[UPDATED] WotC Gives You Some Official 5E Modern Armor!

This took me rather by surprise - WotC has just posted statistics for D&D 5E versions of modern armor types, including leather jackets, tactical vests, forced entry units, and other items straight from d20 Modern. The article is titled "Firearms", but its focus is adding armor to use alongside the existing firearms in the Dungeon Master's Guide.

UPDATE: WotC has just renamed the article from 5E Firearms to My New d20 Modern Campaign.

Find the article here.

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[Sacrosanct]

Well, it's not like D&D's standard armour or weaponry roster (or coinage, or representation of medieval society for that matter) bears that much relation to reality anyway.

This is true. Like the fact that shuriken (throwing stars) were never mean to be fatal or kill anyone, and there's no record of them ever doing so. They were meant to distract while you closed in and killed them with a real weapon

In D&D terms, that means instead of a potential shittonne of damage (dmg die + ability mod), I would have it as 1 pt and your next melee attack is at advantage.

 

[Kramodlog]

What do you mean by credibility? Do you mean officially sanctioned content, or accuracy of said content?

I struggled with the word "credibility". I wasn't sure if I wanted to use it. I'm looking for a word that designate how fans/customers will rank material. A D&D book will be more "D&Desque" than an article released on WotC's website, but that article will have more street cred than a homebewed class released on a forum. Authenticity isn't the right word either.

 

[Kramodlog]

I'd agree, though I'd include digital content such as the PotA Player's Companion under #1, as it essentially is a "good old fashioned D&D book" in terms of playtesting, just not big enough to actually be printed.

Does it have the same level of editing? I've read comments made by Mouseferatu that it wasn't.

I'm also not 100% certain of what the distinction between your #3 and #4 really is... Daniel Helmick is part of D&D R&D, whether he's "known" or not, so I'd say this is at least as official as an Unearthed Arcana article with "pencil, not ink" disclaimer.

Street cred. Someone who is known generally has more than those who do not.

 

[TerraDave]

And now we close the simulationist pandora's box...

Yes, you can wear level IV in your chest and back pockets, or in groin and leg pockets, etc. In D&D terms, you'd have to handle it like something like a plate breastplate vs plate mail. When you start getting into all the different variations of where the armor can be worn, it overcomplicates a game like D&D



I disagree. no matter how much you oil chain or plate (which is almost never done in D&D), it's still fairly shiny and still makes noise. With modern body armor, each individual plate is not only matte black, but it's in a cloth pocket. I can see encumbrance affected Dexterity bonuses, but I don't see how it impacts hiding ability.

If you're going to look at D&D terms, we have to acknowledge that AC is an abstract number that includes avoidance AND resistance. So I suppose you could do either/or. To keep things simple, I'd probably do away with DR and just give higher AC values.

Again, don't really agree with the stealth bit (I seriously doubt plate armor actually squeaked or rattled much) but on the rest, sure.

So what is your proposal again?

 

[Wolf118]

Metal on metal *clinks*. Or *squeaks*. Having worn the IOTV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Outer_Tactical_Vest) with full plates front, back, side, and groin, you can move as silently as your feet can carry you. It doesn't make noise on its own, and only the gear you've attached to it will make noise as you move. You can walk, run, crouch, go prone, jump, etc, just as you would in regular clothes.

Climbing, however, is a stone cold b**** (from the way the armor covers your shoulders). And be careful jumping down from something, lest you buckle your knees.

 

[Blue]

I'm glad that they are putting up articles that are encouraging you to hack the system to fit what you want to do. I understand some with a higher level of knowledge with firearms than I do might want to tweak it numerically, but I think the whole article is the concept of "you've got the building blocks, tweak it for what YOU want to run".

That to me is the big thing that they are getting across to people here. Some of us might take it for granted, but others may feel daunted making changes for the type of campaign they want to run.

 

[Sacrosanct]

So what is your proposal again?

After thinking about it? I'd honestly probably go with something like this (using 5e terminology), and keeping it simple as possible

Light Armor
Vest, Level II..........AC 12

Medium Armor
Vest, Level III.........AC 15 (max DEX +2)
Vest, Level IV.........AC 17 (max DEX +2)
Body armor, Level II.....AC 14 (max DEX +3)

Heavy Armor (Str of 13+ or move reduced by 10ft)
Body armor, Level III....AC 17 (Max DEX +0)
Body armor, Level IV....AC 19 (Max DEX +0)

 

[Morrus]

I never really understood why folks valued the realism of contemporary fiction over the realism of medieval fiction.

 

[Remathilis]

Well...

Not gonna lie; modern cities with elves and ogres (the Urban Arcana route) was never my bag. HOWEVER, this stuff looks like the start of a sweet Masque of the Red Death or Dark*Matter 5e hack. One of my biggest concerns was armor, and while isn't quite all useful for MotRD, it certainly gives me a point to go on.

Since I SINCERELY doubt we're getting a new MotRD anytime soon, this might be as good as we get. I await his second article (Technomancy and City domain) to see what else he does.

+1 wait right now.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I never really understood why folks valued the realism of contemporary fiction over the realism of medieval fiction.

Probably because we can relate to is with day to day things we see everyday in real life, so we have a comparison. Hard to have an accurate comparison of what it was like to live in a castle with roving bands of orcs and worgs ransacking the countryside.