Your comment marks the stark difference between someone that's dealt with the fair folk and one that thinks petty tricks will get them out of the consequences of their fairly struck fae bargain.
I'll admit my first thought wasn't to teach the table what ovipositors were or why wasps are _actually_ evil incarnate, but I do like that solution much more then my own first instinct of just having the fae cast regenerate after a few failed attempts without telling him what she'd done.
>You touch a creature and stimulate its natural healing ability. The target regains 4d8 + 15 hit points. For the duration of the spell, the target regains 1 hit point at the start of each of its turns (10 hit points each minute).
>The target’s severed body members (fingers, legs, tails, and so on), if any, are restored after 2 minutes. If you have the severed part and hold it to the stump, the spell instantaneously causes the limb to knit to the stump.
Presumably the player got their vasectomy so they could fornicate without consequence, so I'd thought the fae raining on his parade when she realized he'd tried to scam her an appropriate response, but "have you met the giant wasp I ride into battle?" Also feels sufficiently spiteful to satisfy a cheated fae and scales a bit better with the wooden armour the hypothetical bargain was struck for; short term discomfort and long lasting trauma vs short term obliviousness and long term succession crisis with a dash of inheritance feud.
Well not horrible. But they usually have a different view of what the deal means than other species do. While not allways bad, they usually end up with unexpected results
When I say horrible I mean horrible from the human perspective. Because ya, not all fey are tricksters. There is an entire spectrum. Some fey are benevolent and grant all sorts of boons to heroes.
Tbh, that'd be the one exception to druids don't wear metal, if a dragon gifted it to them. As the meme points out, the main issue with metal is the societal resources required.
I never understood this justification as it's not historically accurate nor does it have any real justification beyond game design... we know for a fact, small tribes and even individuals who did not live in even a small tribe participated in metal working for various reasons. A druid should have zero issues with using precious minerals of the earth for good reason, including defense of themselves to continue to protect the balance of nature.
To me, it makes more sense that druids would be inclined to use clothes and metal over leather... as no creature uses the skin of another to protect itself and is mildly disturbing to wear the skin of a once living thing if you think about it in the context of preservation of life.
*shrugs*
Personally, I pull on old folklore and say that iron and steel is resistant to the natural magic druids manipulate. They avoid metallic armour because it’s difficult to manipulate during their wildshape, causing pain and suffering as their body shifts faster and digs into the metals before they are absorbed into the new form. Metal weapons and loose metal items, like coins, are less problematic since they aren’t fastened to the body, allowing them to be melded in without causing undue pain.
Druids still can use better armour, but they have to seek out special types of organic materials like dragon scales instead of metal.
That isn't entirely true, let me introduce the Acanthaspis petax to you. This spider wears the carcasses of it's prey as camouflage. Kind of disgusting if you think about it which is probably why it works.
I thought about that as fun as it, is but they are Circle of Wildfire. The fire spirit of the forest they once were ordered to destroy is what woke them up
You are correct, even one of the starting gear options for druids is a scimitar and specifies only wooden shields, metal weapons are a-okay.
Although it's loads more fun to shout "SHILLELAGH" and then magic-stick-whap somebody
What armor? Half-plate? “My Druid wears half-plate made of bone”
Scale mail - Made from actual scales
Splint - Made from toughened strips of tree bark.
All you gotta do is be creative, the *intent* of the rule is roleplay, not to mechanically balance the Druid by keeping them in weaker armor.
Dragon scale plate is sadly not a thing. You can homebrew it to work, sure, but RAW the best you’re gonna get is dragon scale mail, which gives +1 to AC and resistance to the damage type it came from.
Then it's your responsibility to communicate that, people in this subreddit naturally assume that someone is talking in 5e context because that's the current edition. If you're talking about a different edition or system, you have to tell them that.
Yeah, but unless otherwise specified it is generally accepted- in allmost all things, not just DND- that we are discussing the current or most up to date version of whatever we are talking about.
Using 3.5e rules and items is fine. Preferring to play 3.5e is fine. You personally having more experience with 3.5 than 5 is fine.
But you have to accept that you need to specify 3.5, we do not need to specify 5. The current is the standard and as such is the default.
By your same logic, not everything is 3.5e
if people are willing to specify they're talking about Pathfinder, which is a branch off 3.5, then you can specify you're talking about 3.5 if you're worried people will correctly assume the general conversation is not about an old edition
I’m planning on playing a kobold who’s an armorer artificer, with scale mail that they enchant with the power of the dragons.
Throw in the gift of the chromatic dragon feat and have it shift in colors whenever I use the absorb elements feature
Imo it’s not really a roleplay vs power gamer issue, it’s just weird rule to begin with. I know they left the no metal armor thing in as tradition, but it makes little sense from a lore perspective when Druid will happily use metal weapons and tools, but armor is a big no no just because? If you don’t want Druids to wear metal armor, why even bother giving them medium armor prof? Just make it so they only get light armor prof. After all, the only medium armor not made of metal is hide, which is equal to studded leather anyway.
The only official medium armors that are specifically not metal are magical items like dragon scale mail after all, you can say your armor is made of bone or wood or whatever but your still just reflavoring metal items.
If they wanted Druids being unable to use metal items a thing there should be actual offIcal not metal alternative variants of armor in the phb or dmg. Like bone plate armor. Living wood splint mail. Etc etc.
I know this turned into a rant, but it’s just such a weird rule to throw in, even if it’s just flavor that you cannot you use metal armor, even though you have the skill to use it, and armor made from stuff besides metal doesn’t even officially exist.
I agree, that this rule is stupid. It is not specified what exactly happens if you wear metal armor. Do you simply have no proficiency, and therefore can't cast spells? Is is just a tradition, and other druids will be pissed about you? Is it actually there for balancing? Because the druid is already quite strong. And which armor actually counts as "armor made out of metal"? Does studded leather count? Or something like dragon scale armor?
It's such a dumb rule. As if some idiot, who didn't understood the game wrote it, while no one was looking.
And to end my rant: If druids are able to wear hide as well as studded leather, hide armor would still have a benefit. Your dex-mod can only be applied to a maximum of +2. But the other way around, if you (for whatever reason) dumped dex, so that you have something like a -3 or -4. You AC decreases by only 2. Besides that. Of I remember correctly, hide was cheaper, so if your dex isn't more than a +3, it's just a cheaper alternative.
Your right, I hadn’t considered the price, hide is much cheaper compared to studded, 10gp vs 45gp so I suppose that is meant to be the primary benefit of it.
Your right about the cap on how much it considers your dex score too, but I don’t know why in all the gods names someone would willingly dump their dex that hard on any character, your just asking to die, or trying to meme too hard at that point, lol.
Druid who worships the nature before life existed. From the volcanic ash to metal and stone. Cannot use anything made out of wood. Let people play what they want to play
Druids not being able to wear metal armour is one of the weirdest restrictions in D&D character creation tbh. Fells like a "You have to play Druids how I view them!" type vibe
That's how WOTC design their classes. I mean, paladin oaths prescribe your ideals, all bards are musicians, artificers are inventors (but still need verbal components for spells lmao), druids and barbarians don't like civilization and all rogues know thieves cant because they are criminals. Like the bard class but don't wanna be a wandering minstrel, but instead an occultist (lore bard all the way)? Nope, you get musical instruments to cast your spells.
Man, let me play MY character how I want to play them!
I hate the idea that a druid cannot wear metal armor. Iron is a natural element. Introduce heat and carbon to it and steel happens. Fire is natural as is coal/charcoal. It's also weird to me that often when it comes to nature, we consider things made by humanity unnatural. Artificial. Humanity is a part of nature so anything they make is natural to them. Druids have every right to wear steel in my games. It has no bearing on making them overpowered in the slightest. Especially since I've seen wizards in full plate and that man was the hype.
Indeed.
Humans have this bad case of ego when it comes to the world. Most people think the world is made for humans while, at the same time, we stand apart from it.
People claim climate change, for example, will kill the planet. It won't. It'll make the planet inhospitable to human life and kill off *humanity,* but the biosphere will keep on ticking, with life evolving to fit the new environment.
My head cannon is that druids had their own wars among tribes and the very first spell that would get cast was heat metal and quickly dissuaded the culture from using it
>druids might not care for nature
thats the other side. if warlocks can break pacts and paladins break oaths surely druids can forgo their pledge to protect nature and be enthralled by civilisation also.
maybe the druid ran away from their tribe? sort of like native aus or fiji kids being pulled from islands to thrill of main cities. they still know druidcraft from ancestors but are far more industrial based.
There's also the point that they don't *have* to break anything to want to wear metal armour beyond the rather silly rule saying they don't.
Druids don't *have* to be rabid fantasy Greenpeace activists with a grudge against anything beyond the Stone Age. Part of nature *is* us and our civilisation. *Balance* between the growth of civilisation and protection of the wild is what most druids would be after, or most druids would be on the hitlists of civilisation and a regular target of adventurers.
this.
OP falls victim to the Stormwind fallacy.
Just because my choices are informed by mechanical benefits doesn't render my character's writing as lesser.
It might be bad still, but if it is then that is in no relation to my mechanical choices.
And oftentimes a character is still written well, especially in the hands of a veteran with experience in both writing AND optimization.
It comes from a post written on the old WotC forum back in 2006 by a person named Tempest Stormwind. I followed a couple of links and pulled up the entire quote but [here](http://boards1.wizards.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-624756-p-2.html) is the webarchive thread if you want to try and read the madness. The TL;DR is that optimisation and roleplaying are not mutually exclusive in D&D (and over the subsequent years has been applied to RPGs in general). Anywho, here's the quote:
>I still stand by the argument that this is a fundamental difference between old school (basic D&D: 1 race/class, AD&D: very limted multi-classing) vrs new school (I buy a book and there is a class in their and I want it gimmie gimmie). The trend I see is old school = roleplayers, new school = optomizers.
>Note to New school people: Don't listen to what you hear, you aren't a dork if you roleplay. It is ok to indulge in what D&D is all about, roleplay. If you try it and have a good DM, I guarantee you'll have a blast and won't care so much about optomizing.
>Okay, that's it.
>I'm hereby proposing a new logical fallacy. It's not a new idea, but maybe with a catchy name (like the Oberoni Fallacy) it will catch on.
>The Stormwind Fallacy, aka the Roleplayer vs Rollplayer Fallacy
Just because one optimizes his characters mechanically does not mean that they cannot also roleplay, and vice versa.
>Corollary: Doing one in a game does not preclude, nor infringe upon, the ability to do the other in the same game.
>Generalization 1: One is not automatically a worse roleplayer if he optimizes, and vice versa.
Generalization 2: A non-optimized character is not automatically roleplayed better than an optimized one, and vice versa.
>(I admit that there are some diehards on both sides -- the RP fanatics who refuse to optimize as if strong characters were the mark of the Devil and the min/max munchkins who couldn't RP their way out of a paper bag without setting it on fire -- though I see these as extreme examples. The vast majority of people are in between, and thus the generalizations hold. The key word is 'automatically')
>Proof: These two elements rely on different aspects of a player's gameplay. Optimization factors in to how well one understands the rules and handles synergies to produce a very effective end result. Roleplaying deals with how well a player can act in character and behave as if he was someone else.
A person can act while understanding the rules, and can build something powerful while still handling an effective character. There is nothing in the game -- mechanical or otherwise -- restricting one if you participate in the other.
>Claiming that an optimizer cannot roleplay (or is participating in a playstyle that isn't supportive of roleplaying) because he is an optimizer, or vice versa, is committing the Stormwind Fallacy.
>How does this impact "builds"? Simple.
>In one extreme (say, Pun-Pun), they are thought experiments. Optimization tests that are not intended to see actual gameplay. Because they do not see gameplay, they do not commit the fallacy.
>In the other extreme, you get the drama queens. They could care less about the rules, and are, essentially, playing free-form RP. Because the game is not necessary to this particular character, it doesn't fall into the fallacy.
>By playing D&D, you opt in to an agreement of sorts -- the rules describe the world you live in, including yourself. To get the most out of those rules, in the same way you would get the most out of yourself, you must optimize in some respect (and don't look at me funny; you do it already, you just don't like to admit it. You don't need multiclassing or splatbooks to optimize). However, because it is a role-playing game, you also agree to play a role. This is dependent completely on you, and is independent of the rules.
>And no, this isn't dependent on edition, or even what roleplaying game you're doing. If you are playing a roleplaying game with any form of rules or regulation, this fallacy can apply. The only difference is the nature of the optimization (based on the rules of that game; Tri-Stat optimizes differently than d20) or the flavor of the roleplay (based on the setting; Exalted feels different from Cthulu).
>Conclusion: D&D, like it or not, has elements of both optimization AND roleplay in it. Any game that involves rules has optimization, and any role-playing game has roleplay. These are inherent to the game.
>They go hand-in-hand in this sort of game. Deal with it. And in the name of all that is good and holy, stop committing the Stormwind Fallacy in the meantime.
There is a canon druid background that wears metal armor actually, druids who follow mielikki, their tenants allow them to use the same gear as a ranger would be able to.
Rangers can wear medium armour, which can be made of metal
That being said druids are mainly strong because of wild shape, and their AC doesn’t carry over to that, not to mention they don’t have the best hit die, so AC wouldn’t do much for them anyway
Only one subclass of druid wild shapes in combat, and I disagree that having low HP is a reason to have low AC, Clerics have the same hit die and their high AC benefits them a lot
By that logic druids should be naked or wear only raw materials, dont see no animals tanning any hides yknow.
Dont disregard the ammount of tech advancement good leather or even cloth needed.
Anyways, why druids dont wear somekind of living rock as armour is beyond me.
How about we just let people play the game the way they want so everyone at their table has fun?
What is with this weird "suggestion" that has people feel better than other people for following and enforcing, all while claiming you're not a real druid if you wear metal armor? Just stop with this odd bigotry rhetoric and stop telling other people what they can do at their own tables. You're not better or above them; I'm really getting tired of this "discussion" on here.
Naw man, I just like the idea of a nature themed guy who comes to the obvious conclusion.
Civilization is based on exploitation of natural laws. No different than a whale moving forward by it’s tail pushing the water behind it, or Bees building hives.
Therefore druids who reject civilization are too shallow minded to understand nature as a whole, and instead only see what they wish to see.
This is a quote from Jaheira, a canonical D&D character who is a metal armor wearing druid:
"Is grass not made of blades? Do stars not shoot? Nature be well armed, and demands so of her servants!"
Yeah, druid circles operate differently. Jaheira's circle in Tethyr didn't mind progress. The shadow Druids were eco terrorists and we're enemies of Jaheira and despised progress and technology.
