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

[doctorbadwolf]

I stand corrected about wizards and shields. But it's still the case that any wizard that wants to can have better AC than a druid. and they can use the shield spell.

Is it? The wizard gonna spend a feat to get shield proficiency just to have 1 AC better than a druid?

And again, the Druid can heal themself. And cast Stoneskin. And if we're talking feats, the Druid can use a feat to gain mage armor and other magics. It lasts 8 hours, so it should be rare that having it once per day is a hindrance. Sucks that it isn't an option for Shadowtouched or Feytouched, though. Still, Shadowtouched can get you False Life, which can be good for a melee focused Moon Druid. Not sure how Spores feature interacts with something that gives more THP? Either way, Magic Initiate for Green-flame Blade, Mage Armor, and something else, maybe Shield.

Spores druid is exactly the case I'm considering. That's the subclass I'm playing currently. Yes they get some THP, but their best subclass features rely on staying in close range and not losing those THP. That's tough to do with 16 AC.

Okay, I've generally found that studded leather and good Dex is better than medium armor, but I know other folks prioritize stats differently. Still, there are damage mitigation spells, are there not? How much of that incoming damage is damage that Stoneskin or Absorb Elements wouldn't mitigate?

Or MC Monk!

It's really a problem with the way the subclass was designed. (The UA version wasn't perfect, but it was better for sure in that the buffs from symbiotic entity didn't go away after a few good hits.) 19 AC without magic items goes a long way towards fixing it. And there's nothing in the rules that says 19 AC can't happen.

Okay. I haven't ever argued against Druids wearing metal armor. I allow it, and have a concept for a Druid that wears half-plate covered in moss and lichen that she took off a dead guy in the forest who lost a duel trying to be Gawain against a local god called The Woodking. I might play her as a Warlock instead, but only if I can find the time to make or find a good "dirty nature witch" patron for the warlock.

 

[Maxperson]

Let's be honest, no one has ever used Padded armor in the history of D&D 5e. No one.

It might as well be a blank space in the PHB. Thinking back on it, it might actually be. Maybe it's just a strange mixture of the Mandela Effect and Aurora Borealis.

I have!! Once! There was an adventure that we got captured in and when we escaped armorless me found some padded armor and well, it was better than nothing.

 

[carkl3000]

Is it? The wizard gonna spend a feat to get shield proficiency just to have 1 AC better than a druid?

And again, the Druid can heal themself. And cast Stoneskin. And if we're talking feats, the Druid can use a feat to gain mage armor and other magics. It lasts 8 hours, so it should be rare that having it once per day is a hindrance. Sucks that it isn't an option for Shadowtouched or Feytouched, though. Still, Shadowtouched can get you False Life, which can be good for a melee focused Moon Druid. Not sure how Spores feature interacts with something that gives more THP? Either way, Magic Initiate for Green-flame Blade, Mage Armor, and something else, maybe Shield.



Okay, I've generally found that studded leather and good Dex is better than medium armor, but I know other folks prioritize stats differently. Still, there are damage mitigation spells, are there not? How much of that incoming damage is damage that Stoneskin or Absorb Elements wouldn't mitigate?

Or MC Monk!

Okay. I haven't ever argued against Druids wearing metal armor. I allow it, and have a concept for a Druid that wears half-plate covered in moss and lichen that she took off a dead guy in the forest who lost a duel trying to be Gawain against a local god called The Woodking. I might play her as a Warlock instead, but only if I can find the time to make or find a good "dirty nature witch" patron for the warlock.

14 dex and a one level fighter dip would give any wizard medium armor and shield proficiency if they want it, and they have no limitation on the type of medium armor they can wear. (of course 13 dex, but if you're talking a fighter level to get medium armor you'd want +2 dex). I think a little dip in a martial class would probably be pretty good on a bladesinger. If one wants to take a strict interpretation of the metal armor prohibition for druids (which I understand is not your stance) it doesn't matter what you multiclass, you don't cease to be a druid so the metal armor restriction still applies.

THP from symbiotic entity can't be recovered by any means I'm aware of. That might be another way to make the subclass a little more playable. (Use a 1st level slot while the ability is active to recover a hit die of THP? I don't know if it'd be worth an action and a slot to keep SE active a little longer.)

I considered a monk dip for unarmored defense, but that's all I would have gotten out of it and it would have required making con my third priority stat. I wanted that high con for maintaining concentration spells and extra tankiness in general.

Barkskin and Stoneskin seem like they're designed just with moon druids in mind. I feel like a Spores Druid wants to be on the front line, dishing out a nice little bit of melee damage, but also maintaining a flaming sphere for some extra damage, or a summon spell, or an entangle or spike growth or whatever for some battlefield control. I think it'd be great to get a good armor buff spell on the druid spell list that has a long duration and doesn't require concentration. If it lasted 8 hours and stacked on top of the character's AC for instance, I think it might be worth a second level slot once per dungeon crawl.

 

[carkl3000]

I might play her as a Warlock instead, but only if I can find the time to make or find a good "dirty nature witch" patron for the warlock.

Good-aligned warlock patrons are tricky, right? I'd probably just make her a good-aligned character indebted to Baba Yaga?

 

[Li Shenron]

I have found the metal armor restrictions to be rather disruptive, we have largely ignored this at my tables. To start with what defines "metal armor"? Is studded leather metal? Almost all middle age shields are primarily wooden IRL, maybe some bucklers were metal, but no other metal shields existed. In the far east IRL there was wooden armor that would most approximate half-plate, breast plate or splint mail.

Also in terms of story or theme, if a Paladin can go against his oath and become an oathbreaker or an asimar become fallen, why can't a druid wear metal?

