No we treat what the rulebooks say as rules or at least guidelines.
Well, you keep responding with "a character of that level can't have that many items" as though a minor guideline buried in Xanathar's is dictating limits. Amusingly, the games with the fewest magical items tend to be the ones where we are homebrewing. We get a lot more when playing pre-written adventures.
A lot easier than taking 5-weeks of research to find and buy a suit of studded +1. RAW you should have several short rests in an adventuring day.
I'm not sure why you think the 5-weeks (theoretical) of looking for the studded leather matters when comparing the attunement time. That is a complete non-sequiter. After you have the item, it takes 1 minute to put on, and since most people don't strip out of their armor during adventures, it is usually a non-issue. Also, I note how this went from "it is shorter to take a six-second action to put on a shield than an hour to attune to an item" to "But an hour is shorter than the five weeks it takes you to find the armor". That doesn't disprove my shield argument in the slightest.
RAW
suggests two short rests, but that is far from guaranteed. In fact, this is a commonly discussed problem on these threads. But, even if you have the recommended two short rests, that still doesn't allow you to swap items mid-combat. Yes, it takes an action, but I could pull out a shield in the middle of combat if I needed to. I can't take an hour rest in the middle of combat if I needed to.
If you aren't paying for food you are going to have more money than you should. If you do not take downtime there is no possible way you can find a specific magic item you want RAW (other than potions and scrolls).
I believe the money issue has been addressed repeatedly at this point. Looking at the individual treasure table you can expect 1 to 5 gold on CR less than 4 creatures. That is not including their equipment, which can be sold. A single shortsword can be sold for 5 gp. 5 gold is going to be able to buy you between 10 and 50 meals, and that is if the inn price doesn't include a meal, which generally our DM has the inn price cover food and drink.
This isn't a large expense that we are talking about here.
I guess you don't play wizards .... which explains why you don't see bladesingers.
We've had a few wizards. Not many, and the DM rarely gives out spellbooks either way
I guess you don't cast spells that require valuable components either.
Most spells don't require them, so that would make sense, wouldn't it?
I'm going to guess that you don't drive a Ferrari while wearing a Rollex. Most people don't, so that is a good guess.
You don't see why you would automatically kick in nor why that would be an action? Really?
No, I was saying I don't see why kicking in an unlocked door would require a roll. It didn't require a roll to turn the door handle, why would it require a roll to make a more dramatic entrance?
The door. "environment" is the term used in the players handbook. The door opens every time someone opens and closes it. You open it and go through it, the wizard .... er excuse me sorcerer ... behind you fires off a spell and closes it so BBEG can't target him, the monk opens it and goes through and attacks etc, etc, etc. As long as everyone has a free hand they can take an action in addition to opening and closing the door,
Yeah, we don't bother with that.
The wizard or sorcerer fires a spell... then uses their movement to move around the corner so the BBEG can't target them. We don't need to bother with opening and closing it all the time, it is just extra noise for no real purpose.
No you can't attack on your turn if you opened the door and then drew your weapon. No instead of using an action to draw your weapon you could run up and puch the bad guy for 1 point of damage. If you had your weapon in one hand you could open the door and attack, both on your turn.
Right, but you aren't seeing the scenario.
The Fighter looks over the group, they are ready, he opens the door. Villains are in the room. We roll initiative. The Monk runs in (because they have higher initiative) then the fighter takes their turn.
The Fighter didn't open the door this turn. They couldn't have, it is impossible, because the monk took their entire turn. So, either you are penalizing the fighter for taking an action before their turn, or it is a new turn and the fighter has all of their actions. So they draw their sword and charge in.
In this scenario, there is no problem with having your sword sheathed, the only thing is does is prevent you from attacking before your turn, which you can't do anyways.
To start with a warcaster can not use a weapon as a focus unleess he is a hex blade, or as you mentionoed a sword bard, at which point warcaster is partially wasted.
Ruby of the warmage is a magic item.
Yeah a sword of college bard, a hexblade and a druid if he uses a staff and not another weapon. Two subclasses and one class if he uses a specific weapon.
What does being a magic item mean? Does it not count just because it is an item? That seems kind of silly.
I mis-remembered on War Caster, is just lets you use Somatic Components, which is still generally enough, but that was my mistake.
And, note that Staffs are good weapons for the druid, very very little reason to use anything else. So, two subclasses, one class, and then two other classes if they happen to get shields, maybe three, I can't remember if Artificers get arcane focuses.
So, that is more than a few.
No we are talking about all bards except sword bards, all warlocks except hexblades with an invocation, all Druids who don't use a staff, all wizards, all Rangers and all sorcerers
Except, there is a second consideration. If they don't want a melee weapon, they can still use their focus. Any warlock who puts on a shield can then use their rod in the other hand.
So, you need a class that can use a shield, wants to use a shield, wants to use a weapon, but either also wants to cast spells that have material components or doesn't take warcaster.
That is a pretty narrow field. And, again, staves are pretty good weapon choices, and if they want to be casters... they likely would just be using cantrips anyways.
Most strength fighters, Barbarians, Paladins and strength Rangers. Not most others.
Yeah, you just listed most martial characters who have access to heavy armor and shields. So.. most of them would be fine with needing a 15 strength.
The only one that might get a little MAD is the Cleric, but again, that is a good trade for the cleric anyways.
Sure, if you have a 16 Dexterity.