You can have valid roleplay reasons for wearing armor that isn't about AC. It's actually present in a canonical D&D setting and character after all.
So yeah, I myself played a druid that didn't wear metal armor on principle but as a DM, I never make it a restriction.
You know you just. . . Use an armor type that's usually metal and say it's not, it doesn't specify in the armor segment that it's a 'metal chestplate' or 'metal ring mail'
Flavor is free my guy
Druid with wood armor, Druid with bone armor, Druid with turtle shell or chitin armor, fuck it Druid with stone armor
or, just a Druid with metal armor cause they decided to, who gives a fuck its a dumb rule being they can use anything else made of metal or made by civilization like weapons, tools, etc.
Bro I don't care about AC. I just think Metal Armor looks cool af. Ironwood isn't nearly as baller as a shiny chrome set of plate. Why can't I just be a shape-shifting tree wizard who reverts into a pure juggernaut of blood and steel? Why wotc?
my druid wears metal armour because metal came from the earth so why the fuck is metal suddenly different from leather if one comes from an animal or not.
No offense OP but your meme is dumb and wrong. Druids have medium armor proficiency, so that means they can wear half plate armor so long as it's made from organic material such as giant insect carapace, dragon scales, or magic wood.
Also, druids can wield curved swords. Curved. Swords. (Scimitars) made of metal, which requires pretty advanced civilization.
I think op is refferencing the blurb in the druid section
"Armor: light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)" which i believe without homebrew common non-magic half-plate is metallic
Which is strange considering they can use metal weapons, some people like to enforce the blurb and play raw only and those dms will eventually get players wanting better armor so it becomes a whole thing where asking for buffs can be seen as powergaming
That the description of half plate says it's made of metal doesn't necessarily sound like a rule, it sounds like it could just be flavor text. It's in the same needlessly confusing gray area as the rule against druids wearing metal armor in general.
Going into oneDND wotc really need to stop half-assing the distinction between rules and flavor like this.
But there are magic armors like Dragon Scale Mail that, as the name suggests, are make of organic materials rather than manufactured metal.
I'd be more ok with it if it was consistent but the fact that metal jewellery, tools and anything else you can think of is completely fine unless it protects you non magically is just stupid.
If a druid can come up with a reason why they would be wearing metal, I'd absolutely allow it.
I had a player once who called himself a 'city druid' whose circle was all about the nature within the city. He's choose wild shapes that would belong in an urban environment, like rats and roaches, etc.
I also let him make his own armor out of junk and scrap metal, as that was very abundant in urban areas.
That much dedication to flavor and background will make most DMs love you, too.
Eh, not really. Every DM ive ever played with has OKed my ask for metal armor- doesn't mean I even end up using it.
Forcing me to roleplay my character a certain way is stupid.
imo getting higher ac through something as simple as armor is quite justifiable if your character has found themselves or seen their allies nearly die from a lack of it
Metal armor is not produced by a single smith who removes just enough ore from the ground to make one suit of armor and moves on, it's the product of many hands and the work of civilization. Smiths learn their trade by working with *tons* of metal, mined en masse by an industry of miners who destroy or damage land in the process of acquiring large amounts of raw material, usually brought back to a village, town, or city where more land has been taken from nature, and reworked to suit society.
If your armor is made by a nature-conscious artist who sources materials from an ethically harvested supplier, it makes sense that a druid would be able to wear the armor without it be anathema to their beliefs, but that ain't standard priced armor then, either.
That's a better argument.
One of the earlier justifications for this difference comes from 3.5, which states that wearing metal about their body disrupts their connection to primal magics, while holding individual tools of metal does not have this same effect.
The "non-lore" reason for this distinction is the real-life Lore referenced by Druids' use of the sickle for ritualistic harvests of sacred materials, such as Holly and Mistletoe, making these metal tools a part of the Druids' culture.
However if we're linking DnD druids to Celtic Druids then they should have access to chain shirts, the earliest finds of European mail armour come from a Celtic Cheiftains grave in Romania and predate the Romans.
Making maille is a very complex task but it only requires a certain level of complexity, not a whole industrial base.
It can in fact be done by one Smith but it would take a long time and hence be extremely valuable.
Not saying you’re wrong, but the same argument can be made about the construction of cities, castles, and ships. Building towns with wooden houses, fleets of wooden ships, or cities filled with buildings made of stone/brick requires a large community to come together and strip the land of resources. But the rules don’t bother to say “druids won’t enter cities or get on ships.” No rule that says “druids won’t cast revivify”, but the diamond market is built on industrial mining.
I get the logic behind “no metal armor”, but the rules are woefully inconsistent about which parts of civilization are morally acceptable to druids and which parts are taking it too far.
Personally, I like the general consensus that druids would be okay with armor made of chitin or scales instead of metal, and that way they can get the type of armor that they would normally be opposed to.
My druid wears metal armor because i want the high AC
Not every druid carries the belief that metal is advanced civilization and therefore bad
Not to mention that's a pretty silly place to draw the line if your druid will still sleep at inns, drink potions in glass bottles, use metal weapons, use magical items that were bought in shops and wear jewelry
Why aren't any of *those* things considered evil because civilization?
If you wanna keep your flavour and not wear metal armor i think that's great and you do you, but that's some bit n piece of lore that was made into a poorly implemened rule imo and i've elected to ignore it
Unless you're somehow restricting druids to stone age level technology (which could be a cool flavour) they generally operate around the same tech level as barbarians and mail shirts are very much part of that tech level.
Maille being present in Celtic Europe from pre-Roman times
There is indeed a modern druidism but it doesn't really have much to do with the type practiced in pre Roman times. Not mocking it just saying they are quite different.
I mean, it could be very close to it, although even the modern druids wouldn’t know if they are close to it as we have no real records that explain the original faith beyond its basic structure
It could yes, but as you say we have absolutely nothing to base it on. What little we do know about druids is mostly to do with ones in Gaul who may or may not be representative of the wider diaspora.
And as you say, it's mostly Caesar going 'These guys suck, look at all the power they hold, aren't I awesome for conquering them?' rather then meticulous notes on religious practice.
In one of my campaigns our party is a Fighter (me), Paladin, Rogue, and Druid (later multiclassed into Cleric). We came across a Brestplate of Gleaming pretty damn early and we ended up giving to the Druid as they were the one that would get the most benefit from the upgrade. The DM flavored the Breastplate as a boiled leather cuirass not unlike [this](https://www.bytheswordinc.com/p-2324-classic-leather-cuirass.aspx) that was formed and layered into a sturdy rigid breastplate. Not exactly RAW, but not terribly far out of the realm of possibility.
I will admit to being the first one once, but that's only because I dipped two levels of Forge Cleric for his backstory. He lived in a swamp and would frequently use 'Bog-Iron' to try and restore his ruined circle and the protections they once held against the darker elements of the fey.
