Sage Advice 3/21/16 Exploding druids and antimagic field vs zombies and cure wounds

The answer to the druid and metal armor is excellent. Not so much the ruling itself, but the clear way it explains that classes have both story and game elements, and some classes have more story elements than others.

 

[Saeviomagy]

All round, a bunch of fairly poor answers that cause more problems than they solve.

What happens if a druid wears metal armor? Make something up. I won't help you. I will suggest something that there is no guidance to handle (ie - you might no longer be a member of your class).

Can you use dispel magic to get rid of a vampire charm? No. If you don't have a cleric, bard or druid, your party is stuffed. Note that this applies to most magical effects.

At least the mage armor one contains the what and the why.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Crawford is wrong on that point. If the paladin code is not meant to be a genuine limiting of choices, ie a balancing factor, then there is no reason to play a fighter, which breaks the system in my view. Druids wearing armour yeah not so much.

edit: even the metal armour druid is still a balance concern, just not enough of a concern to break the system.

I don't think the general D&D playing populace or the designers would agree that there is no reason to play a fighter when you are in a campaign where paladin codes rarely come up / aren't enforced.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I don't think the general D&D playing populace or the designers would agree that there is no reason to play a fighter when you are in a campaign where paladin codes rarely come up / aren't enforced.

From my perspective, if paladin codes don't exist/aren't enforced then there is no reason to play a paladin.

 

[Ganymede81]

Highlights for me that that is a very bad way to balance classes. If you want a restriction on kinds of armour for druids, spell it out rules wise! Don't rely on nebulous "story" aspects when balancing.

That's the thing... based on the Sage Advice article, the armor restriction for druids wasn't meant as a way to balance the class.

 

[Flamestrike]

Crawford is wrong on that point. If the paladin code is not meant to be a genuine limiting of choices, ie a balancing factor, then there is no reason to play a fighter, which breaks the system in my view. Druids wearing armour yeah not so much.

Huh? Fighter and Paladin balance perfectly fine as they are when youre getting 2 short rests per day. Example:

Vengance Paladin 5:
Lay on hands healing: 20HP per day
Bonus smite damage: +14d8 per day (all spells used for smites)
Divine channel [advantage 1 foe]: 3/day
Feat/ ASI
Divine health/ Divine sense
limited spell utility
Two attacks

BM Fighter 5:
Second wind healing: [3d10(16.5)+15] or 31.5 HP oer day
Bonus sup dice damage:+12d8 per day
Action surge [extra action]: 3/day
Feat/ ASI
Con saves, less MAD, better skills
limited manouver utility
Two attacks

Additionally there is every reason to play a Fighter over a Paladin if your DM is giving you a short rest after every battle, and you get a lot of battles a day.

Six short rests per day at high level = 14 action surges, 50 odd d12 superiority dice, and 7d10+140 worth of HP healing to spam with your 4 GWM power attacks per action.

They might not balance in your campaign, but you have shorter AD's with fewer short rests. Im not sure slapping a PC down with Oath transgressions is the way I would handle any balance issues, but thats up to you.

 

[I'm A Banana]

From my perspective, if paladin codes don't exist/aren't enforced then there is no reason to play a paladin.

I think I'm in your boat - the fluff restrictions are an important part of the class's feel to me, and I think even if I was in a game that didn't care about the oath or scale mail, I'd do it anyway. It's a fun kind of role-playing challenge.

 

[Flamestrike]

I think I'm in your boat - the fluff restrictions are an important part of the class's feel to me, and I think even if I was in a game that didn't care about the oath or scale mail, I'd do it anyway. It's a fun kind of role-playing challenge.

Same.

In my home campaign I just randomly rolled chainmail of radiant damage resistance. I fluffed it as being made out of magically hardened bone links (necromancy feel) as a spur of the moment descriptive clue to what it did.

Our party [Druid/ Ancients Paladins] eyes lit up immediately.

Unintended consequence of a spur of the moment fluff call, but totally cool and has broken nothing (he's mostly in bear form anyway).

 

[ZeshinX]

Always amused that Druids in D&D were averse to wearing metal armor and using metal shields....but have no problem at all with metal weapons.

 

[Guest 6801328]

"Spells—they’re what dispel magic is about."

So why didn't they just call it "Dispel" and be done with it?

 

[TwoSix]

"Spells—they’re what dispel magic is about."

So why didn't they just call it "Dispel" and be done with it?

Sacred cow, I imagine.