D&D 5E Shield Saltiness

[Laurefindel]

Didn't Pendragon asked Merlin for a potion to look like another guy and have sex with that guy's wife?

...in full plate armour, yes.

 

[Undrave]

...in full plate armour, yes.

She was into the sound of clanging metal

 

[Ancalagon]

The rules are pretty clear about donning and doffing a shield. The DM can house-rule it, but I don't think the player has a leg to stand on here.

However, the rules are deliberately vague about what is and is not "appropriate in a civilized town" or whatever. And rightly so! Not every city is the same. Sure, in a wealthy and peaceful city (like a hobbit shire), wearing armor or carrying a shield outside of a military parade would look very out-of-place, even threatening. But in a city with a warlike culture or a proud military tradition (dwarven clanholds, for example), carrying a shield around town might not be a problem...in fact, it might be considered proper attire for formal occasions and you could get kicked out for not wearing a shield.

My advice: stick to the rules as written as far as the action economy is concerned, then have a long chat with your DM about the cultural expectations in the campaign.

That is it, isn't it? It's not a rule problem, it's a setting problem.

 

[Ancalagon]

Almost as silly as this guy wearing pajamas having a better AC
View attachment 129894

This is D&D, we can't have this discussion.

In combat you have skill at preventing/parying/dodging attacks, and you have resistance to damage. It's two separate things. In some other gaming system (warhammer frpg 2nd ed for example), these are separate systems. But in D&D, for simplicity's sake, it's been mashed together in one system - armor class. Because of this, it's... kinda pointless to have the discussion.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It was better than your 'I cosplayed as a Knight during a LARP tourney' once argument.

It's unavoidable! When you're wearing 20kgs of plates (ceramic or steel) encased in kevlar or cloth, you're going to get chafing and sweating. Sitting (and lying) down and standing up, and doing normal basic tasks become more difficult.

You can get a comfortable backpack with 20kgs in it and wear it around town all day, but I assure you, by the end of the day you're going to be sweaty and sore and are going to want to put it down. You're not going to want to wear it around town doing your shopping, sight seeing, getting dinner and so forth.


Relevant to an extent (Barovia is dangerous, its poorly policed, you are being watched by a powerful vampire, and the locals have seen it all), but it would still be super weird seeing someone walk into town in full plate armour, order an ale, before retiring to their room, and then come back down from their room, still decked out in the panoply of war.

Even in Barovia there are social norms to follow. At a bare minimum the dude in armour in such a scenario would be getting disadvantage to Charisma checks (barring Intimidate, where they might actually get advantage) and would be flat out refused service in many shops.

Image being a shopkeeper and some dude rocks into your shop wearing a plate carrier and ballistic helmet. You would be pushing the red panic button and lifting the security screens before he got 2 steps in the room.


Irrelevant to me. I expect realistic human behaviour from my PCs and reject absurdism.

Taking off your armour in town after a hard week on the road wearing it most of the day, and after numerous battles, is what a normal, sane human would do.

There is no 'in game' reason to do so (other than the DM slapping an exhaustion level on you for basically unrealistically living in your armour 24/7, and penalties to social interactions, or outright refusal of many PCs to even want to talk to you), but that doesnt take away from the utter absurdity of someone wearing armour all day, every day, even in towns and during downtime.

It doesnt happen. It has no historical precedent. It's absurd.

Good lord where to even begin. I’ve worn actual plate armor all day, for days at a time, but sure your experience with a very different type of armor is totally more relevant and valid. Okay, bud.
That’s sarcasm, to be clear.

But don’t bother replying further, I’ve seen enough from you in several threads to know you aren’t a person i want to interact with any further.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It is most certainly cumbersome. It's not nearly as cumbersome as a lot of people used to think (before the SCA and modern Armored Combat Sports and historian YouTubers and such debunked misconceptions about it being enormously heavy and unwieldy), but no one wears armor all day long unless they've got a good reason (and yes, sometimes that good reason is a hobby; but hobbyists do it on special occasions, not all day every day).

It’s possibly that we have a different threshold for what cumbersome rightly refers to.

And I never said otherwise, to the rest of this, except to say that circumstances like that of the OP are valid for wearing armor all day. Not a shield on the arm as that would literally start hurting eventually, mostly at the joints, but armor certainly. Especially in a place that isn’t brutally hot or extremely cold.

But yes, people would wear armor in town if town is full of threats. Town, in Barovia, isn’t safer than the wilds or a dungeon.

 

[Oofta]

This is D&D, we can't have this discussion.

In combat you have skill at preventing/parying/dodging attacks, and you have resistance to damage. It's two separate things. In some other gaming system (warhammer frpg 2nd ed for example), these are separate systems. But in D&D, for simplicity's sake, it's been mashed together in one system - armor class. Because of this, it's... kinda pointless to have the discussion.

Sure we can. AC is an abstraction and a fundamental descriptor of the PC. From a game standpoint, it's right up there with HP to determine a PC's durability.

So from a GAME perspective, rules that restrict armor (but only some PC's armor) is an imbalance in the gameplay. As far as how realistic it is, I'm not sure I care. It's a common fiction trope, it's a fantasy game.

It just seems funny considering how unrealistic D&D is in many ways that some DMs get so hung up on this. I get that it could be uncomfortable (exactly how uncomfortable seems to be up for debate), but it's a lot more comfortable than your insides being on the outside. I mean, how many times does a "party" turn into "a combat where only the PCs that get nerfed are the ones that rely on weapons and armor"? To me a guy running around in pajamas having the same AC as someone in plate is just as unrealistic.

 

[CleverNickName]

It just seems funny considering how unrealistic D&D is in many ways that some DMs get so hung up on this.

To be fair, plenty of players seem to be hung up on this topic as well, from the opposite direction. "So what if I'm wearing fifty pounds of steel? Nobody at the funeral will even notice!"

 

[Umbran]

But don’t bother replying further, I’ve seen enough from you in several threads to know you aren’t a person i want to interact with any further.

Mod Note:
Next time, if you want to drop a subject, please drop it yourself, rather than take a last shot, and then order someone else to do things. Thanks.

 

[Mannahnin]

It’s possibly that we have a different threshold for what cumbersome rightly refers to.

And I never said otherwise, to the rest of this, except to say that circumstances like that of the OP are valid for wearing armor all day. Not a shield on the arm as that would literally start hurting eventually, mostly at the joints, but armor certainly. Especially in a place that isn’t brutally hot or extremely cold.

But yes, people would wear armor in town if town is full of threats. Town, in Barovia, isn’t safer than the wilds or a dungeon.

Well that's the question, isn't it?

Jokes about "fantasy Fu***** Vietnam" and all the NPCs being werewolves and vampires aside, the OP didn't actually give enough details for us to know that for sure.

He said they're running Curse of Strahd, but that doesn't tell me whether or not the PCs are routinely attacked in town (in which case, sure, I agree that being on guard makes sense), or whether most of the time they're safe in town, and the encounters in city limits are rare exceptions, in which case it would make more sense for villagers to give them the hairy eyeball for going around fully kitted up. I can't tell for sure from the OP whether the DM's being unreasonable, or the players are. Either way they should probably communicate better so they're on the same page and in a less adversarial stance, which was my main recommendation.

PS: I've walked around all day in armor and bearing a shield; IME it does get tiring and is certainly less comfortable than NOT wearing armor. And the shield wasn't too bad, but I certainly put it down sometimes (leaned it against a chair, or against my legs outdoors if standing) to give my arm an occasional break.