D&D 5E Does magical armour change size to fit the wearer.

[EdL]

One thing I would add is that you should be a little careful. Armor that does not change sizes has the potential to turn what should be a triumphant moment into a disappointing one.

DM: After a hard fought battle with the dragon, you finally kill her and find her hoard. There's a suit of magic armor of amazingness.
Players: Yay!!!
DM: Oh, it's halfling-sized so none of you can wear it.
Players: *Disappointed*

I'm exaggerating a bit, but putting a "sting" into a genuine reward can be worse than not having the reward at all.

Add to that: "You not only can't wear it, you can't sell it."
Players: *Really disappointed!*

 

[Bleys Icefalcon]

In my gaming world/our gaming group - magical armor re-sizes, for the most part. Legacy/Bonded types of equipment will only function for it's owner, or one of the right bloodline, etc. Arifact or Relic level stuff, or race specific stuff only works for the race/size it was built for.

A +3 suit of full plate will shift and re-size.

The Adamant Suit of the Black Razor will only fit the Black Razor. Period.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Heh. A storm Giants armour can resize to fit a halfling, but it weighs the same as it did on the giant. The halfling is protected. He just can't move.

 

[Minigiant]

I usually go by the nonracial nonartifact magic armor only resizes within its size.

It can resize up or down one category at a -2 penalty if not worked on by a magic smith, artificer, or spellcaster with appropriate tool proficiency.

 

[aramis erak]

As far as the basic rules are concerned, magic armor doesn't need to change size because all armor fits everyone. It's expected that the DM will step in and say something if this gets too far out of hand.

With the optional caveat that you're the same size category as the armor....
this is what I use.

 

[Athinar]

Do not make the Armor fit the character make the Character fit into the Armor, Cursed Armor, when the character dons the Armor the body of the Character changes shape to fit into the armor

 

[Psikerlord#]

I generally don't worry about sizing, but if I needed to (Halfling player wanting to put on big human armour), I would either allow a magical resize on the spot, or require a bit of downtime to have it adjusted by an armourer.

But either way, I wouldn't let race size get in the way of a good piece of loot.

 

[Sunseeker]

+X armor in my games isn't explicitly magical. It's just "well made".

Explicitly magical armor yes, I usually rule adjusts to fit the owner once you are attuned to it.

I don't think 5e is explicit about it one way or the other.

 

[Unwise]

As as GM I have never really had armor resize itself to fit a character. I just make it the right size for whoever ends up with it most times. Just don't describe the exact sizes etc until the PCs decide who they want to get it. Most times the armor is really only designed for one PC anyway.

I don't get it, who would get a suit of armor made for themselves and then think, gee, I better pay more to give it a special enchantment to fit the guy the murders me and takes it off my corpse?

I generally make it easy to get a blacksmith to change it, or a simple spell to resize it.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Where ever possible within the story, I let the players feel rewarded when finding magical items.

Especially because I've seen what happens when a group of players encounter enough magical "rewards" that they can't actually use or resell - they just stop bothering to loot anything.