Is there a definative list of the armors a druid can't wear? What does it cost to get, say, scale mail, breastplate, or half plate made out of iron wood or some kind of beasty scale? I'm looking through the magic items, but how much do you think a mundane piece would cost? Is the druid's armor restriction a balancing mechanism (since they cast more like a wizard), or is it not (standard clerics get medium armor, and they have similar spells).
How much would you charge for mundane iron wood or beast scale, breastplate, or half plate?
Traditionally, the restriction has been non-metal because...druid. Naturey. And all those you mentioned are not considered "mundane". Mundane is leather, hide, possibly studded leather. Ironwood and darkwood are magical (in fact, ironwood has to be made with a spell in previous editions). Beast scale would basically be hide armor and not offer any better protection unless you are willing to pay some high prices for things like dragonscale. I don't recall anything in the 5E equipment and magic items lists along those lines, but then I'm AFB at the moment.
There is a dragon scale in the magic items; that's all I can find.
And I know the thematic reason for the restriction; my question is does the druid need that restriction for balance, or are they taking an AC hit just because nature (because the flesh of animals is okay to wear, but the bones of the earth aren't).
Perkins says "Your campaign, your rules."
So probably not a big balancing issue. Doesn't seem like it to me in any case.
I would say that all armor types can be made with natural components instead of metal. Considering this is dungeons and dragons, you won't convince me that the druid can't make himself studded leather armor using bone, rock and animal skin. Or even plate armor using ankheg shells or something.
Armor is not really a "balance" factor in 5th edition since the difference between each category of armor is normally no more than 1 AC if you are doing what you can to top-off your AC from armor.
The druid limitation is 100% flavorful tradition.
I make non-metal versions of armour available to my players at no additional cost, whether they're playing druids, Nature clerics, or barbarians who don't want a lot of worked metal. I also allow druids to begin with a set of scale armour if they want it; since clerics have the option of scale or chain, it seems fair to allow that for druids as well.
My list of reskinned armours available for druids:
Studded Leather - Reinforced Leather, Scale and Leather
Scale Mail - Garscale, Drakescale, Crocodile/Dinosaur Hide
Chainmail - Ironvine armour
Breastplate - Greatshell armour
Half-Plate - Ironwood and Leather, Heavy Greatshell armour
Full Plate - Ironwood armour, Stoneshaped armour
Nobody ever wants ringmail, so I didn't bother renaming it.
Direach wrote:
Direach wrote:
Unless it's magical obsidian, you wouldn't want to utilize it in armour. Obsidian is very hard, but brittle; it would be crushed if it was struck. And if you're going to use magical obsidian, you may as well use something magical and cheaper, like ironwood acorns. 
I just called it "reinforced leather" rather than studded because it avoids the entire issue with the structure and function of metal studs in leather armour. I see this form of AC 12 light armour as utilizing tougher leather, overlapping leather, or as leather armour reinforced in places with tough animal scales (like from a gar, drake, giant snake, etc).
Elfcrusher wrote:
What's the reasoning on druids not liking metal, anyway? Can't see how it's less natural than anything else, unless there's something in D&D (meta)physics that makes a difference.
Entirely flavor-based, and solely based on the whim of Arneson, Gygax or whoever wrote up the druid class in AD&D. The basic rationale is that "worked" metal is too much of a civilized/man-made thing, same reason druids had a limited weapon selection - they mainly only got to use a sickle because it was a traditional harvesting tool used in their religious rites.
There is definitely a 'balance' issue at work. Letting a Druid go from AC 11/12 armor to AC 15 armor is a big jump. Not to mention being able to MC and grab AC 18 armor.... just because they say it is made from turtle shell, or really hard wood.....
Part of the schtick of Druids is that they are 'one with nature' and thus what they use for protection is based on that.... hides, leather, furs, etc
Not saying it will break your game, but it is a big boost, especially with bounded accuracy. Also, depending on how you see your campaign world... making armor from animal shells and chitin is going to be very problematic. Metal works because it can be shaped to the right specifications.
