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

[Undrave]

That whole thing has always baffled me. What is it even trying to accomplish?! If they wanted to keep them out of heavier armor, just give restrictions to Wildshape? Why even give them medium armor proficiency then? Why not just specify "Hide only"? You can give characters specific weapon proficiencies but not armor? What?

Them not being able to wear metal armour is an actual rule, and it effectively prevents them from wearing medium armour. So if this is intended to be balanced, just allowing them to ignore this restriction would be basically the same than giving any other class a free tier of amour proficiency. My current game has altered armour rules anyway, but I scaled the druids with the assumption that they're effectively meant to be light armour wearers.

The PHB says this, under Armor proficiencies for the Druid:

"Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use hields made of metal)"

WILL NOT.

Nothing about that says they CAN NOT, only WILL NOT. There is no delinated penalty for going against this tradition. This is all bark and no bite. I think calling this a rule is vastly exagerated.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Sure. I just have it be a sorta-taboo part of certain Druid Circles in my worlds. The ones that don't use metal also don't use it for their weapons (because it's dumb that the PHB restricts metal armor but not weapons for druids), but the ones that use metal see it as completely acceptable, as metal is a part of nature. Sure, metal can't be forged "naturally", and metal weapons and armors are artificial, but they feel the same way about non-natural animals like Owlbears, Displacer Beasts, and similar creatures (much in the same way that Spores Druids see undead). As long as it has natural components, they consider it natural, and thus fair game for use. These druid circles often even use Silver Weapons to hunt down lycanthropes, devils, and other creature that are vulnerable to silver.

 

[Remathilis]

While we're at it, why don't we get rid of a few other nonsense rules:

• Monks only using thier martial arts benefits with "monk weapons"
• Rogues needing a finesse weapon to sneak attack.
• Barbarians only getting thier damage bonus to Strength-based attacks.
• Monks and barbarians can always choose the benefit of their unarmored defense, even when wearing armor (the benefits don't stack, but a their is no reason a barbarian should put on leather armor and his AC get worse.)

Basically, if you are proficinct in a weapon or armor, there is no reason your class abilities should be hindered by your gear. Ever.

 

[cbwjm]

This topic has actually come up so often that they've even got an answer for it in sage advice, basically amounts to if the DM is okay with it then go for it as it won't break anything, it's just a story element from the early days of the game.

 

[Zardnaar]

In my campaign? No. It's no more dumb than any other number of rules in the game.

It's not really dumb. Gamers at home want to wear it, Druids in game wouldn't wear it for the same reasons vegans don't eat animal products.

Sure they could but they don't want to.

 

[Charlaquin]

But all medium armours except hide which is rubbish are made of metal. And the restriction is part of the rule so probably it is meant to mean something?

For what it’s worth, Jeremy Crawford has actually weighed in on this. What he said is essentially that it’s meant purely as a flavor thing, and allowing druids to wear medium armor made of metal won’t upset any intended game balance.

 

[Charlaquin]

That whole thing has always baffled me. What is it even trying to accomplish?! If they wanted to keep them out of heavier armor, just give restrictions to Wildshape? Why even give them medium armor proficiency then? Why not just specify "Hide only"? You can give characters specific weapon proficiencies but not armor? What?


The PHB says this, under Armor proficiencies for the Druid:

"Light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use hields made of metal)"

WILL NOT.

Nothing about that says they CAN NOT, only WILL NOT. There is no delinated penalty for going against this tradition. This is all bark and no bite. I think calling this a rule is vastly exagerated.

Yep, and that’s an intentional choice, according to Sage Advice. In D&D lore, druids use leather or hide armor, or armor made with special materials like darkwood or dragon scales. But, if a PC druid dons metal armor they’re proficient with, there’s no mechanical consequence for doing so, and nothing will break as a result. Some DMs might want to impose some sort of story or social consequences - maybe the Druid’s order will banish them if they find out or something. But mechanically? Nothing prevents it, and there’s no exploit the restriction is meant to circumvent.

 

[tetrasodium]

They can & if they aren't it winds up being encouraged. The no metal armor is a holdover from 3.5 when barkskin was amazing while 5e's barkskin is trash

 

[Zardnaar]

Yep, and that’s an intentional choice, according to Sage Advice. In D&D lore, druids use leather or hide armor, or armor made with special materials like darkwood or dragon scales. But, if a PC druid dons metal armor they’re proficient with, there’s no mechanical consequence for doing so, and nothing will break as a result. Some DMs might want to impose some sort of story or social consequences - maybe the Druid’s order will banish them if they find out or something. But mechanically? Nothing prevents it, and there’s no exploit the restriction is meant to circumvent.

This is kind of how I see it.

A Druid could wear metal armor but if you're a Druid you won't.

I'm sure someone could come up with lots of reasons to justify it. I probably wouldn't care if they did it in extremis but would if they did it all the time.

It's a role playing restriction that makes sense unlike say level limits.

 

[Charlaquin]

It's not really dumb. Gamers at home want to wear it, Druids in game wouldn't wear it for the same reasons vegans don't eat animal products.

Sure they could but they don't want to.

At my table, the player (and only the player) gets to decide what their own character does or doesn’t want to do. While druid NPCs might not wear metal armor, a player is free to decide their druid PC does want to. Druid NPCs they run into probably won’t approve.