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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7510072" data-attributes="member: 7006">Ah yes!  The one Sage Advice Jeremy has given that I actually can't stand with a passion, and the ruling I always bring up when people claim I'm nothing but a WotC apologist!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Yep.. the game mechanic itself is fine.  Easy to understand, easy to adjudicate.The story of the spell called 'Barkskin' is fine.  Your skin hardens like tree bark, making your skin like armor and more difficult to get hurt.The two combined together are a mess because one does not make sense with the other... especially when you add in the shield and cover into the equation.When you can stand naked out in the open with a spell cast on you that makes your naked skin tougher and more impervious to wounds like tree bark... and then pick up a shield in front of you *and* walk behind half a wall... and have those maneuvers accomplish absolutely nothing... the fiction of the spell is incorrect.Every other character out there in every single other type of armor or armor calculation picks up a shield and/or walks behind a wall, they become more difficult to hit.  Why?  Because the fiction tells us that the shield and the wall block some of the attacks from hitting.But for some odd reason... the 'Barkskin' character is the only one for whom that doesn't happen.  Not a single attack in the fiction ever seems to hit the wall or the shield... they all by complete coincidence manage to get past the wall and the shield, and then get blocked ONLY by the "barkskin armor" on the person.  How is it that any other person who gets bombarded by arrows will have the shield and the wall block any number of them... but the naked Barkskinned person doesn't?  Their AC was 16 before picking up the shield and hiding behind cover, and their AC was STILL 16 after picking up the shield and hiding behind cover.  Thus, according to the fiction... the shield and wall accomplish nothing.  They serve no use.Why?It's entirely because of how they wrote the game mechanic.  That's it.  Nothing in the reality of the world nor in the story and fluff of the spell's description explains it.  Nothing in the spell's description or fluff should preclude a shield or cover from having an affect this character standing naked out in the world... it's ONLY how they wrote the game mechanic and then Sage Adviced it that it doesn't.And it's a dumb decision.  I don't care what some of you think.To me, there's only one legitimate way to play this spell... one that makes complete sense in the totality of what the druid has/needs and how the spell is described.- The druid as a class is given proficiency in Medium Armor.  Which means at 1st level, the best armor a druid can afford to buy based on 100 starting gold pieces is Chain Mail.  An armor which would give them an AC of 16 and Disadvantage on Stealth checks.- However, the druid is not allowed to use Chain Mail, because of the whole "no metal armor" fluff rule for the class.  Which means even though then can afford it, they aren't allowed to have the same AC as another class who starts with proficiency in Medium Armor (like the Cleric) for no other reason than story reasons.- In return for this... the druid is instead given a spell that hardens their skin as though they were wearing armor.  And this "bark-like" skin just coincidentally happens to grant them the same AC they otherwise could have had due to their Medium Armor proficiency (if their class allowed them to wear it.)To me... this makes perfect sense.  Both the cleric and the druid can now "wear chain mail" as their Medium Armor proficiency allows and get an AC of 16.  And thus by rights... anything that can raise the cleric's AC in the fiction should have no problem affecting the druid in the same way.  Pick up a shield?  They get 2 more points of AC.  Hide behind a partial cover or 3/4 cover?  They get a +2 or +5 to their AC.  They are now equal!... if of course we ignore the fact that the cleric can wear their chain mail at 1st level, and the druid has to wait until 3rd level.  And that the druid's "chain mail" only lasts for an hour.  And that the druid has to use its concentration slot to have it.  And that the "chain mail" will probably disappear much sooner than an hour due to all the CON checks it'll have to make.But I guess you can't have everything.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />>>>MY version of the spell.Barkskin1st-level transmutationCasting Time: 1 actionRange: TouchComponents: V S M (Oak bark)Duration: Up to 1 hourA willing creature's skin becomes hard like bark, as though they were wearing a suit of chain mail armor.  While under the effects of the spell they have an AC of 16 and disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.  The creature can still gain bonuses to its AC from shields and cover.</blockquote>

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