Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Amulet of Natural Armor
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 6829944" data-attributes="member: 12731"><p>I didn't find a better thread on how to implement natural armor in 5E than this, so I'm resuming the discussion.</p><p></p><p><em>Please do not bring up Barkskin in this thread. Some of you like it - fine. Some of us hates it - okay. Either way, it's off topic. Besides, most if not all arguments have already been made since september 2014.</em></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Conceptually, natural armor is simple. It is a type of armor: much like leather or chain, you've got "natural". </p><p></p><p>So, having natural armor would give you a new way to calculate your AC. It stands to reason it would work simply as a kind of light armor (that doesn't limit Dex), and this is exactly how the DMG treats it for monsters.</p><p></p><p><em>Your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your natural armor bonus </em></p><p></p><p>Let's take a few examples:</p><p></p><p><strong>Humanoid (default):</strong> your natural armor bonus is zero (0)</p><p><strong>Lizardfolk:</strong> +3 natural armor bonus to AC</p><p><strong>Animated Armor:</strong> per the Monster Manual, an Animated Armor uses the natural armor AC calculation. Its AC is 18 and its Dexterity modifier is 0. So its natural armor bonus must be +8, which makes sense, because it's a walking and not talking full Plate mail, which has an AC of 18!</p><p></p><p>This can be done for any monster, say an... </p><p><strong>Aboleth:</strong> it too uses the natural armor AC calculation. It's AC is 18 and its Dexterity modifier is -1. So its natural armor bonus must be +9. But 5th edition isn't exact in the way 3rd edition was, so if you don't like a natural armor bonus that high (considering Aboleths aren't described as wearing heavy plate armor) you would be free to assuming it's got protective magicks going on to account for some of that high AC.</p><p></p><p>What 5th Edition doesn't do, however, is allow natural armor to stack with regular armor. (See DMG page 276: a creature can wear armor, but would then lose the "add your natural armor bonus" part of the equation).</p><p></p><p>So, the first attempt at implementing an +1 Amulet of Natural Armor would be:</p><p></p><p><em>You can calculate your base AC as 11 + your Dexterity modifier when wearing no armor.</em></p><p></p><p>Now, how useful is that for an adventurer? Pretty useless, that's what. Why would anyone bother creating something that's functionally identical to wearing simple leather armor (you do get rid of 10 lbs of gear, but that's hardly worth the effort).</p><p></p><p>A more useful implementation that tries to replicate the intention behind the d20 amulet would be:</p><p></p><p><em>Your Dexterity modifier counts as one higher for the purposes of calculating AC.</em></p><p></p><p>Now, you benefit equally if you wear no armor or leather armor. You benefit if you're a monk using Unarmored Defense or a Wizard using Mage Armor.</p><p></p><p>However, to benefit if you're using medium armor (such as a Breastplate) you need to have a middling Dexterity score. And you wouldn't benefit at all if you wear heavy armor. </p><p></p><p>This makes the item consistent with how 5E treats natural armor.</p><p></p><p>(Of course, you could say it favors lightly armored characters compared to 3E. But this is solved best by also adding magical armors (and shields) to favor the tin cans in your campaign.)</p><p></p><p>Of course, the basic solve is to skip on natural armor altogether and simply hand out rings of protection that give +1 AC no questions asked. But that wasn't what the OP wanted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 6829944, member: 12731"] I didn't find a better thread on how to implement natural armor in 5E than this, so I'm resuming the discussion. [I]Please do not bring up Barkskin in this thread. Some of you like it - fine. Some of us hates it - okay. Either way, it's off topic. Besides, most if not all arguments have already been made since september 2014.[/I] Conceptually, natural armor is simple. It is a type of armor: much like leather or chain, you've got "natural". So, having natural armor would give you a new way to calculate your AC. It stands to reason it would work simply as a kind of light armor (that doesn't limit Dex), and this is exactly how the DMG treats it for monsters. [I]Your AC equals 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your natural armor bonus [/I] Let's take a few examples: [B]Humanoid (default):[/B] your natural armor bonus is zero (0) [B]Lizardfolk:[/B] +3 natural armor bonus to AC [B]Animated Armor:[/B] per the Monster Manual, an Animated Armor uses the natural armor AC calculation. Its AC is 18 and its Dexterity modifier is 0. So its natural armor bonus must be +8, which makes sense, because it's a walking and not talking full Plate mail, which has an AC of 18! This can be done for any monster, say an... [B]Aboleth:[/B] it too uses the natural armor AC calculation. It's AC is 18 and its Dexterity modifier is -1. So its natural armor bonus must be +9. But 5th edition isn't exact in the way 3rd edition was, so if you don't like a natural armor bonus that high (considering Aboleths aren't described as wearing heavy plate armor) you would be free to assuming it's got protective magicks going on to account for some of that high AC. What 5th Edition doesn't do, however, is allow natural armor to stack with regular armor. (See DMG page 276: a creature can wear armor, but would then lose the "add your natural armor bonus" part of the equation). So, the first attempt at implementing an +1 Amulet of Natural Armor would be: [I]You can calculate your base AC as 11 + your Dexterity modifier when wearing no armor.[/I] Now, how useful is that for an adventurer? Pretty useless, that's what. Why would anyone bother creating something that's functionally identical to wearing simple leather armor (you do get rid of 10 lbs of gear, but that's hardly worth the effort). A more useful implementation that tries to replicate the intention behind the d20 amulet would be: [i]Your Dexterity modifier counts as one higher for the purposes of calculating AC.[/i] Now, you benefit equally if you wear no armor or leather armor. You benefit if you're a monk using Unarmored Defense or a Wizard using Mage Armor. However, to benefit if you're using medium armor (such as a Breastplate) you need to have a middling Dexterity score. And you wouldn't benefit at all if you wear heavy armor. This makes the item consistent with how 5E treats natural armor. (Of course, you could say it favors lightly armored characters compared to 3E. But this is solved best by also adding magical armors (and shields) to favor the tin cans in your campaign.) Of course, the basic solve is to skip on natural armor altogether and simply hand out rings of protection that give +1 AC no questions asked. But that wasn't what the OP wanted. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Amulet of Natural Armor
Top