Druids and paladins have an especially strong dose of story in their design. Each class has story elements mixed with its game features the two types of design go hand-in-hand in D&D, and the story parts are stronger in some classes than in others. If you feel strongly about your druid breaking the taboo and donning metal, talk to your DM. Think of it in these terms: a vegetarian can eat meat, but the vegetarian chooses not to.Ī druid typically wears leather, studded leather, or hide armor, and if a druid comes across scale mail made of a material other than metal, the druid might wear it. This choice is part of their identity as a mystical order. Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. The idea is that druids prefer to be protected by animal skins, wood, and other natural materials that aren’t the worked metal that is associated with civilization. The taboo has been part of the class’s story since the class first appeared in Eldritch Wizardry (1976) and the original Player’s Handbook (1978). Druids have a taboo against wearing metal armor and wielding a metal shield. What happens if a druid wears metal armor?

D&D Lead Rules Designer Jeremy Crawford explains: There’s no balance concerns from giving Druids access to all armors.

However, uninvested Druids would certainly like to make use of the entire gamut of medium armor, which offers up to an additional 3 AC (or 2 AC without imposing disadvantage on Stealth checks). Depending on your Dexterity investment, this may not make a difference. If you run this rule as written (RAW), the only medium armor you’re proficient with (Hide) is worse than your best light armor option (Studded Leather), due to the Dexterity cap. If you restrict Druids to non-metal armor as listed in the Player’s Handbook, they can get locked out of the strongest medium and heavy armors:

Dnd heavy armor