We've discussed this to exhaustion before. My ruling is that the limitation is only a proficiency limitation, applies to medium and armors except hide, and that if the druid gains proficiency in medium armors from another source, that restriction is removed. Additionally, the druid counts as proficient in medium armor for feat qualification.
I would agree with RCanine. It's a lack of proficiency, not anything else. Depending on campaign, other druids might not consider you a 'real' druid, or may be more hostile than that, but in terms of mechanics, no problem.
Just for fun, I'll note that the text from the druid entry could also be read to say that druids will not wear armour of any sort, but will only avoid using shields made of metal.
What if your world has Pokemon, and you make hide armor from the hide of a Steelix? Can the druid wear it?
Macv12 wrote:
Back in the day when the restriction first came about, if you had any more metal then a scimitar or silver sickle, basically the nature magic didnt work. You could do everything a druid could do, just not cast any spells, or shape sift..
Druids can wear any metal armor they're proficient in. They just wont. Why? Because WoTC decided they know better than you how to RP your character.
I think it's possible they wanted the traditional restriction, but didn't want to mess up their neat arrangement of armour proficiencies by giving the druid an odd selection; that can get messy.
Imagine, for example, if they'd made druids only proficient with non-metal armour, and someone was looking at the Medium Armour Master feat. Can they take it because the druid is proficient with some kind of medium armour, or are they excluded because they aren't unilaterally proficient?
I once heard that the restriction on metal armor is because being encased in metal interferes with the shape changing magic. Metal holds its shape and wont morph with you. I’m not sure if this was from an older edition, some other game, or standard mythology.
As for a list, anything with metal armors count. The long text descriptions of armor specifically state if they contain metal. It should be noted that Studded Leather doesn’t mention metal. It seems that most people on this site think this was an oversight and that it’s obvious that Studded Leather contains metal and is on the Druid restriction list. Personally, I feel it was written this way on purpose to allow Druids to wear Studded Leather. Either because the metal content was low enough to not meet the restriction or because it was assumed the studs could easily be (or often were) made of something other than metal.
For the game I play in, during session zero we asked about armors not made of metal. Do they exist? How hard would it be to find/buy? Magic only or mundane as well? Talk it over with your GM. If you don’t hear the answers you like, then either deal with the restriction, find a way around the restriction (I like the proficiency restriction mentioned above), or don’t play a Druid.
Yunru wrote:
Yes it's with relation to armor proficiencies, but "will not wear" is a clear cut RP choice. Compare with a simple "Except armor [...] made out of metal". As written Druids never wear metal armor. Because they don't. You can dislike it as much as me or not even care, but there you have it: your character is entirely yours to RP- but only if you RP it this way. :/
Yunru wrote:
Without being told why they won't wear metal armour or use metal shields, it could just be because they're no good with them. But then, given that it's a parenthetical statement, we can probably assume it's providing more information on the general statement of which proficiencies a druid will normally possess. It's just one of a variety of statements where the unknown reasoning may or may not mean that the statement itself is valid in some particular circumstances.
You could easily say something like "This armour is made of metal and leather, hence it is not made of metal and my druid can wear it.". Technically, it would be true for one reading of the sentence (that by saying "made of metal" it means "made entirely of metal" rather than "made of various materials including metal"), and without knowing the reasoning involved, there's not much to say it isn't the correct reading.
Jamwes wrote:
In unrelated news you still haven't updated your guide: CR 1 forms are available at second level.
Slagger_the_Chuul wrote:
Yunru wrote:
RCanine wrote:
RCanine wrote:
I'm willing to accept the restrictions if the "team" thinks the circle of the land druid is more comparable to a Wizard/Sorcerer/Warlock than a Cleric. I haven't really delved into the spells, I've just taken them at face value, but the Arcane casters are generally limited to 13+Dex AC. The circle of the moon druid doesn't care, because they tend to fight in beast form anyway.