neilselden wrote:
Studded Leather is kind of in a gray area but based on the description out of the PHB I'd say that druids will not wear it. While the base is leather it's reinforced with studs or spikes of metal to a degree that would classify it as metal armor (it'd probably have more metal on it than a metal shield). Studded leather doesn't get shown in movies much so it's hard to find a good example, but it's much more metal than say the spiked "road warrior" armor which would just be classified as leather armor in D&D.
Make the studs bone. If your DM allows, you can then wear it. Work with your DM and either be willing to pay extra for the armor due to being crafted from non-standard components, or have a good backstory as to why you have bone-studded leather armor. 
Disclaimer: this may not work with all DMs. :p
Studded leather makes no mention of what the studs are made of, so they can be anything.
neilselden wrote:
Plaguescarred wrote:
Polaris wrote:
It's honestly up to your DM how strictly they want to read that rule, and their interpretation of what "studded leather" looks like.
(The most common "real-world" equivalent was often called brigandine - which would disqualify it by RAW, as it was actually a large number of small metal plates sandwiched inbetween two layers of canvas or leather - the "studs" on the outside of the armor were the rivets holding the plates in place, and not the actual means of providing protection from blows. Depending on the size, number and positioning of the plates, this could either be categorized in-game as studded leather or, in past editions, splint mail.)
Personally, I'd let a druid wear studded leather, as I've always interpreted the "no metal armor" to mean that they wouldn't wear armor which was for all intents and purposes entirely composed of metal such as chainmail and plate armor.
Jay_Ibero_911 wrote:
Archon007 wrote:
Out of interest, if Druids cannot have metal armour, how come they can have metal weapons?
Iorwerth wrote:
Correction: Unwritten fluff.
I think some non-metal variants of armors should be added to give druids more choices. Basically treat them exactly like other light or medium armors, not sure which ones though.
Some ideas: bone armor, wood armor, or even a giant turtle shell.
There's no reason why armors can't be completely made of non-metal components. It seems that some posters are stopping their own imagination for no reason. this is a fantasy setting where great worm creatures come out of the ground with carapace armor harder than steel. Why is it such a stretch to think that the smiths of the world would know about these creatures and make armor out of their limbs? Or weapons? Stop limiting yourselves!!
There's also nothing rule-wise to stop this. Some armor specifically calls out that it's made with metal, others do not. Let the druid wear bone armor if he wants. You're only harming your game experience if you don't.
I would rule that standard studded leather is made out of fairly large metal studs -- sufficient to offer protection. These aren't likely buckles. No a druid could not wear it without lose of abilities.
However, it is certainly possible that certain armours could be made out of other materials. I know in the older Living Campaigns, they gave out certed turtle shell shields, wyvern breastplate, etc. We know in some campaign settings that ironwood or other special woods exist. Others have special crystal materials. I've seen petrified wood armor in one campaign. The Living campaigns often handed out certs for access to special materials and the old DMG had rules on some of them. These special materials probably couldn't be worked by a standard armorer.
This would be a good case for the PC to work with the DM and roleplay looking for these types of armors or someone who could make them. This would be a good quest for a DM to give the player... visiting the sylvan elves of X whose druid knows where a sacred ironwood tree died. If he can fight the rock trolls in the area, maybe they can recover enough for a breast plate. However, they would still need to find the gnome hermit form Y who knows how to make it and he is known to need white dragon teeth for his work.
Traditionally (3.X player here), studded leather was barred from druids due to their prohibition on metal armor. The restriction agains metal armor has become more loosly defined in this edition than in 3.X as there is not a mechanical penalty for wearing the armor, just a line stating that druids will not wear metal armor. So, it falls, as always, to DM discretion.
I wouldn't allow it.
The point of playing a druid isn't to have a high AC; that's not part of their "schtick." It's perfeclty okay for druids to have ACs in the 14-16 range.
High Armor Class is for Fighters, Paladins, and Clerics, all of whom can wear real armor.
the logic as i understand it, is that wearing metal would prevent the use of wildshape. and for better armor, you could always try to slay a dragon and craft some better medium armor from its scales.
druids can wear padded, leather, or hide armor. the best choice of these depends on your dex bonus: hide armor for dex +2 or less, leather for dex +3 and above. or you could even grab a feat to learn mage armor (and some extra cantrips)
I can't remember if Dark Sun had armors made of bone, obsidian, etc. but they certainly did of weapons. They just didn't work quite as well. So, buy a set of full plate made of wood and look out for lumberjacks.