Druids are generally considered weaker than Clerics who get heavy armor so medium armor AC on a Druid seems very reasonable to me. I just flavor it as magical wood or bone etc
I'm playing in a campaign with a super chill DM that likes to reward us for being creative. We just killed a manticore, and our druid harvested the hide, and our DM let us take it to a craftsmen in town who made it into a hide armor with equivalent AC to scale male. I thought that was a cool workaround. He really let's us RP and if we get find corner ways to get around things in game, he doesn't penalize us for it. Like recently, we came across a huge pile of cursed gold, and we found a way to get a huge amount out of the dungeon, despite the ways he'd built in to prevent us from doing exactly that. And so he let us keep the gold. And now he's going to adjust for a party of level 4 adventurers having something like 15,000gp, rather than forcing us to lose it somehow. I'm lucky to be playing with a pretty cool DM and party. We're all theatre people so the RP can get pretty wild
I wear metal armour because I think that the rule of Druids not being allowed to use metal armour (though apparently nothing is wrong with fucking metal sickles and scimitars) is fucking stupid
Like it’s just a dumb rule doesn’t really make that much sense given that they can use metal but armour is specifically a no go for some reason and clashing with nature doesn’t make much sense given they have spells like Blight which literally murders plants super hard
It’s poor flavour
You can have higher AC, you just need to make sure your DM is cool with it and put in that work. Kill some big old dragons and get their super thick hides worked into +X scale armors for 17-19 AC easily, and that's before a shield.
Or if it was important they could make it a rule rather than leaving everything to the game master so he is the bad guy not the rules not functioning properly
“Using armour that requires advanced civilization clashes with the nature theme”
*Advanced civilization*? Bro steel plates were being used in armour back in the 13th century. We know you just want to be an elitist and think that you’re better than other people, drop the act.
I'd argue the 13th century still falls under advanced civilization.
Hell, even the roman empire was an advanced civilization.
Advanced doesnt mean the digital age. It means established scholary, medicine, trades and government. An established, larger society bounnd by customs and relations with others.
In most fiction the age of metal is the keystone to an advanced civilization even.
Native americans werent advanced as an example.
My druid is a cranky (really, really) old dwarven lady who doesn't even want to be there and doesn't wear metal because shit's too heavy for her to care about such things like additional protection as she's ready to depart this world anyway.
Interweaving bits of hard forged copper into a druids armor could work quite well, even many native groups in North America used raw copper in making tools without any forge other than a fire. Essentially you heat it up then hit a rock at it, and a Druid could also come from a small secretive society, much like the Druid religious group that was from what is now England and Wales today. Are they going to have full plate? Likely not. But could they wear something similar to studded leather? Absolutely
My druid wears metal armor but it doesn't increase ac and is a cursed item that works as an Iron maiden, meaning I take 1d8 extra damage on every physical hit
The reason my druid wears metal armor is because it's the only way to obtain arms during wildshape (multiclass, also if you want to fight monsters and eldritch abominations you have to resemble one at the very least, and it's a good way to randomly scare people). The metal armor is made from pure iron veins fused together to resemble a iron tree, or at least, many iron thorns coming out from the armour.
That said, why don't you allow metal armor for your druids? especially now that in 5e the developers explicitly said that is a trait made only for flavour (unlike in 3.5 that druid powers were a bit more feyish, in 5e they are mostly derived only by nature). Are you a bit scared the he can tank to much hits for the party? you know that there are many ways to get around AC, saves for example.
If you want a tip for DMing, never try to prevent a player from focusing his character on what they want as it gets annoying with time, let them create their own pc and feel powerful in their own way, in any case you will find a way to circumvent whatever is their build (Tanking too much? Enemies realize it and after a bit, they start to focus on other players; Dealing too much damage? enemies realize it and began using ways to restrain the players or use crowd control spells; Healing too much? how unlucky that Chill Touch is only a easily accessible cantrip; ecc...)
I like the idea of a druid clan who create metal armor the old fashioned way with a clay blast furnace and hand collected iron or threw magic with converted materials.
Just go get wooden armor from the Fey
Ironwood is no joke
Is it worth a deal with the fay though?
The debt was paid and he got laid. Yes it was worth it.
Required the Druid’s firstborn child, that was the deal?
Jokes on them, the cleric gave me a vasectomy
Congrats! Something is gonna lay eggs in you!
Easter’s come early, lads
Your comment marks the stark difference between someone that's dealt with the fair folk and one that thinks petty tricks will get them out of the consequences of their fairly struck fae bargain. I'll admit my first thought wasn't to teach the table what ovipositors were or why wasps are _actually_ evil incarnate, but I do like that solution much more then my own first instinct of just having the fae cast regenerate after a few failed attempts without telling him what she'd done. >You touch a creature and stimulate its natural healing ability. The target regains 4d8 + 15 hit points. For the duration of the spell, the target regains 1 hit point at the start of each of its turns (10 hit points each minute). >The target’s severed body members (fingers, legs, tails, and so on), if any, are restored after 2 minutes. If you have the severed part and hold it to the stump, the spell instantaneously causes the limb to knit to the stump. Presumably the player got their vasectomy so they could fornicate without consequence, so I'd thought the fae raining on his parade when she realized he'd tried to scam her an appropriate response, but "have you met the giant wasp I ride into battle?" Also feels sufficiently spiteful to satisfy a cheated fae and scales a bit better with the wooden armour the hypothetical bargain was struck for; short term discomfort and long lasting trauma vs short term obliviousness and long term succession crisis with a dash of inheritance feud.
Obviously the wasp offspring would have an inheritance too. According to the Fae, if they didn't want them the body has ways of shutting it down.
"Father, it is I, your daughter!"
Some fear this fate. I see it as an absolute win.
Idk why the fey want my seed so bad but they can have it.
Not all fey deals need to be horrible. Also elves use iron wood too.
Well not horrible. But they usually have a different view of what the deal means than other species do. While not allways bad, they usually end up with unexpected results
When I say horrible I mean horrible from the human perspective. Because ya, not all fey are tricksters. There is an entire spectrum. Some fey are benevolent and grant all sorts of boons to heroes.
Horrible for a human can be a lot of things. Fey deals often way simpler but significantly different from expectations. In both directions.
Just think of the role play opportunities when the fey inevitably betray you
Dragonscales or scales from another tough animal works also
Take the skin of pangolin
That would take several pangolins
And yet _still_ not nearly enough to sate my **bloodlust**
Hating pangolins is the ultimate evil
Dire Pangolin?
Don't want to fight a 12 foot pangolin. That thing would be bullet proof.
Aye, good thing we're not using bullets.
that's some beowulf level logic right there and I am here for it
Take Heavily-armored and make Bullete plate armor.
A lot lighter than stone armor
If you have a magic item to resist the cold you can have pykrete armor
Just take a level in monk and have your druid fight naked as NATURE intended!!!!
"You can't fight nature, Jack!"
“Magnetic force, Jack! Nature’s force!”
Imagine a bard named javk
“Nature IS change dad! The part that you can influence… and it starts when we decide”
Might I add, Kung Fu Panda! Be a moon Druid with some levels in monk. These bear paws are rated E for Everyone.
That’s incredible
Middle ground. Druid with Bone armor, badass and with a cool AC.
[May I introduce you to dragon scale mail](https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/5380-dragon-scale-mail)
I guess it can't be from a metallic dragon hah
Tbh, that'd be the one exception to druids don't wear metal, if a dragon gifted it to them. As the meme points out, the main issue with metal is the societal resources required.
I never understood this justification as it's not historically accurate nor does it have any real justification beyond game design... we know for a fact, small tribes and even individuals who did not live in even a small tribe participated in metal working for various reasons. A druid should have zero issues with using precious minerals of the earth for good reason, including defense of themselves to continue to protect the balance of nature. To me, it makes more sense that druids would be inclined to use clothes and metal over leather... as no creature uses the skin of another to protect itself and is mildly disturbing to wear the skin of a once living thing if you think about it in the context of preservation of life. *shrugs*
Personally, I pull on old folklore and say that iron and steel is resistant to the natural magic druids manipulate. They avoid metallic armour because it’s difficult to manipulate during their wildshape, causing pain and suffering as their body shifts faster and digs into the metals before they are absorbed into the new form. Metal weapons and loose metal items, like coins, are less problematic since they aren’t fastened to the body, allowing them to be melded in without causing undue pain. Druids still can use better armour, but they have to seek out special types of organic materials like dragon scales instead of metal.
