D&D 5E Sleeping in armor

[Kaylos]

I think that greatly depends on the person. I love a nice firm bed as long as I have a small blanket or decent pillow to tuck under my head, but my wife needs a super soft bed that she can sink into and 3+ pillows otherwise she doesn't sleep and is sore the next day.

Well, it is an odd beast. If I sleep on a firm mattress, I wake up with all kinds of soreness and pains. It isn't the same as sleeping on the ground or a Japanese style bed. I was always a soft mattress kind of guy. For my wife, it didn't matte what kind of mattress it was, it was bad. The tatami mat+futon has really helped her.

The shocking thing is, that when you really dig down into it, there isn't any real research on how bed types affect sleep, other than marketing/propaganda from companies and anecdotal evidence like mine. So mileage does vary.

At the end of the day, I think we consider our PCs experienced adventurers used to this kind of thing, especially a heavy armor class. This is the kind of person he is more like the battle worn soldier who could sleep in the middle of an active warzone in a foxhole. Sleeping in armor likely will have little effect on them. Hygiene issues are more likely, but I would consider those similar to having to eliminate bodily wastes, as in something usually skipped over in stories.

 

[Andor]

[MENTION=1768]evileeyore[/MENTION] touched on it but one real reason to take your armour off is maintainence. Rivets pop, straps break, dents need to be pounded out.

The reason a Knight was always accompanied by a squire was that between the armour, his weapons and his horse and tack it was simply too much maintainence for one man to do.

It depends on the armour of course, a buff coat or breastplate requires a lot less upkeep than full gothic plate. IIRC correctly the way you cleaned chainmail was popping it into a barrel half full of sand and rolling it around for a while. Kind of like an abrasive washing machine. And not something done in the field, although you still need to fix those popped rivets.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Don't forget bugs, fungus and the general rot titles illness. Armor, combat = blood, sweat and flesh on the armor, you will be feeding fleas, ants, flies, lice, some molds, foot rot, slimes, worms, etc.

 

[Dausuul]

Don't forget bugs, fungus and the general rot titles illness. Armor, combat = blood, sweat and flesh on the armor, you will be feeding fleas, ants, flies, lice, some molds, foot rot, slimes, worms, etc.

Of course you can't wear the stuff 24/7. The question is, after you take it off to clean both it and you, can you then put it back on and sleep in it? And are there limits to how long that can go on? It seems pretty clear you could manage it for a brief expedition (go to a dungeon, plunder it over a few days while returning to base camp each night, go back to town when done). Could you do it for a long overland journey?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Of course you can't wear the stuff 24/7. The question is, after you take it off to clean both it and you, can you then put it back on and sleep in it? And are there limits to how long that can go on? It seems pretty clear you could manage it for a brief expedition (go to a dungeon, plunder it over a few days while returning to base camp each night, go back to town when done). Could you do it for a long overland journey?

I think as a GM I would be looking at the character's nature and routine and make sure it is noted somewhere. Something on the lines of:
Camp Setup:

• Ranger Bob goes off to set animal traps and alarms on the way back he collects fire wood.
• Wizard Hammermight, starts the cooking fire and getting a meal started.
• Cleric Sally gets water and purifies it.
• Rogue Tightpants starts first watch.
• Fighter Brawny - removes armor and starts to clean/repair it. After meal he will put it on and sleep in it.

The fighter is the only character that has this in a routine, so as a GM I see no problem with it. As far as the others, any armor is taken off.

 

[Starfox]

People adapt. I can well imagine that I would have trouble sleeping in armor because I'm not used to it, but if I did it every night, I'd adjust after a while. A veteran fighter camping out in a monster-haunted wilderness might have trouble sleeping without armor!

This is what armor proficiency is for. I'd not let somebody improficient sleep much in armor.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

Personally, I allow PCs to sleep in armor whether it's realistic or not. Why? Because smart fighters don't change into their jammies in the middle of a dungeon.

 

[Dausuul]

This is what armor proficiency is for. I'd not let somebody improficient sleep much in armor.

This is tantamount to saying "You can sleep in armor with no restrictions," since nobody wears armor in the first place unless they're proficient with it.

Which is fine by me, really. Sleeping in armor is realistic under most circumstances where it's likely to be an issue. It's less hassle to keep track of. It avoids arguments with the players. It doesn't specially screw over the fighter in a nighttime ambush (the rogue loses 2-3 points of AC without armor, where the fighter can easily lose 7-8). I don't see any reason to work out rules for how many nights in a row you can get away with it and how often you have to clean the stuff. Figure that gets taken care of in downtime.

Now, if the fighter is sleeping in bed in a nice inn, and still claims to be in armor, the player is going to get a funny look from me and some questions about when exactly that stuff comes off. But it's not something that's going to come up all that often. (If it does come up often, the player will be quite justified in answering, "The armor stays on because every time we sleep at an inn, we get jumped by freakin' assassins!" Touche, hypothetical fighter player.)

 

[Sword of Spirit]

"The armor stays on because every time we sleep at an inn, we get jumped by freakin' assassins!" Touche, hypothetical fighter player.)

So it's not just me...

 

[Beleriphon]

The "danger" there though is more from sweating heavily in your clothes and then when you stop laboring those dampened clothes cool very, very rapidly and don't retain heat the way are supposed to. It's honestly better if laboring heavily in the cold to remove a few layers to cool you before you're sweating and then put those layers back on when you're done working out.

I've had socks and pants get sweat soaked and then had ice form on them when I stopped working (of course riding on the back of the truck in wind and cold didn't help).

Unless its wool. Real, natural wool mind, will help retain heat even if soaked through. Dry is better for sure, but wool will keep you warm even if it gets wet.