Just a stupid rule IMO and it does not seem to add much flavor IMO since he can swing a metal scimitar and seems to have no problem adventuring with the guy wearing chainmail. Also as a tree-hugger I would find it somewhat silly to say - "sure you can cut down that tree and make me some armor, but no metal"

What do you think?

Yes, it's just stupid. There are also no consequences for doing otherwise, so it's not even a meaningful rule.

 

[Li Shenron]

Personally, I would have no problems with allowing a druid to wear metal armor. That said, followers of the old ways would be likely to look down on the druid for doing so, since the druid is breaking with tradition. Druids in my campaigns are often held in respect by creatures of nature (treants, dryads, etc) but they'd be inclined to believe that someone wearing metal armor is trying to (poorly) impersonate a druid, and therefore would be quite dubious of such an individual.

I'd love to witness the scene of a Druid reprimended by treants for wearing metal armor, apologize and next time show up with a treant bark armor, because you know that's legit.

 

[Li Shenron]

I didn't read the whole thread; I only read the OP and decided to comment. With six pages of comments in 24 hours, I suspect this might have already been covered, and if so, I apologize for the repetition. But anyway.

It's a complicated answer to a simple question, but here's the short of it:

• Druids in my campaign cannot wear armor made of metal.
• Armor can be made of materials other than metal, though.
• Therefore, armor that is made of non-metal materials is just fine for druids to wear.

So in my campaign, druids cannot wear Half Plate, because it's made of 'shaped metal plates' according to the PHB. But they could wear a suit of Medium armor made from, I dunno, 'shaped plates' of chitin that were harvested from the shell of a chuul. That armor would have a base AC of 15+Dex, weigh 40 pounds, and impose Disadvantage on Stealth checks. We just won't call it Half Plate.

So if that druid is willing to put in the work (hunt down a chuul or two, harvest enough chitin, carry it back to town, and hire someone to craft it into a suit of armor), that druid can be the envy of her entire enclave. It's a pretty good hook for an adventure, to boot.

I don't know if it's the right way to do it, and I wasn't in the room when the game designers were talking about stuff like "bounded accuracy" and "rules as intended" or whatever. But my players love it, and the game didn't explode when our druid crafted a breastplate out of the shell of a giant beetle.

Just quoting you as one of the many, but note I don't have anything against you specifically.

What do you do if a Druid player in your campaign, at some random point during an adventure, finds and dons a metal armor?
a) Do you punish your player's PC "mechanically", coming up with some penalty that isn't in the rules?
b) Do you punish them "socially", altering the story to make it harder for them?
c) Do you flat-out tell them "you are NOT doing that, because I tell you so"?

 

[lingual]

Just quoting you as one of the many, but note I don't have anything against you specifically.

What do you do if a Druid player in your campaign, at some random point during an adventure, finds and dons a metal armor?
a) Do you punish your player's PC "mechanically", coming up with some penalty that isn't in the rules?
b) Do you punish them "socially", altering the story to make it harder for them?
c) Do you flat-out tell them "you are NOT doing that, because I tell you so"?

I think this is missing the point of the fluff.

Druids disdain the use of metal armor. Just like they would probably frown upon industrialization and factories. There are no mechanical penalties for a druid to litter and pollute nature, or to upset the balance of nature too. Does that mean a "good" player shouldn't care? No of course not. There are no hard mechanical rules about unfaithful clerics or paladins either.

Some players consider the better armor class to be more important than being a "proper" druid. Some tables think the taboo doesn't make sense. Whatever the case, it doesn't really matter. None of us play at the same table.

It is a badly written and confusing "rule". I hope we can all agree on that.

My table? No metal armor. You can't wildshape or cast spells. But I'm used to older editions of druids and my players are all in agreement so it doesn't bother us. So it shouldn't bother anyone else. Any table allowing metal armor for druids doesn't bother me.

 

[CleverNickName]

Just quoting you as one of the many, but note I don't have anything against you specifically.

What do you do if a Druid player in your campaign, at some random point during an adventure, finds and dons a metal armor?
a) Do you punish your player's PC "mechanically", coming up with some penalty that isn't in the rules?
b) Do you punish them "socially", altering the story to make it harder for them?
c) Do you flat-out tell them "you are NOT doing that, because I tell you so"?

This has happened before, and the answer is "(d) none of the above."

When the druid in our group found a suit of metal armor and picked it up, I described how touching the metal armor made the druid feel uncomfortable, as if she was holding the slick carcass of a rotting fish. And a few minutes later when the druid was putting the armor on, I described how it made her skin crawl, as if she were wearing something lifeless ungraved from the earth. And then I called a break.

Over the break we talked a bit about the rules and how they state that a druid will not wear metal armor. (It isn't a question of ability, it is a statement of fact: the rules say a druid will not wear it. It's not my call to make.) So the player and I talked about that for a bit, then came up with a way for the druid to wear better armor that wasn't made of metal. We returned from break, and play resumed. The druid described how creeped out she felt by being encased in such a filthy and disturbing material as she removed it piece by piece. Later, we went hunting giant scarab beetles to make a breastplate from.

It really wasn't a big deal. The metal is the problem, not the armor...so we found a workaround.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I have to disagree with the idea that 'will not wear' is just fluff. It is in the rule section. The rule doesn't say why they will not wear metal armour, but they won't and that's the rule. If the rule says that a creature won't do something then them doing that thing is breaking the rule. Now it is weird rule so in that sense I can see people wanting to houserule it, but still.

Also, are druids generally considered underpowered? My impression was that they're one of the more powerful classes already.