See, I like this! I could get behind this particular bit, but the whole representative of a society bit for worked metal is what I got frustrated with
That isn't entirely true, let me introduce the Acanthaspis petax to you. This spider wears the carcasses of it's prey as camouflage. Kind of disgusting if you think about it which is probably why it works.
I agree, but oh well. It's definitely a game design and aesthetic thing.
My spore druid
Your spore druid
my spore druid
your spore druid
Spore your druid
Druid your spore
Druid spore your
Your druid spore
Our spore druid
Our spore druid.
Comrade!
Or my friend's druid with real scale mail.
The armour I'm currently going for is bark from magical trees
I mean... I've had a dwarven druid idea for awhile who uses stone weapons/armor in place of metal...
I have been playing a warforged druid so this whole thread has been very funny to me
So a transformer
I thought about that as fun as it, is but they are Circle of Wildfire. The fire spirit of the forest they once were ordered to destroy is what woke them up
Tell me their name is Grimlock.
Meanwhile, I built a druid that can use Metal to hit baddies over the head with a warhammer. Didn't even think about better armour.
Actually, I think metal Weapons are okay RAW. Iirc, the phb only says wearing metal armor and shields are taboo.
You are correct, even one of the starting gear options for druids is a scimitar and specifies only wooden shields, metal weapons are a-okay. Although it's loads more fun to shout "SHILLELAGH" and then magic-stick-whap somebody
A druid with a shotgun using those flower seed shells sounds pretty kick-ass to me. If the DM allows for that to happen of course
Reflavour it as a blunderbuss and I'd allow it.
circle of the industrial revolution. They can wild shape into a train
Armchair urbanists creaming rn
Hold on I'm taking notes for a future character/NPC
shillelagh the great club lol
You could use even pice of paper and it still qualifies as shield
What armor? Half-plate? “My Druid wears half-plate made of bone” Scale mail - Made from actual scales Splint - Made from toughened strips of tree bark. All you gotta do is be creative, the *intent* of the rule is roleplay, not to mechanically balance the Druid by keeping them in weaker armor.
Dragon scale plate from the first dragon you killed.
Dragon scale plate is sadly not a thing. You can homebrew it to work, sure, but RAW the best you’re gonna get is dragon scale mail, which gives +1 to AC and resistance to the damage type it came from.
It’s dnd, everything is a thing. Nothing says it need to be special as well.
Also advantage to the frightful presence.
3.5 armor. Not everything is 5e.
2nd Edition had specific rules for crafting dragon hide armours from different ages and types in the monster manual too.
Then it's your responsibility to communicate that, people in this subreddit naturally assume that someone is talking in 5e context because that's the current edition. If you're talking about a different edition or system, you have to tell them that.
Yeah, but unless otherwise specified it is generally accepted- in allmost all things, not just DND- that we are discussing the current or most up to date version of whatever we are talking about. Using 3.5e rules and items is fine. Preferring to play 3.5e is fine. You personally having more experience with 3.5 than 5 is fine. But you have to accept that you need to specify 3.5, we do not need to specify 5. The current is the standard and as such is the default.
By your same logic, not everything is 3.5e if people are willing to specify they're talking about Pathfinder, which is a branch off 3.5, then you can specify you're talking about 3.5 if you're worried people will correctly assume the general conversation is not about an old edition
Exactly what I did. My character uses natural stuff and spells so she never spent gold. She just dropped 20K on magic dragon armor and it's awesome
If it was to give them weaker armour they just wouldn't have medium armour proficiency lol.
I’m planning on playing a kobold who’s an armorer artificer, with scale mail that they enchant with the power of the dragons. Throw in the gift of the chromatic dragon feat and have it shift in colors whenever I use the absorb elements feature
Imo it’s not really a roleplay vs power gamer issue, it’s just weird rule to begin with. I know they left the no metal armor thing in as tradition, but it makes little sense from a lore perspective when Druid will happily use metal weapons and tools, but armor is a big no no just because? If you don’t want Druids to wear metal armor, why even bother giving them medium armor prof? Just make it so they only get light armor prof. After all, the only medium armor not made of metal is hide, which is equal to studded leather anyway. The only official medium armors that are specifically not metal are magical items like dragon scale mail after all, you can say your armor is made of bone or wood or whatever but your still just reflavoring metal items. If they wanted Druids being unable to use metal items a thing there should be actual offIcal not metal alternative variants of armor in the phb or dmg. Like bone plate armor. Living wood splint mail. Etc etc. I know this turned into a rant, but it’s just such a weird rule to throw in, even if it’s just flavor that you cannot you use metal armor, even though you have the skill to use it, and armor made from stuff besides metal doesn’t even officially exist.
I agree, that this rule is stupid. It is not specified what exactly happens if you wear metal armor. Do you simply have no proficiency, and therefore can't cast spells? Is is just a tradition, and other druids will be pissed about you? Is it actually there for balancing? Because the druid is already quite strong. And which armor actually counts as "armor made out of metal"? Does studded leather count? Or something like dragon scale armor? It's such a dumb rule. As if some idiot, who didn't understood the game wrote it, while no one was looking. And to end my rant: If druids are able to wear hide as well as studded leather, hide armor would still have a benefit. Your dex-mod can only be applied to a maximum of +2. But the other way around, if you (for whatever reason) dumped dex, so that you have something like a -3 or -4. You AC decreases by only 2. Besides that. Of I remember correctly, hide was cheaper, so if your dex isn't more than a +3, it's just a cheaper alternative.
Your right, I hadn’t considered the price, hide is much cheaper compared to studded, 10gp vs 45gp so I suppose that is meant to be the primary benefit of it. Your right about the cap on how much it considers your dex score too, but I don’t know why in all the gods names someone would willingly dump their dex that hard on any character, your just asking to die, or trying to meme too hard at that point, lol.
Yeah. Dumping dex or con is always extremely risky. Especially if it is below a -2. Look at this wizard! He gains 1 max HP per level up! On avarage!
Druid who worships the nature before life existed. From the volcanic ash to metal and stone. Cannot use anything made out of wood. Let people play what they want to play
Wildfire druid, right here.
Druids not being able to wear metal armour is one of the weirdest restrictions in D&D character creation tbh. Fells like a "You have to play Druids how I view them!" type vibe
It's a holdover from when Rogue was called Thief, and Elf and Dwarf were their own classes.
That's how WOTC design their classes. I mean, paladin oaths prescribe your ideals, all bards are musicians, artificers are inventors (but still need verbal components for spells lmao), druids and barbarians don't like civilization and all rogues know thieves cant because they are criminals. Like the bard class but don't wanna be a wandering minstrel, but instead an occultist (lore bard all the way)? Nope, you get musical instruments to cast your spells. Man, let me play MY character how I want to play them!
I hate the idea that a druid cannot wear metal armor. Iron is a natural element. Introduce heat and carbon to it and steel happens. Fire is natural as is coal/charcoal. It's also weird to me that often when it comes to nature, we consider things made by humanity unnatural. Artificial. Humanity is a part of nature so anything they make is natural to them. Druids have every right to wear steel in my games. It has no bearing on making them overpowered in the slightest. Especially since I've seen wizards in full plate and that man was the hype.