Another cool material for druid armor would be a wood as hard as metal! Volo's Guide To All Things Magical had some wood with very high durability i.e ironwood or something like that.
Plaguescarred wrote:
I may misremember the name though, perhaps the wood tree is silverbark. I will check when i have a chance.
My druid is currently wearing drakescale armor, which has the same statistics as scale armor but is made from the hide of a drake. And why the hell not? Isn't imagination a wonderful thing?
Studded leather is not a real thing. It's brigandine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigandine
Given that, I'm not sure how it could be made without metal, but it's a fantasy game so why not?
I don't understand why do you think that because rules of fantasy world is different than ours, there's actually no rules in fantasy world.
I meant only that in the real world, brigandine uses metal plates, but in a world where magic is real they could use plates of something else (e.g. enchanted tree bark) for the same effect.
Kinda funny how scale armor is basically the same thing, but with the plates on the outside rather than inside.
Plaguescarred wrote:
Whir wrote:
My take is this:
In previous editions all sorts of variant materials were invented/added to the systems so that druids could have a way around this restriction. But ALL of those materials were usually expensive due to their rarity. Right now, 5e does not have any of those special materials. And so this question has come up.
The biggest issue with the alternate materials postulated in this thread is that they are either not nearly as resilient as metal (e.g. bone) or heavier than metal (e.g. stone), and none are as easy to manipulate with armor making tools. Throw magic into the mix and the ease of manipulation becomes less of an issue. But I pose this question: why would a high level spell caster spend his spells making the equivalent of basic studded leather armor that a low level druid would wear? The question is not difficult to answer, but it is up to every individual table to figure that out.
As a DM, if a player at my table wanted to play a druid and wear studded leather armor, I would place to responsibility on that player to figure out how the druid got the "studded leather armor" made with bone instead of metal where the bones do not shatter on impact.
If I were a druid 2/cleric 4, would I be able to wear metal armor? What restrictions would I have? I'd be unhindered as a cleric, right?
Wink ;)
I've always allowed my druid players to get bone-studded leather. As others have said, I see no reason why the studs have to be metal.
BlinkBlink wrote:
Grazel wrote:
BlinkBlink wrote:
I have read that 'studded leather' is also a bit of a fantasy creation itself. In real-life history what looked like leather with studs was actually leather lined with entire ribs of metal under the surface. So in 'real life' it would tend to have more metal than what's perhaps imagined in fantasy literature.
neilselden wrote:
I bet the reason that druids won't wear metal armor is because druids are afraid of other druids casting heat metal on them. There are druids out there that just like to do that, because it keeps the less devout in line. And the burns caused by that spell can be nasty.
So the question is whether you can damage someone in studded leather with the spell heat metal?
dwgautier wrote:
austinmonster wrote:
Back to the studs in studded leather, I would allow lacquered leather (think traditional Japanese style lacquering on round pieces instead of strips) for the studs. It might be fun to make it a druidic secret or have it cost a little bit more. Another option is to have the armor made from leather coming from creature that has dermal plates like armadillos or rustmonsters, once again, having an extra cost.
Following the heat metal line of reasoning that was brought up (albeit as a joke), the heat metal spell does offer examples of what would constitute metal armor: "metal" medium armor, or heavy armor. Since light armor is absent from that example, it could be safe to assume that studded leather armor is not "metal."
However, given that studded leather armor is basically superior to hide armor, there doesn't seem to be a lot of reason for druids to practice wearing hide armor (ostensibly the only medium armor they can wear) if they could just wear studded leather instead. Maybe the druids don't want to spend over four times the money of hide armor on their studded leather or maybe they really value that 1 extra pound of carrying capacity, or maybe the metal studs typically violate their code of ethics.
So, people keep suggesting dragonscale or other such armour as a potential option. Am I just missing it or does that not exist in 5e? I've got a druid and as far as I can tell, my AC will never, ever, exceed 16.
Alficles wrote: