D&D 5E Bracers of Defense

[Dausuul]

No no, surely not because they're "rare". Its not like PCs will continuously drop the hint to the DM and/or sulk until they get what they want... lol

They can sulk all they like. I don't give a crap. If they keep dropping hints, I'll ask what their characters are doing in the game world to locate and obtain the stuff they want. If they have an answer, I'll put them through hell and make them sweat blood for it, and in the end they'll get their +3 bracers and everybody's happy. If the answer is "Nothing," well, then, guess you didn't want it as much as you thought.

 

[Dausuul]

No, it's not a good thing if there is no guidance as to the relative value these items. A suit of +1 armor and bracers of defense are both "rare." One will boost a fighter's AC by 1 over mundane equipment and another will boost a monk or dragon sorcerer or barbarian's AC by 3. Are novice DMs supposed to just know innately that one of them is significantly more powerful than the other?

I mean, this info isn't really needed in a premade adventure, but I hope the DMG has at least more detailed tiers of items for new DMs trying to figure this out.

The bracers require attunement. The armor doesn't. That's the crucial difference. You only get three attunement slots, so they're a valuable resource.

Though I have to admit that it's hard to justify the arrow-catching shield being on the same level as bracers of defense.

 

[keterys]

+1 armor is rare.

Sounds like +1 armor is over "costed" in terms of rarity, then. Particularly odd since +1 weapons are uncommon.

7 out of 11 items in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen online supplement are rare and 3 out of 11 require attunement.

Plenty of good stuff requires attunement; except in low magic campaigns, I'm hopeful that attunement is a real limitation. Hence why I'm not as bothered by the +3 than perhaps other people.

I'll grant I'm not thrilled with the bracers either, but it strikes me as very D&D.

I do like the way they're doing staves.

 

[Psikerlord#]

In the Hoard of the Dragon Queen online supplement, BoDs are a +3 bonus to AC.

They stack with everything but armor and shields. Which means that they are real good for monks and barbarians, in addition to arcane spell casters where they stack with Mage Armor.

+3 is pretty darn hefty (course, we do not know if there is a +1, or +2 version of them yet).

The items are draft only, subject to dmgbeing finalised. I hope they change bracers to gives you AC 13, otherwise were going to get very undesirable stacking going on with unarmoured defence for monks & barbs, hmm and mage armour...

 

[keterys]

The items are draft only, subject to dmgbeing finalised. I hope they change bracers to gives you AC 13, otherwise were going to get very undesirable stacking going on with unarmoured defence for monks & barbs, hmm and mage armour, and both for multiclassed wizard/monk. Hmmm wizard/monk dex and wisdom 16, mage armour, bracers = 22 AC at quite low level. Uuummm yeeaaahhhh

Mage Armor doesn't stack with monk or barbarian, in any combination thereof.

Bracers are +3 "armor" for those who don't use armor. That's all they are.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Mage Armor doesn't stack with monk or barbarian, in any combination thereof.

Bracers are +3 "armor" for those who don't use armor. That's all they are.

Doh! Yes sorry edited my post minute after typing that, you were fast! Still undesirable stacking with just mage armour, or unarmoured defence imo, ... but then perhaps not, other classes will get +1 armour etc, yes I guess actually it could be fine, but +3 should be very rare, with +1 and +2 being more common.

 

[dd.stevenson]

If it's not just as rare as +3 armor, it is extremely undercosted. You can care about that or not but it's pretty clear IMHO.

This may have changed, but I understood from the L&L that +3 armor was meant to have other major benefits alongside the "boring" +3 bonus. IOW, there is no straight +3 armor--it always gets packaged with other stuff. The only "plain" versions of weapons and armor are the +/-1 versions.

If this is still the way they're doing it, then it makes the bracers +3/armor +3 an apples/oranges comparison. I think.

 

[Paraxis]

Attunement is not that big of a deal, each character has three attunement slots but there are what 4-5 characters in an average party. That makes attunement not a big factor in things until the party has found 12-15 attunement needed items, because then it will just go to someone else that can use it in the group.

I don't know how often magic items are rolled on the as of yet unseen random treasure tables, but from what we are told about them not being needed and more rare, I think the party will be in the 13+ level before any one character has to worry about having all three attunement slots being filled.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Attunement is not that big of a deal, each character has three attunement slots but there are what 4-5 characters in an average party. That makes attunement not a big factor in things until the party has found 12-15 attunement needed items, because then it will just go to someone else that can use it in the group.

I don't know how often magic items are rolled on the as of yet unseen random treasure tables, but from what we are told about them not being needed and more rare, I think the party will be in the 13+ level before any one character has to worry about having all three attunement slots being filled.

Yes the random treasure tables will be very important for me and ought to keep rare items appropriztely scarce...

 

[pemerton]

I just think 3e and 4e spoiled too many players into thinking they need +X items to be good (and they did in those systems) so the notion that you will need to get +X items in 5e will be a hard habit to break.

Why "spoiled"? That's like saying that AD&D spoiled playes of thieves into thinking they needed thieves's tools.