D&D 5E RAW: Can druids wear studded leather?

[Oofta]

Much like ring mail, I'd rule that studded leather has a significant amount of metal and still would not be wearable by druids. Technically the studs don't have to be metal, but realistically they would be simply because little else is as durable or effective. There is no leather armor where you can just put small studs here and there and expect those studs to do anything significant. The only historical equivalent was probably brigandine, which is basically metal armor held together by leather.

If your DM allows "other materials" why bother stopping with studded leather? Be a rules lawyer and throw on ring mail. Or just get that plate made out of a non-metal material that weighs approximately the same while being non-metallic yet formable material that can be easily reshaped. It's called "does-not-exist"ium. Or magic, of course.

In other words, sometimes there is no one true answer, ask your DM.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Keep an eye out for people able to work leather withing the adventures or campaign. If you kill a creature or animal whose hide you think might be usable as armour, skin it, go to them, and ask the DM how much they will charge to work it into a suit of armour. That might be an easier method than just trying to find a suit made from natural materials for sale already.

Much like ring mail, I'd rule that studded leather has a significant amount of metal and still would not be wearable by druids. Technically the studs don't have to be metal, but realistically they would be simply because little else is as durable or effective. There is no leather armor where you can just put small studs here and there and expect those studs to do anything significant. The only historical equivalent was probably brigandine, which is basically metal armor held together by leather.

The nonexistence of studded leather armour in real life doesn't really help when adjudicating what it is within the rules of a game in which it does exist.
If you're going to take perfectly good leather armour and introduce points of weakness all over it, making the studs of ivory, bone or even wood is not going to make a huge difference to its effectiveness.

If your DM allows "other materials" why bother stopping with studded leather? Be a rules lawyer and throw on ring mail. Or just get that plate made out of a non-metal material that weighs approximately the same while being non-metallic yet formable material that can be easily reshaped. It's called "does-not-exist"ium. Or magic, of course.

Or even scale mail! Ridiculous concept isn't it?

 

[Stalker0]

So if we are going for total RAW.

Every armor in its description says the actual word “metal” in its description, except for the following:

Padded
Leather
Studded leather
Hide
Ring Mail

Studded leather says rivets, but since rivets have no mechanical impact, and the word metal is specifically said with other armors, but not studded leather, than it should be allowed.

 

[Oofta]

Keep an eye out for people able to work leather withing the adventures or campaign. If you kill a creature or animal whose hide you think might be usable as armour, skin it, go to them, and ask the DM how much they will charge to work it into a suit of armour. That might be an easier method than just trying to find a suit made from natural materials for sale already.

The nonexistence of studded leather armour in real life doesn't really help when adjudicating what it is within the rules of a game in which it does exist.
If you're going to take perfectly good leather armour and introduce points of weakness all over it, making the studs of ivory, bone or even wood is not going to make a huge difference to its effectiveness.

Or even scale mail! Ridiculous concept isn't it?

I would actually be more inclined to allow scale male made from scales of [insert beast X here] than the other options.

I just think it's a house rule for the scale male and a DM's ruling for the studded leather. Ask you DM they may rule differently. If it's AL and you have a variety of DMs, I'd stick with leather to be safe.

 

[Ganders]

I find the discussion of Ring Mail for a druid rather dubious, since druids don't get proficiency in heavy armor.

The very first sentence of the Heat Metal spell rules out casting it on studded leather. That's as close as you'll get to RAW saying it isn't metal armor.

The second closest thing to RAW is various tweets from the people who write the game. Several tweets have said they do let druids wear studded leather.

On a related note, none of the armor or weapons specify 'steel' either. There are a couple mentions in equipment (steel mirror, flint and steel), and a few mentions in fluff (especially the first sentence under Half-Orc). But for the most part, it could be entirely bronze-age materials and designs.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Since Druids have proficiency in Light and Medium armors, if you take out Studded Leather you are limiting them to Padded, Leather, and Hide only. Seems incredible restrictive to me personally but still when you look at those three armors:

Padded (AC 11, 5 gp, 8 lbs, "bulky" so disadvantage on Stealth)
Leather (AC 11, 10 gp, 10 lbs, no disadvantage)
Hide (AC 12, 10 gp, 12 lbs, no disadvantage)

to Studded Leather (AC 12, 45 gp, 13 lbs, no disadvantage)

Why would you ever take Studded Leather over Hide unless maybe it is magical or something? Studded Leather costs more and weighs slightly more, but offers the same AC. Unless your druid has a high Dex (16+) there doesn't seem much point to choosing it over Hide.

Now, speaking of making armor from other natural materials. We recently killed a Young Adult Black dragon and skinned it. Our DM let one player spend a few months crafting the hide into a special heavier hide equivalent to scale mail (AC 14, 30 lbs., but no disadvantage) that the sorcerer/druid can wear.

Anyway, lots of stuff for Druids if your DM wants to include it one way or another.

 

[snickersnax]

I'm in favor of allowing druids to wear bone breastplates

https://wanderingbull.com/archives/bone-breastplate/

 

[Shiroiken]

The problem with the OP's situation is that there is no RAW answer. Studded leader doesn't state that the studs are metal, but most people assume that they are. If the DM assumes that it's metal, then he is right for his game (even AL or other organized play), because DM's are required to make that call. Unless you always play with this DM, I'd suggest buying both and taking the armor that is accepted by the DM on the adventure (make sure to talk to them in advance).

 

[S'mon]

The problem with the OP's situation is that there is no RAW answer. Studded leader doesn't state that the studs are metal, but most people assume that they are. If the DM assumes that it's metal, then he is right for his game (even AL or other organized play), because DM's are required to make that call. Unless you always play with this DM, I'd suggest buying both and taking the armor that is accepted by the DM on the adventure (make sure to talk to them in advance).

Or make a DEX 14 Druid in Hide?

 

[LordEntrails]

Why would you ever take Studded Leather over Hide unless maybe it is magical or something? Studded Leather costs more and weighs slightly more, but offers the same AC. Unless your druid has a high Dex (16+) there doesn't seem much point to choosing it over Hide.

Which is exactly the situation stated in the OP. He was wondering if he should use a magic item to raise his dex to 16 and then buy Studded Leather.

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As other have said, I believe RAI is that druids can wear studded. I also believe that RAW is not clear if studded is considered metal or not, and if druids can actually wear metal armor or if it's just fluff (imo it's a rule, not fluff).

All that said, I would see if AL has made a ruling or statement on this. Hopefully they have, but I can't find one.