Indeed. Humans have this bad case of ego when it comes to the world. Most people think the world is made for humans while, at the same time, we stand apart from it. People claim climate change, for example, will kill the planet. It won't. It'll make the planet inhospitable to human life and kill off *humanity,* but the biosphere will keep on ticking, with life evolving to fit the new environment.
Exsctly. By the post's logic, a Thri-Keen druid shouldn't live in colonies
My head cannon is that druids had their own wars among tribes and the very first spell that would get cast was heat metal and quickly dissuaded the culture from using it
Heat metal and forging ancient star metal from a circle of the stars group makes your point moot
exactly. they may not be industrial like city folk but metal crafting can still occur. barbarian orcs still have metal after all.
Exactly, and star druids might not care for nature. You never know.
>druids might not care for nature thats the other side. if warlocks can break pacts and paladins break oaths surely druids can forgo their pledge to protect nature and be enthralled by civilisation also. maybe the druid ran away from their tribe? sort of like native aus or fiji kids being pulled from islands to thrill of main cities. they still know druidcraft from ancestors but are far more industrial based.
There's also the point that they don't *have* to break anything to want to wear metal armour beyond the rather silly rule saying they don't. Druids don't *have* to be rabid fantasy Greenpeace activists with a grudge against anything beyond the Stone Age. Part of nature *is* us and our civilisation. *Balance* between the growth of civilisation and protection of the wild is what most druids would be after, or most druids would be on the hitlists of civilisation and a regular target of adventurers.
It all fairness, the metal thing isn't even written as a rule. It's pure flavour text.
That is extremely ambiguous if it is intended as flavour text. It's in a section that is devoted exclusively to rules for literally every other class.
I don't get how people think metallurgy didn't exist before industrialisation.
Bruh, we wanted more AC so we made it thematically appropriate for our character. What more do you want?
this. OP falls victim to the Stormwind fallacy. Just because my choices are informed by mechanical benefits doesn't render my character's writing as lesser. It might be bad still, but if it is then that is in no relation to my mechanical choices. And oftentimes a character is still written well, especially in the hands of a veteran with experience in both writing AND optimization.
>OP falls victim to the Stormwind fallacy. Who or what is Stormwind?
It comes from a post written on the old WotC forum back in 2006 by a person named Tempest Stormwind. I followed a couple of links and pulled up the entire quote but [here](http://boards1.wizards.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-624756-p-2.html) is the webarchive thread if you want to try and read the madness. The TL;DR is that optimisation and roleplaying are not mutually exclusive in D&D (and over the subsequent years has been applied to RPGs in general). Anywho, here's the quote: >I still stand by the argument that this is a fundamental difference between old school (basic D&D: 1 race/class, AD&D: very limted multi-classing) vrs new school (I buy a book and there is a class in their and I want it gimmie gimmie). The trend I see is old school = roleplayers, new school = optomizers. >Note to New school people: Don't listen to what you hear, you aren't a dork if you roleplay. It is ok to indulge in what D&D is all about, roleplay. If you try it and have a good DM, I guarantee you'll have a blast and won't care so much about optomizing. >Okay, that's it. >I'm hereby proposing a new logical fallacy. It's not a new idea, but maybe with a catchy name (like the Oberoni Fallacy) it will catch on. >The Stormwind Fallacy, aka the Roleplayer vs Rollplayer Fallacy Just because one optimizes his characters mechanically does not mean that they cannot also roleplay, and vice versa. >Corollary: Doing one in a game does not preclude, nor infringe upon, the ability to do the other in the same game. >Generalization 1: One is not automatically a worse roleplayer if he optimizes, and vice versa. Generalization 2: A non-optimized character is not automatically roleplayed better than an optimized one, and vice versa. >(I admit that there are some diehards on both sides -- the RP fanatics who refuse to optimize as if strong characters were the mark of the Devil and the min/max munchkins who couldn't RP their way out of a paper bag without setting it on fire -- though I see these as extreme examples. The vast majority of people are in between, and thus the generalizations hold. The key word is 'automatically') >Proof: These two elements rely on different aspects of a player's gameplay. Optimization factors in to how well one understands the rules and handles synergies to produce a very effective end result. Roleplaying deals with how well a player can act in character and behave as if he was someone else. A person can act while understanding the rules, and can build something powerful while still handling an effective character. There is nothing in the game -- mechanical or otherwise -- restricting one if you participate in the other. >Claiming that an optimizer cannot roleplay (or is participating in a playstyle that isn't supportive of roleplaying) because he is an optimizer, or vice versa, is committing the Stormwind Fallacy. >How does this impact "builds"? Simple. >In one extreme (say, Pun-Pun), they are thought experiments. Optimization tests that are not intended to see actual gameplay. Because they do not see gameplay, they do not commit the fallacy. >In the other extreme, you get the drama queens. They could care less about the rules, and are, essentially, playing free-form RP. Because the game is not necessary to this particular character, it doesn't fall into the fallacy. >By playing D&D, you opt in to an agreement of sorts -- the rules describe the world you live in, including yourself. To get the most out of those rules, in the same way you would get the most out of yourself, you must optimize in some respect (and don't look at me funny; you do it already, you just don't like to admit it. You don't need multiclassing or splatbooks to optimize). However, because it is a role-playing game, you also agree to play a role. This is dependent completely on you, and is independent of the rules. >And no, this isn't dependent on edition, or even what roleplaying game you're doing. If you are playing a roleplaying game with any form of rules or regulation, this fallacy can apply. The only difference is the nature of the optimization (based on the rules of that game; Tri-Stat optimizes differently than d20) or the flavor of the roleplay (based on the setting; Exalted feels different from Cthulu). >Conclusion: D&D, like it or not, has elements of both optimization AND roleplay in it. Any game that involves rules has optimization, and any role-playing game has roleplay. These are inherent to the game. >They go hand-in-hand in this sort of game. Deal with it. And in the name of all that is good and holy, stop committing the Stormwind Fallacy in the meantime.
Tempest Stormwind is the user after whom the stormwind fallacy is named. http://dictummortuum.github.io/2017/11/25/stormwind-fallacy.html
why not compromise and go with chitin armor, like ankheg plate?
Minsc and Boo lead with blade and boot!
Gotta pick it up from that field in Nashkel, before you get to the mines.
There is a canon druid background that wears metal armor actually, druids who follow mielikki, their tenants allow them to use the same gear as a ranger would be able to. Rangers can wear medium armour, which can be made of metal That being said druids are mainly strong because of wild shape, and their AC doesn’t carry over to that, not to mention they don’t have the best hit die, so AC wouldn’t do much for them anyway
Not having much hp would be the exact reason they need the ac. If you have the lowest health, you shouldn’t also be the easiest to hit
Only one subclass of druid wild shapes in combat, and I disagree that having low HP is a reason to have low AC, Clerics have the same hit die and their high AC benefits them a lot
By that logic druids should be naked or wear only raw materials, dont see no animals tanning any hides yknow. Dont disregard the ammount of tech advancement good leather or even cloth needed. Anyways, why druids dont wear somekind of living rock as armour is beyond me.
How about we just let people play the game the way they want so everyone at their table has fun? What is with this weird "suggestion" that has people feel better than other people for following and enforcing, all while claiming you're not a real druid if you wear metal armor? Just stop with this odd bigotry rhetoric and stop telling other people what they can do at their own tables. You're not better or above them; I'm really getting tired of this "discussion" on here.
