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

[Vaalingrade]

Says you!

Okay then.

There are some places some will go I will not follow and that line has just been crossed. Have fun.

 

[Vaalingrade]

What happens if a Paladin of Redemption goes around cutting off the hands and feet of peasants and fashions a necklace out of them? There really are no explicit penalties or consequences. Just suggestions. Would a DM who objects to that behavior be a tyrant who is removing player agency with a straightjacket?

These situations are completely equal and this is an excellent comparison, not a hilariously over dramatic reaction to disagreeing with a piece of flavor text. Bravo, sir. Bravo.

 

[carkl3000]

Says you! Says a lot of people, actually, but that's a personal belief that isn't validated by any external authority, and it runs contrary to how large numbers of other people want to play the game-- hence all the conversation over which D&D setting should be the "default setting" next time. Do note, please, that all of them impose the same restrictions on druid armor.

The 5e Player's Handbook, on the other hand, says:


How convenient, then, that anything you disagree with in the rulebooks doesn't count.




Funny, I didn't say a thing about "gods"! I said all of these classes have ethical restrictions that derive from the same source as their powers. (Technically, Warlock doesn't; I was holding it up as an example of a class that should.)

I understand all that, but what do you do at level up? You have a whole party (4, 5, 9? characters) that could all potentially be making a major life change all in the same evening. Certain things can be done around a camp fire between adventuring days, but do you make a multiclass character wait before they can get their next class level just because there's an incompatibility in armor proficiency? If everyone else in the party gets to start using the features they earned for the next level right away, that doesn't seem very nice...

 

[DammitVictor]

I understand all that, but what do you do at level up? You have a whole party (4, 5, 9? characters) that could all potentially be making a major life change all in the same evening.

That's a major portion of my complaint that 3.X multiclassing was broken and incoherent, and likewise my disappointment that 5e reinstated it.

 

[Undrave]

The narrative lever is that it says a Druid will not wear metal armor. Wearing armor doesn't make them an ex-druid, but they have to stop being a druid before they can wear metal armor. It's crappy, and I'd sure as hell change it, but it's not unclear.

That's not a narrative lever, it's a narrative sledgehammer! It forces a decision on someone's character. It's the only such sledgehammer in the game and is totally out of place. No other rule in the game is formatted like this, no other narrative restriction is formatted the same way. It doesn't include any chance of a character having an interesting dilemna, nor does it leaves room for interest builds to circumvent this restriction somehow.

The Druid character doesn't get to go against peer pressure, instead, one of the author of the PHB just reaches through the fourth wall and slaps him in the face the moment he even wonders why he's not using better armor!

If it had an actual mechanical impact, you know, like a rule in a game, then we could see an interesting 'metal druid' subclass all about Elemental Earth magic and manipulating ore and playing with the planet's magnetic field and stuff... but that design space is apparently unavailable because Druids 'will not wear metal armor'.

Might as well just no give them proficiency in the first place and let the player CHOOSE to invest into some feats if they really want to.

 

[carkl3000]

That's a major portion of my complaint that 3.X multiclassing was broken and incoherent, and likewise my disappointment that 5e reinstated it.

How would you do it? To me, multiclassing into druid in a "coherent" way would involve finding a druid circle, spending time with mentors, learning a new way of life, blah blah blah, and all the while you have a game you're trying to run with several other players. Even if they're not all changing classes at the same time, how would you run it to keep everyone involved?

 

[DammitVictor]

If it had an actual mechanical impact, you know, like a rule in a game, then we could see an interesting 'metal druid' subclass all about Elemental Earth magic and manipulating ore and playing with the planet's magnetic field and stuff... but that design space is apparently unavailable because Druids 'will not wear metal armor'.

A subclass could override the general rule. And... my memory is failing me here, but I believe it's been done before.

Might as well just no give them proficiency in the first place and let the player CHOOSE to invest into some feats if they really want to.

There are a lot of things the 5e team could have done better if they'd thought about them for half a minute. The long public playtest aside, it just doesn't appear to have been "that kind" of edition.

 

[CleverNickName]

The rules don't prevent the player from wearing metal armor. The designers stated that fairly clearly in the Sage Advice.

Yes, the rules do. Verbatum. I don't understand the confusion here, it's literally in black and white.

Sage Advice isn't an official rule. It is exactly what it says in the title: advice. That said, there's nothing wrong with using Sage Advice at your table if you want, even if it's not "rules as written." House rules are a thing.

 

[Undrave]

A subclass could override the general rule. And... my memory is failing me here, but I believe it's been done before.

There's a terrible Barbarian subclass

 

[Undrave]

A subclass could override the general rule. And... my memory is failing me here, but I believe it's been done before.



There are a lot of things the 5e team could have done better if they'd thought about them for half a minute. The long public playtest aside, it just doesn't appear to have been "that kind" of edition.

Imagine if the rules had been ‘you can’t Wildshape while wearing metal armor’ (and even ‘everything metal you carry falls off when you wildshape’) it would have been way more interesting. Land Druid would have considered the benefit of AC vs no combat wild shape. And then you could have the Circle of the Ore Druid who, when wearing metal armor, gets a new elemental form when they wildshape!