for a minor offence) to permanently ( for a careless and regular use)

Both great interpretations that I would have no issue with if the book actually said them.

 

[Charlaquin]

In Dungeons & Dragons druids behave like X,

Correction: druids won’t behave like X. If the rule said what druids do instead of what they won’t do, that would be a different story.

 

[mrpopstar]

What does that mean?

It means those rules elements are only famously controversial because people insist.

 

[mrpopstar]

Correction: druids won’t behave like X. If the rule said what druids do instead of what they won’t do, that would be a different story.

Again, semantics.

 

[Charlaquin]

It means those rules elements are only famously controversial because people insist.

You know, I’d worked that much out for myself, funny enough.

Insist what?

 

[Charlaquin]

Again, semantics.

It’s not semantics if the two statements actually mean significantly different things.

 

[mrpopstar]

You know, I’d worked that much out for myself, funny enough.

Insist what?

Insist on stirring up controversy over something so ridiculous.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

You agree to let the book tell you what your character will and won’t do. That’s signing over agency.

It is called creating a character. Every choice you make in character selection closes some doors. When you choose one thing it means you're not an another. If I am an elf, it means I'm not a dwarf. You choose to play a character that will not wear metal armour, it is your choice; no one is (hopefully) forcing you to play a druid.

Clerics don’t necessarily receive their powers from gods; at least in 5e they receive them from faith, which might be in a god or gods, or might be in some other cosmic force. Wizards learn magic from study, but not necessarily from studying books. Could be scrolls, or oral instructions, or even Jedi Holocrons if the DM agrees. Moreover, these things describe what these characters do, not what they won’t do.

Same thing. It still limits how you play your character.

It doesn’t come up often, but it has. Typically before play, when a player who’s interested in playing a druid asks about how I handle the metal armor restriction.

So how do you handle it?