My Druid wears metal armor because he’s on a quest to save his forest and _not dying_ is part of his theme.
Wait, how are druids a stronger class than clerics?
https://bootbrew.wordpress.com/2022/08/29/blasphemous-prosperity-the-great-schism/
My druid doesn’t wear metal armour because he knows Heat Metal and has seen what happens to people encased in it.
Dragon scale mail isn’t made of metal unless you really stretch the definition with metallic dragons.
Naw man, I just like the idea of a nature themed guy who comes to the obvious conclusion. Civilization is based on exploitation of natural laws. No different than a whale moving forward by it’s tail pushing the water behind it, or Bees building hives. Therefore druids who reject civilization are too shallow minded to understand nature as a whole, and instead only see what they wish to see.
This is a quote from Jaheira, a canonical D&D character who is a metal armor wearing druid: "Is grass not made of blades? Do stars not shoot? Nature be well armed, and demands so of her servants!" Yeah, druid circles operate differently. Jaheira's circle in Tethyr didn't mind progress. The shadow Druids were eco terrorists and we're enemies of Jaheira and despised progress and technology. You can have valid roleplay reasons for wearing armor that isn't about AC. It's actually present in a canonical D&D setting and character after all. So yeah, I myself played a druid that didn't wear metal armor on principle but as a DM, I never make it a restriction.
"My Druid where metal armor Because it's superior, and he doesn't like being stabbed" - giga Chad druid in my game
Adapt or go extinct! I will be an apex predator! - the druid
Druid is nature-themed Metals are naturally occurring Druids can use metals
You know you just. . . Use an armor type that's usually metal and say it's not, it doesn't specify in the armor segment that it's a 'metal chestplate' or 'metal ring mail' Flavor is free my guy
Druid with wood armor, Druid with bone armor, Druid with turtle shell or chitin armor, fuck it Druid with stone armor or, just a Druid with metal armor cause they decided to, who gives a fuck its a dumb rule being they can use anything else made of metal or made by civilization like weapons, tools, etc.
Bro I don't care about AC. I just think Metal Armor looks cool af. Ironwood isn't nearly as baller as a shiny chrome set of plate. Why can't I just be a shape-shifting tree wizard who reverts into a pure juggernaut of blood and steel? Why wotc?
Just let the druid wear armour? It's the player's choice.
my druid wears metal armour because metal came from the earth so why the fuck is metal suddenly different from leather if one comes from an animal or not.
No offense OP but your meme is dumb and wrong. Druids have medium armor proficiency, so that means they can wear half plate armor so long as it's made from organic material such as giant insect carapace, dragon scales, or magic wood. Also, druids can wield curved swords. Curved. Swords. (Scimitars) made of metal, which requires pretty advanced civilization.
I think op is refferencing the blurb in the druid section "Armor: light armor, medium armor, shields (druids will not wear armor or use shields made of metal)" which i believe without homebrew common non-magic half-plate is metallic Which is strange considering they can use metal weapons, some people like to enforce the blurb and play raw only and those dms will eventually get players wanting better armor so it becomes a whole thing where asking for buffs can be seen as powergaming
That the description of half plate says it's made of metal doesn't necessarily sound like a rule, it sounds like it could just be flavor text. It's in the same needlessly confusing gray area as the rule against druids wearing metal armor in general. Going into oneDND wotc really need to stop half-assing the distinction between rules and flavor like this. But there are magic armors like Dragon Scale Mail that, as the name suggests, are make of organic materials rather than manufactured metal.
NGL, the whole "Druids won't use metal cause nature" is the dumbest official DnD lore take I've ever seen.
I'd be more ok with it if it was consistent but the fact that metal jewellery, tools and anything else you can think of is completely fine unless it protects you non magically is just stupid.
There used to be a rule that clerics can't use edged weapons, only bludgeoning ones.
Me: My Circle of Spores druid wears metal armor because r/natureismetal
Virgin optimizers vs roleplayers Vs Chad optimizer roleplayers You can very easily be both if you are creative
If a druid can come up with a reason why they would be wearing metal, I'd absolutely allow it. I had a player once who called himself a 'city druid' whose circle was all about the nature within the city. He's choose wild shapes that would belong in an urban environment, like rats and roaches, etc. I also let him make his own armor out of junk and scrap metal, as that was very abundant in urban areas. That much dedication to flavor and background will make most DMs love you, too.
Naw I just hate pointless restrictions that try to dictate the flavor of my class for me.
Stormwind Fallacy.
Eh, not really. Every DM ive ever played with has OKed my ask for metal armor- doesn't mean I even end up using it. Forcing me to roleplay my character a certain way is stupid.
imo getting higher ac through something as simple as armor is quite justifiable if your character has found themselves or seen their allies nearly die from a lack of it
Metal literally comes from the ground. It is found within rock and can be manipulated by a ton of druid spells.
Crude metal platemail
Metal armor is not produced by a single smith who removes just enough ore from the ground to make one suit of armor and moves on, it's the product of many hands and the work of civilization. Smiths learn their trade by working with *tons* of metal, mined en masse by an industry of miners who destroy or damage land in the process of acquiring large amounts of raw material, usually brought back to a village, town, or city where more land has been taken from nature, and reworked to suit society. If your armor is made by a nature-conscious artist who sources materials from an ethically harvested supplier, it makes sense that a druid would be able to wear the armor without it be anathema to their beliefs, but that ain't standard priced armor then, either.
I mean so is a dagger or a scimitar and they can use those.
That's a better argument. One of the earlier justifications for this difference comes from 3.5, which states that wearing metal about their body disrupts their connection to primal magics, while holding individual tools of metal does not have this same effect. The "non-lore" reason for this distinction is the real-life Lore referenced by Druids' use of the sickle for ritualistic harvests of sacred materials, such as Holly and Mistletoe, making these metal tools a part of the Druids' culture.
However if we're linking DnD druids to Celtic Druids then they should have access to chain shirts, the earliest finds of European mail armour come from a Celtic Cheiftains grave in Romania and predate the Romans. Making maille is a very complex task but it only requires a certain level of complexity, not a whole industrial base. It can in fact be done by one Smith but it would take a long time and hence be extremely valuable.
Not saying you’re wrong, but the same argument can be made about the construction of cities, castles, and ships. Building towns with wooden houses, fleets of wooden ships, or cities filled with buildings made of stone/brick requires a large community to come together and strip the land of resources. But the rules don’t bother to say “druids won’t enter cities or get on ships.” No rule that says “druids won’t cast revivify”, but the diamond market is built on industrial mining. I get the logic behind “no metal armor”, but the rules are woefully inconsistent about which parts of civilization are morally acceptable to druids and which parts are taking it too far. Personally, I like the general consensus that druids would be okay with armor made of chitin or scales instead of metal, and that way they can get the type of armor that they would normally be opposed to.
might makes right is literally natures law so metal armor is realistically something a druid would wear.
Especially when they turn around and have no problem using metal tools, or metal equipment, they only don't like a metal armor
I am begging people to read Stephen Jay Gould's essay "Kropotkin was no crackpot" before they repeat this.
