D&D 5E Druid Armor Restrictions

That makes sense.

I've found that with 2 short rests, dropping a big summon or crowd control spell just impacts a combat a lot more than being a meatshield.

So before I shift or, when I get knocked out of animal shape, "what spell would be best to cast right now?" is usually on my mind.

After all I have both slots and wildshapes to spend.

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Yeah, I've just been using conjure woodland beings outside of combat, like sending a pack of monkeys into a lair to harass what I think is a basilisk. Then will kill the basilisk and sell some monkey statues.

lowkey13 said:

My expression as DM when someone does this.

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I know!

First you have to decide whether you or the druid are picking the creatures. Then there is book flipping and table side chats.

ugh.

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Padded, Leather, Studded Leather*, Hide, Leather Cuirass,** and wooden shields are all available for the druid for purchase in most civilizations. Exotic non-metal armor, such as Dragonscale Mail, may be found as treasure or crafted, or possibly found in exotic locations by natives that would use them (such as shell armor used by tritons).

*There is nothing in the rules that says the studs must be metal, and since this isn't a real armor anyway, wood and other non-metal material could be utilized.

**This is from Thule, but I moved it to Medium Armor since it follows the same rules. It's the mechanical equivalent to a Chain Shirt.

Who cares, what with the steady diet of acai-kale smoothies giving that sweet +4 to Con, Str and Dex?

cbwjm said:

If I was going to restrict the type of armour then to non-metallic then I might say that they can't wildshape in metal armour. That gives an actual reason for the restriction and would be why druids in general don't wear armour.

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That's the best actual way to represent a reasonable restriction that I've ever heard. It makes sense that wildshifting might not be able to deal with too much non-organic material, and "doesn't work with metal armor" would be a short-hand of way of dealing with that.

That said, like you, I still just go with there being no mechanical restriction (or consequences), just a common observance in many druidic traditions.

snickersnax said:

In my world druids don't wear metal because smelting iron requires charcoal and charcoal requires trees. Most of the original deforestation of England and the eastern US happened because of iron manufacturing.

Because of this, if a druid saw another druid wearing metal armor it would be considered his duty to immediately cast heat metal on the other druid and to make a case for the metal wearing druid's expulsion from the circle of druids if he survived. IMO A druid who wears metal armor has no right to call themselves a protector of nature. For these reasons I expanded the ban on iron to weapons as well.

Story >>> game balance

http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/103012/3/ILES JAMT Reviewed Sept 2015.pdf

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Story is very important for me too, but it has to make full sense:

- no metal armor, but metal weapons are ok
- metal armor manufacturing requires trees, anything made of wood doesn't?
- "metal armor is too high technology", how about crossbows or an apparatus of Kwalish?
- "metal armor is not natural", how about necromancy spells? (multiclassed druids have no spell restrictions, but still aren't supposed to wear metal armor)
- "metal armor hurts nature", killing beats to harvest their hides and carapaces is lovely?

Sorry, none of these make enough sense to me.

The specific issue with metal armor is that it makes Druids sound like Vegans who "we shall never eat chicken", but then guzzle down pork sausages and lamb chops just because they're not in the manual :/ The overall resulting feel is that it's just incomplete, dorky ethics.

I let them buy any armour they want. I don't really limit it because it's just silly fluff and isn't really a factor for game mechanics.

If the player wants to maintain the 'No metal armour' illusion, I make it fairly easy to come by. A hunter/fur trader can fashion it easily. I might throw an ankheg into a random encounter and let them use it to fashion armour or I might have some available. As a dm, it's easy to throw something like that into the campaign world. At low levels, they find a guy who made some cool armour. At high levels they can go back to him which makes for a cool story in-game.

In short: I don't punish the player for legacy fluff. I make it easy to acquire or waive the restriction completely.