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

[CleverNickName]

So in other words you threatened to invoke GM fiat/.. Waited a bit & restated the threat. Then stopped the game to yank the player aside & privately restate the threat? That is all but literally C with repeated implied threat of A or B. not "none of the above"

Nope. I read the rules, called a break, and formulated a work-around with the player. I don't know how you missed that.

Why so hostile?

 

[Yaarel]

In D&D 1e, the Druid has the spell, Heat Metal. Manipulating metal is part of the original D&D Druid concept, and is an aspect of the elemental magic of the Druid.

Likewise, metal magic continues to be a theme of the 5e Druid.

 

[CleverNickName]

So it means you didn't have to choose because the player agreed with your view... but what if the Druid had decided to wear it anyway?

Nope. I red the rules, called a break, and formulated a work-around with the player. It wasn't "my view" we were discussing; the rules are pretty clear on this issue.

If the player had persisted, and they were going to wear that armor, dagnabbit, no matter what them fancy rules there did say, our workaround would have been different. (I would probably have retconned the armor as Hide armor, or described it as being made from something other than metal, just to keep the story moving forward.) It really, truly, wasn't a big deal.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

In D&D 1e, the Druid has the spell, Heat Metal. Manipulating metal is part of the original D&D Druid concept, and is an aspect of the elemental magic of the Druid.

Perhaps druids specifically designed that spell to punish their heretical brethren that break the sacred rule forbidding the metal armour!

 

[Yaarel]

Perhaps druids specifically designed that spell to punish their heretical brethren that break the sacred rule forbidding the metal armour!

The Druid must become one with the nature of metal to do this kind of magic.

In any case, earth elemental magic is normal.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I just really wish that fluff would stay out of the rules section.

I kind of want to try a social experiment and write that rogues grow magnificent moustaches but never beards or goatees in the game I'm developing.

 

[Oofta]

Why is "what happens if they wear armor anyway" even a thing? I mean, what happens if that champion fighter decides to cast fireball just because they want to?

The player still has agency. They could have chosen to play a PC that can wear armor. If they want to play a druid (or any other class) that ignores the rules of the game discuss it with me off line, preferably before the player has committed to the class.

If someone refuses to follow the rules of the game they can find a different DM. I don't think that's asking too much.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

I just really wish that fluff would stay out of the rules section.

Almost all rules have fluff attached to them, and if they wouldn't the game would be both incredibly dry and probably pretty incomprehensible.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Almost all rules have fluff attached to them, and if they wouldn't the game would be both incredibly dry and probably pretty incomprehensible.

I disagree that most rules have fluff attached to them, but at the very least the weird setting specific stuff should be in setting specific books.

The druid metal thing is like randomly mentioning that people hate wizards because their spells defile the land around them completely absent Dark Sun.

 

[Yaarel]

I just really wish that fluff would stay out of the rules section.

In 5e, fluff is part of the rules as written. Precisely because flavor is so important, flavor deserves the same amount of scrutiny and criticism as mechanics does.

Bad flavor is highly problematic in 5e.

The flavor must be "elegant", similar to how mechanics must be elegant. The flavor must be as simple as possible, and as adaptable as possible to as many settings and circumstances as possible.

I kind of want to try a social experiment and write that rogues grow magnificent moustaches but never beards or goatees in the game I'm developing.

A humorous and appropriate critique!