[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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[Umbran]

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

It does. At least, modern suits made in the form of old ones do.

If nothing else, in order to move in such armor so as to make no noise, you'd have to walk without allowing your arms to touch your body, or allowing your legs to touch each other, which is awkward. And from there, it isn't like these old armors are put together like a modern robot. They are plates held together with rivets, and held on the body with leather straps - there is *give* to the whole thing, and some of the pieces flap around a bit. The plates shift and come into contact with each other at each joint, with every motion.

Remember - "not restrictive" does not mean "quiet".

Listen as this guy moves around...

[video]https://youtu.be/gcJiB6lvkEg[/video]

 

[Morrus]

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.

The analogy isn't real life, any more than D&D is about Henry VIII; it's The A Team and Knight Rider and Commando and Under Siege.

 

[Evenglare]

Let me know when this is in a PDF and it'll be relevant for me to download and print in a nice format.

 

[Morrus]

Let me know when this is in a PDF and it'll be relevant for me to download and print in a nice format.

Just for clarity -- who are you assigning the task of letting you know, and in what way should that person do so?

 

[Dire Bare]

Awesome article! I also loved d20 Modern and Urban Arcana! And there will be more "5E Modern" articles to come! Woo-hoo!

Arguing about the "officialness" and "credibility" of the article I think misses the point and is a bit silly.

I do think that the author, Helmick, needs to have a sidebar detailing DR for 5E. The concept is pretty easy and most of us in this thread seem to already understand it, but it is *new* for 5E. I didn't miss DR in the DMG, did I?

 

[Umbran]

Let me know when this is in a PDF and it'll be relevant for me to download and print in a nice format.

I will let you know that a simple copy-paste operation from Chrome into MS World doesn't do too bad. As-is, the tables need landscape orientation to print properly, but I suspect that's fixable with minimal fiddling.

A series of articles on a developer's homebrew is not a "product". You may, like a homebrewer, have to do some work yourself.

 

[emssmiley2002]

OK, rather than just flip out , let me offer my revision. Please reference the below image I quickly threw together. A couple notes:

* "tactical vests" don't offer any protection on their own. That's not what a tactical vest does. It's meant to carry your gear and typically made with lightweight webbing to allow your body to breathe.

* the famous "dragonskin" body armor is certified at level III. It's not some super uber body armor.

* body armor is divided into levels. See the image to see what sort of protection each gives.


So...

Knowing that AC is abstract in D&D, we really can't go with the realistic "if armor = X and weapon fired is from a pistol, ignore all damage, but if fired from a rifle caliber, then no damage is ignored, yada yada yada." That gets too complicated and is too much to remember. So my suggestions?

* No armor gives disadvantage to stealth. each plate is in an individual pocket and it doesn't make any more noise than your regular clothes.
* due to weight and encumbrance, I would give a max DEX bonus of +2 for level III or higher armor. Remember that level III and IV don't weigh that much different or carry different in any appreciative value. They are just made from different materials
* Level II armor gives DR2, Level III gives overall resistance, Level IV gives resistance or DR10, whichever is higher.

And be done with it.


View attachment 67867

Ha Dragonskin caught my eye. I wore it while working in Iraq back in 08, very light weight and would stop multiple rounds and shrapnel. I never got hit with it on but a buddy of mine in another truck got nailed by an IED and as we were evac-ing him out of the ed Suburban he took 3 AK rds to the back. That was on top of the shrapnel he took to the skin. His right leg was broke and had shrapnel in it but if it hadn't been for the skin he would of been dead.

Sometimes we wore IBA and the skin under it, about 16lbs, not including ammo and other toys (Smoke, grenades, radios, med kits, etc.) We did that only on runs into SADR City or south into,Yusufiyah,Mahmoumoudiyah,Latifiyah. The ol Triangle of death. Never got hit when down there it was just in Ol Mookies back yard (Sadr ) we always got hit. Sorry don't know why I wrote all that, since it has nothing to do with game play, except that maybe the skin should be given some magical properties or a +2 or 3 to the Armor class with no penalties. Just sayin and Ill go back to lurkin.

 

[Mistwell]

But no one should be going on twitter and asking if tactical body armor should have an armor bonus or why DR was included to the rules.

Why not?

 

[ccooke]

Awesome article! I also loved d20 Modern and Urban Arcana! And there will be more "5E Modern" articles to come! Woo-hoo!

Arguing about the "officialness" and "credibility" of the article I think misses the point and is a bit silly.

I do think that the author, Helmick, needs to have a sidebar detailing DR for 5E. The concept is pretty easy and most of us in this thread seem to already understand it, but it is *new* for 5E. I didn't miss DR in the DMG, did I?

I'm afraid you missed it in the PHB.

Try the Heavy Armour Master feat, DR3 against piercing, slashing and bludgeoning.

I like this article, anyway - I don't really care how accurate it is either, and the rules look workable.

More to the point, I like the Aim bonus action and the basic idea of how to spread out the weapons. I'm surprised people aren't commenting on those more

 

[Paraxis]

The DR doesn't even work like normal DR.

DR in 3.0/3.5/Pathfinder works where the key word damage type after the / is what gets through the damage reduction. So as written if using d20 modern rules the DR 2/ballistic armor would reduce damage from everything except ballistic damage by 2 points and ballistic damage would do full damage.

But by the article,

"As you can see from the table, many of the heavier armors grant damage reduction (DR) or resistance to several damage types, including a new damage type: ballistic damage."

and the fact that these are kevlar vests it seems the intent is that the vests provide reduced damage against ballistic damage.

The whole thing is kind of odd.