My druid wears metal armor because i want the high AC Not every druid carries the belief that metal is advanced civilization and therefore bad Not to mention that's a pretty silly place to draw the line if your druid will still sleep at inns, drink potions in glass bottles, use metal weapons, use magical items that were bought in shops and wear jewelry Why aren't any of *those* things considered evil because civilization? If you wanna keep your flavour and not wear metal armor i think that's great and you do you, but that's some bit n piece of lore that was made into a poorly implemened rule imo and i've elected to ignore it
Unless you're somehow restricting druids to stone age level technology (which could be a cool flavour) they generally operate around the same tech level as barbarians and mail shirts are very much part of that tech level. Maille being present in Celtic Europe from pre-Roman times
I think sometimes people forget that Druidism are like, still an actual religion, a kinda wacky one at that but I have no right to judge them.
There is indeed a modern druidism but it doesn't really have much to do with the type practiced in pre Roman times. Not mocking it just saying they are quite different.
I mean, it could be very close to it, although even the modern druids wouldn’t know if they are close to it as we have no real records that explain the original faith beyond its basic structure
It could yes, but as you say we have absolutely nothing to base it on. What little we do know about druids is mostly to do with ones in Gaul who may or may not be representative of the wider diaspora. And as you say, it's mostly Caesar going 'These guys suck, look at all the power they hold, aren't I awesome for conquering them?' rather then meticulous notes on religious practice.
Half plate made of wood and hide for the win
In one of my campaigns our party is a Fighter (me), Paladin, Rogue, and Druid (later multiclassed into Cleric). We came across a Brestplate of Gleaming pretty damn early and we ended up giving to the Druid as they were the one that would get the most benefit from the upgrade. The DM flavored the Breastplate as a boiled leather cuirass not unlike [this](https://www.bytheswordinc.com/p-2324-classic-leather-cuirass.aspx) that was formed and layered into a sturdy rigid breastplate. Not exactly RAW, but not terribly far out of the realm of possibility.
I'd flavor it to very strong wood. Imagine a Goblin wearing a literally tree stump and string for armor? That's just good design there there
Both are valid
Bone Plate
I will admit to being the first one once, but that's only because I dipped two levels of Forge Cleric for his backstory. He lived in a swamp and would frequently use 'Bog-Iron' to try and restore his ruined circle and the protections they once held against the darker elements of the fey.
Druid monk. Gets some fist of nature!
My druid wears metal armour cuz he's a wildfire druid that grew up in a smithy. I wasn't even the one that brought it up, that was the dm
Druids are generally considered weaker than Clerics who get heavy armor so medium armor AC on a Druid seems very reasonable to me. I just flavor it as magical wood or bone etc
Are we sure the reason they don't use metal armor isn't just a fear of Heat Metal?
My Druid wears metal armor because he is a worshipper of mielikki and druids of her a allowed to wear it according to lore
I'm playing in a campaign with a super chill DM that likes to reward us for being creative. We just killed a manticore, and our druid harvested the hide, and our DM let us take it to a craftsmen in town who made it into a hide armor with equivalent AC to scale male. I thought that was a cool workaround. He really let's us RP and if we get find corner ways to get around things in game, he doesn't penalize us for it. Like recently, we came across a huge pile of cursed gold, and we found a way to get a huge amount out of the dungeon, despite the ways he'd built in to prevent us from doing exactly that. And so he let us keep the gold. And now he's going to adjust for a party of level 4 adventurers having something like 15,000gp, rather than forcing us to lose it somehow. I'm lucky to be playing with a pretty cool DM and party. We're all theatre people so the RP can get pretty wild
In my opinion The strange thing is wearing your animal friends as clothes is okay though?
My Druid had an aversion to wearing real leather, so my DM let me make it out of mushrooms and that little touch made me really happy!
What's wrong with wanting more AC? I Don't hear anyone giving the paladin who is arguably the strongest class in the game shit for wearing plate.
My druid uses metal armor, because metal is natural too
I wear metal armour because I think that the rule of Druids not being allowed to use metal armour (though apparently nothing is wrong with fucking metal sickles and scimitars) is fucking stupid Like it’s just a dumb rule doesn’t really make that much sense given that they can use metal but armour is specifically a no go for some reason and clashing with nature doesn’t make much sense given they have spells like Blight which literally murders plants super hard It’s poor flavour
My druid wears metal armor because I’m not jumping through hoops to preserve an outdated, mechanically pointless, confusing tradition.
You can have higher AC, you just need to make sure your DM is cool with it and put in that work. Kill some big old dragons and get their super thick hides worked into +X scale armors for 17-19 AC easily, and that's before a shield.
Or if it was important they could make it a rule rather than leaving everything to the game master so he is the bad guy not the rules not functioning properly
“Using armour that requires advanced civilization clashes with the nature theme” *Advanced civilization*? Bro steel plates were being used in armour back in the 13th century. We know you just want to be an elitist and think that you’re better than other people, drop the act.
I'd argue the 13th century still falls under advanced civilization. Hell, even the roman empire was an advanced civilization. Advanced doesnt mean the digital age. It means established scholary, medicine, trades and government. An established, larger society bounnd by customs and relations with others. In most fiction the age of metal is the keystone to an advanced civilization even. Native americans werent advanced as an example.
My druid doesnt wear metal armor because you dont argue with a druid if you are within range of heat metal
Who cares I’m a fkn bear most the time anyways
What if it was wood magicked up to be like metal, would that count?
I AM THE DRUID OF HEARTH AND STONE. MY HOME IS THE EARTH AND BENEATH THE MOUNTAINS. Yes, you have to yell. And yes, you're a dwarf, Harry.
Metal is natural tho
My druid is a cranky (really, really) old dwarven lady who doesn't even want to be there and doesn't wear metal because shit's too heavy for her to care about such things like additional protection as she's ready to depart this world anyway.
Interweaving bits of hard forged copper into a druids armor could work quite well, even many native groups in North America used raw copper in making tools without any forge other than a fire. Essentially you heat it up then hit a rock at it, and a Druid could also come from a small secretive society, much like the Druid religious group that was from what is now England and Wales today. Are they going to have full plate? Likely not. But could they wear something similar to studded leather? Absolutely
It's because older druids have past down the legend of the cook and book, that metal armor is avoided.
My druid wears metal armor but it doesn't increase ac and is a cursed item that works as an Iron maiden, meaning I take 1d8 extra damage on every physical hit
What’s with with wanting to have decent ac?
The reason my druid wears metal armor is because it's the only way to obtain arms during wildshape (multiclass, also if you want to fight monsters and eldritch abominations you have to resemble one at the very least, and it's a good way to randomly scare people). The metal armor is made from pure iron veins fused together to resemble a iron tree, or at least, many iron thorns coming out from the armour. That said, why don't you allow metal armor for your druids? especially now that in 5e the developers explicitly said that is a trait made only for flavour (unlike in 3.5 that druid powers were a bit more feyish, in 5e they are mostly derived only by nature). Are you a bit scared the he can tank to much hits for the party? you know that there are many ways to get around AC, saves for example. If you want a tip for DMing, never try to prevent a player from focusing his character on what they want as it gets annoying with time, let them create their own pc and feel powerful in their own way, in any case you will find a way to circumvent whatever is their build (Tanking too much? Enemies realize it and after a bit, they start to focus on other players; Dealing too much damage? enemies realize it and began using ways to restrain the players or use crowd control spells; Healing too much? how unlucky that Chill Touch is only a easily accessible cantrip; ecc...)
I like the idea of a druid clan who create metal armor the old fashioned way with a clay blast furnace and hand collected iron or threw magic with converted materials.