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

[Charlaquin]

I think that's why I had to look it up to see if it's real, classes start with leather which made me think that was the worst armour, but no, padded is there for everyone who wants worse armour than leather.

There’s also ring mail, which is even more egregious if you ask me. 30 GP for scale Mail but heavy and you can’t add +2 from dex.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I think that's why I had to look it up to see if it's real, classes start with leather which made me think that was the worst armour, but no, padded is there for everyone who wants worse armour than leather.

Yep. Same applies to Ring mail, too. No classes start with it, it's objectively worse than the other heavy armors in the game (and worse than most medium armors), and also might as well not exist in 5e. Literally the only time I used it was when my Changeling Warlock wanted to outfit their army of ogres in armor, and Ogres have a minus to DEX, so Heavy armor was the only option, so I chose to give them the cheapest heavy armor in the PHB, which was Ringmail. Later, I upgraded it to Chainmail because it wasn't that much more expensive and my character got the funds to do so.

That's literally the only time it's ever come into play, and it was temporary, and it was a very, very niche circumstance. I'm yet to find another PC that is in charge of an Ogre army that they want to outfit in heavy armor.

Edit: @Charlaquin beat me to pointing out Ring mail.

 

[Garthanos]

The green knights of my game world used teak wood to replace all uses of metal but it wasn't because they couldn't it was because huge amounts of metal in the country the were dominant in was tainted with a poison that created zombies out of those exposed too long.

 

[Charlaquin]

In all seriousness though, Padded armor and and ring mail are for NPCs you want to have wear crappy armor.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Yes. I'm probably going to say that the class doesn't give them proficiency in metal armor though, due to it being uncomfortable for wild shaping in (purely fluff). If they get it from another source, such as being a mountain dwarf, multiclassing, or a feat, they have learned to overcome the issue just like wizards who gain armor proficiency and can wear it just fine.

Some druidic orders (definitely not dwarven ones) frown on wearing metal armor and see the (fluff) difficulty of wild shaping in it as an indication that they shouldn't wear it. Others disagree and see it as simply a practical issue.

In any event, if a druid put it on (proficient or not) they wouldn't suffer any penalty other than perhaps social if they were in a really hard core order.

 

[Zardnaar]

In all seriousness though, Padded armor and and ring mail are for NPCs you want to have wear crappy armor.

Pretty much this.

Personally I think 3E system tweaked would work well enough.

Side effect of 3E and 4E buy the best armor with the highest bonus. Magical full plate in AD&D good luck +3 chainmail a lot more common.

 

[Stormonu]

It hasn't come up in 5E, but since 2E, I've had non-metal equivalents they can use, like wood, sharkskin, dragonscale, etc. Had a druid once that made a breastplate from a bullette, for example.

Also, as a side note, we dropped Concentration from Barkskin (if cast on the Druid) and Call Lightning can be used indoors as long as the roof is 15' or higher.

 

[DammitVictor]

I suppose I shouldn't complain about it after complaining so much about alignment restrictions in 3.X/PF1, but I don't see the metal armor restriction as nearly as baseless as weapons restrictions for Clerics or... well, practically any/every alignment restriction for classes other than Cleric/Paladin.

It's a little weird they're allowed metal tools and weapons, but denied metal armor, but it's not totally weird; you wield a weapon in your hand only when you need it, but you wear armor whenever you might need it. Weapons make you more dangerous predator/prey, but metal armor-- realistically-- makes you practically invulnerable to most animals' attacks.

I'm not a purist about this. I'd allow a Druid PC to waive this restriction with a good reason and a small cost. In 5e, being proficient in Medium armor means being qualified for the Heavy Armor Proficiency feat. Take the feat, with a narrative justification... sure, wear whatever not unnatural armor you want.

In a game with (fixed progression) multiclassing and some kind of feat/slot option, I'd allow any Druid/armor-wearing class to buy metal armor with a feat or two.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But they do have medium armor proficiency, don't they? That suggests to me that designers expect them to wear such armor.
The "no metal" requirement sounds to my ears more like fluff than mechanics.

I think they've explicitly said that it is purely about flavour, yeah.

Anyway, in my games druids can wear whatever they're proficient in, but generally don't like deep mining. They will recycle metal armor, though, without hesitation. If I play a druid, the concept I have wears a moss covered suit of half plate taken from a knight who fell in a duel with The Woodking century or so before the PC was born.

 

[see]

I play it just as the Sage Advice Compendium says: "What happens if a druid wears metal armor? The druid explodes."

(Whaddaya mean there's more to the answer than that? )

(For those of you wondering what armors are non-metal, that same Sage Advice Compendium says "A druid typically wears leather, studded leather, or hide armor, and if a druid comes across scale mail made of a material other than metal, the druid might wear it.")

In all seriousness though, Padded armor and and ring mail are for NPCs you want to have wear crappy armor.

Or for PCs trying to equip an army on a budget. You can armor twice as many peons with padded as you can with leather for the same budget, it's the same AC, and an army isn't going to be Stealthing anywhere anyway.