Which again, if that is your build, say if you are a Dexterity based ranger, that isn't too hard to get. if you are planning on getting Medium Armor Mastery... then you are planning on having or getting a +3 to take advantage of that feat. Why on earth would you take a feat you can't utilize?
For an optimized Monk it takes 1.5 ASIs using point by, so it is doable by 8th level with an ASI and a half feat. By 12th level they have the heavy armor guy beat and he will never catch back up without magic ... and they are doing this while having both no penalty to stealth and having dodge available as a bonus action multiple times a day.
Huh?
Point buy maxes at 15. Optimization would be Wood Elf I guess, that gets you 17 and 16 (which isn't optimized in my opinion, but whatever) A single ASI gets you 18 and 17... which isn't 20/20. A half feat gets you 18/18... which is 18 AC. The EXACT same as Platemail. (Or they could get 20/16 which is better but also still just an 18 AC)
A mid-level fighter with plate and shield has 20 AC, so I don't know what you could possibly mean by a heavy armor character never catching up without magic. The Monk hasn't even caught up to the HEavy Armor guy yet. They need another 2 feats. It is 3.5 ASIs minimum. Which is 16th level.
And sure, no penalty to stealth. That is a big factor in wearing heavy armor, but since the baseline Monk can
NEVER exceed that AC without magic, and the Fighter could easily have 21 without magic, that is an opportunity cost.
Sure, they can do anything your DM wants, but "the book" does not list a gold cost for magic items. The DMG says they are not available for purchase, XGE lists a process to get them which involves WEEKS of research (i.e. sweat)
Rarity | Character Level | Value |
---|
Common | 1st or higher | 50–100 gp |
Uncommon | 1st or higher | 101–500 gp |
Rare | 5th or higher | 501–5,000 gp |
Very rare | 11th or higher | 5,001–50,000 gp |
Legendary | 17th or higher | 50,001+ gp |
The weight penalty is a bigger "cost" than the attunement penalty. There are more Rgoues out there walking around encumbered right now than there are Monks attuned to three items.
Attunement number is limited, carrying capacity is limited, you are far, far more likely to exceed the latter than you are the former, so logically you should wear bracers over studded if you can.
Probably not, but maybe. Also, again, encumberance is a trivially easy problem to solve. Unless your DM specifically goes out of their way to overencumber you, then it really doesn't come up.
But the opportunity cost of these Rare items with attunement worth as much as 5,000 gold being only better than mundane, dirt cheap armor because of weight, if you are worried about encumberance... doesn't that just say it all?
I have seen completely the opposite and your game is full of sword and board fighters you are running out of hands in combat a lot if you are playing RAW. If your DM is hand waving that ..... well it explains it.
OR, and this is the truth, the handidness just doesn't come up because it is a solved problem. You have still not shown anything except opening doors that seems like it would be any issue, and we don't tend to open new doors until the fight is over.
DMs don't typically "give out" items. They are typically found on enemies, in dungeons etc. If your character finds and has BOD, it would be foolish not to wear them (at least until you could sell them).
Dude... you realize that the DM put them in the dungeon for you to find right? That is what "give out" means. I'm not saying a little gnome in red robes handed them to us out of his magic sack, but if the DM doesn't place the items for us to find... there is nothing to find.
Why would you wear armor to bed ... or at all when you could get the same AC without wearing it? That is just foolish.
Attunement slots
5,000 gold price tag
I can do it from level 1 to 3, instead of waiting til level 5 or higher
I mean, you are the one so worried about being attacked while you sleep that you will use an attunement slot on an item that is utterly worthless to you in any other possible situation, so why not start protecting yourself from the beginning instead of hoping for a magical set of non-armor?
Which is almost never and issue and when it becomes an issue you can get some studded armor.
Think about that for a second. If attunement becomes an issue, you can replace a rare magic item with mundane, low level armor.
Doesn't that make the item seem... kind of worthless?
I am not suggesting you should wait to get bracers so you don't need studded. I am suggesting that if you have bracers you should use them and throw your studded in the trash. If you find magic studded use that (or of you take 3 months off to find and buy some), but until you do that you are as good as you will get as a Rogue with BOD .... better even because you are lighter.
Which seems rather silly, when the BoD are worth a heck of a lot more, and are more useful as a bargaining chip or emergency wealth stash than being used for their intended use.
Yeah, because being without your weapon is a great situation
They didn't attack me, and I can just grab their weapon. Or my backup weapon that I dropped my first weapon to get out. Heck yes that is a great situation. If I can get the enemy to waste a turn I'm doing great.
Yes, like you said you will do that FIRST and then drop your weapon so you will have a free hand .... at which point he can pick it up. You are the one who said this is a viable strategy every trun, not me.
I said "If for some reason", so give me the reason? You are the one who keeps insisting people need free hands all the time in combat, so what do I need that free hand for? Personally, we almost never drop our weapons, because there is no reason to have a free hand.
I see a whole lot of dex fighters and there have even been threads on this board asking why anyone would be a strength fighter. As far as I can remember, I have never played with a cleric at the table that had a 15 strength. Usually they are going to invest in wisdom, constitution, dexterity or charisma first as these are a lot more useful.
shrug
I think charisma is pretty worthless for a cleric. And Dex is easily dropped in favor of using that heavy armor and getting strength. Con and Wisdom are important though.
And, I've seen those threads, but they often do downplay just how hard to hit a sword and board fighter can be. A strength based fighter with a rapier and Defensive Duelist can pretty trivially hit 24 AC on an attack per turn. No magic, just a reaction. Makes for a solid tank.