Need more Druid Amor/Shield options

[Xyfiel]

Haven't seen many options for Armor/Shields for Druid tanks.

Dragonscale - Black/White/Blue at 14, Green/Red/Red at 20+
A few misc like Parasitic but not heavy. So no heavy armor until 14 at least, which requires Gianthold pack. Then you have to wait until you can get 20 Epic scales and some other requirements wearing level 14 armor probably up to level 25.

Shields - Madstone, Alchemical
Here you can at least use Wooden Heavy/Tower, but unless you have Madstone/Alchemical already, you will wear them till you can pull a Madstone/Alchemical. Weathered Targe and Carved Bone shield are weak.

For a new class who has one aspect designed for tanking, they need more items for it.
There are many quests at low and mid levels where Bone, Flesh, Crystal, or darkwood/darkleaf armor could be added. It is sad I will have Heavy armor prof and nothing to equip for multiple levels.

[Clatterfist]

Warforged druids should be able to take whatever body feat they like, for a start. There's no sense to the notion that you can swear an oath to not have been made out of something by your creator - that's just silly.

[shadereaper33]

A couple things to address in here:

1st- druids don't get heavy armor proficiency, so I don't see a reason to add heavy armors specifically for them, at any point in the game.

2nd- druids are not allowed to wear metal armor, which on a warforged is represented by various body feats. If you want to be a warforged druid, don't pick one of the metal body types, it's pretty simple.

[TreknaQudane]

A couple things to address in here:

1st- druids don't get heavy armor proficiency, so I don't see a reason to add heavy armors specifically for them, at any point in the game.

2nd- druids are not allowed to wear metal armor, which on a warforged is represented by various body feats. If you want to be a warforged druid, don't pick one of the metal body types, it's pretty simple.

It would be simple but they're not allowing WF Druids to take -any- body feat since they didn't add Ironwood Body.... which really hurts because of the lack of PRR.

The only way I could justify a WF Druid is if you were going to splash 2 Monk since you can't use armor anyway. Even then it's not the best combo once they fix the issue with healer's friend

[Clatterfist]

I can get with druids not being allowed to wear metal armour because that is the choice of an individual, something you can promise not to do as a display of devotion. A warforged's body is made for him before he became conscious - how can you swear not have been made out of adamantine by someone else? That's nonsense!

Proficiencies are no excuse for the limitations because that's handled by its own system. Druid / Fighters are proficient in heavy armour. So the question is, do the materials exist out of which these heavier armours could be made? The answer is "yes" (various types of hide and special woods) and the system is there to handle it, so... why not make them available again?

On a side note, I always found the oath a rather silly way of trying to control what armour a character wears, certainly compared to proficiencies or arcane spell failure...but it is what it is. And what it is should not apply to warforged (makes no logical sense) and should be possible to work around for others (based on established facts).

[t0r012]

Ummmm.......
Why would druids get special armor options to be tanks?

This is like asking to get special armor for my rogue or monk to be a tank.
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Beyond that I don't agree cause there are plenty of random loot leather and hide armies available.

[walkin_dude]

Warforged druids should be able to take whatever body feat they like, for a start. There's no sense to the notion that you can swear an oath to not have been made out of something by your creator - that's just silly.

I would say it more that a warforged with metal body couldn't have become a druid.

[shadereaper33]

I can get with druids not being allowed to wear metal armour because that is the choice of an individual, something you can promise not to do as a display of devotion. A warforged's body is made for him before he became conscious - how can you swear not have been made out of adamantine by someone else? That's nonsense!

Proficiencies are no excuse for the limitations because that's handled by its own system. Druid / Fighters are proficient in heavy armour. So the question is, do the materials exist out of which these heavier armours could be made? The answer is "yes" (various types of hide and special woods) and the system is there to handle it, so... why not make them available again?

On a side note, I always found the oath a rather silly way of trying to control what armour a character wears, certainly compared to proficiencies or arcane spell failure...but it is what it is. And what it is should not apply to warforged (makes no logical sense) and should be possible to work around for others (based on established facts).

So, what you are saying is that you want warforged to be able to wear metal-type armor as a druid because of a purely role-playing based perspective, which can be easily circumvented because you create your own character. As far as the special material types for armors, yes they exist, as SPECIAL material types. If they were to become place, they would no longer be a special property of that type of armor. Your last argument is that the druidic oath should not apply to warforged, because from a role playing perspective, they can't choose what they are made out of. If warforged were allowed to wear metal-type armor, then all druids should be allowed to wear metal-type armor, which completely negates one of the core aspects of the druid class itself, the druidic oath.

To me, it looks like you are trying to use a role playing based argument to prove that other role playing based factors of a character are invalid.

[Clatterfist]

It's a simple enough argument from logic. If the requirement stems from an oath then it cannot logically apply to things that are entirely involuntary for the character. The character would still be required to use permitted weapons and wooden shields, so you don't sacrifice the flavour altogether.

It would also potentially have the "non-roleplaying" benefit of presenting people with an interesting choice to make: if the warforged's unique position in this regard lets him get heavy armour on a druid more easily than others (not forgetting that it saves a proficiency feat or multiclass splash), then there would be a reason to consider making such a character, despite his self-curing and wisdom penalties.

More sense and more choice? I'd go for that.

[Therrias]

Ummmm.......
Why would druids get special armor options to be tanks?

This is like asking to get special armor for my rogue or monk to be a tank.
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Beyond that I don't agree cause there are plenty of random loot leather and hide armies available.

Ummmmm...no one wants your rogue to tank.

But my bear form druid and my earth stance monk want to tank.

[wolfy42]

Are darkleaf breastplates the best armor a druid can wear without breaking oath?

I have 1 or 2...but certainly not enough to set my druid up all the way up the levels right now. If there is a woodish bashed higher armor type my druid could wear that would be really useful to know.

Darkleaf breastplate counts as light armor with a max dex bonus of 4 (12 base + 2 tome + cats gets me to max), so thats what I'm basing my starting stats on right now. From what I have read though AC is going to be much more armor/shield dependent, and being able to wear medium armor would probably add alot more AC to my total then a few more points of dex (and I could even drop dex down more that way).

I'm trying to specialize in my wolf form, but still want a high wisdom (and a 14 con of course) so any points I can shave off dex would help.

[TreknaQudane]

Are darkleaf breastplates the best armor a druid can wear without breaking oath?

I have 1 or 2...but certainly not enough to set my druid up all the way up the levels right now. If there is a woodish bashed higher armor type my druid could wear that would be really useful to know.

Darkleaf breastplate counts as light armor with a max dex bonus of 4 (12 base + 2 tome + cats gets me to max), so thats what I'm basing my starting stats on right now. From what I have read though AC is going to be much more armor/shield dependent, and being able to wear medium armor would probably add alot more AC to my total then a few more points of dex (and I could even drop dex down more that way).

I'm trying to specialize in my wolf form, but still want a high wisdom (and a 14 con of course) so any points I can shave off dex would help.

Darkleaf wont drop anymore .. at least i saw NONE drop in druid end reward lists... so any you have nnow wont scale up like new armors that drop based on tier

[donblas]

Are darkleaf breastplates the best armor a druid can wear without breaking oath?

.

Darkleaf splint (medium armor)? I've got a few sets to craft for my druid at low level. But it seems the devs were so rushed that they forgot to have them drop anymore in the beta.

[Ryiah]

This is like asking to get special armor for my rogue or monk to be a tank.

You mean like the Epic Duelist's Leathers and the Icy Raiment?

[Arkenvis]

...if the warforged's unique position in this regard lets him get heavy armour on a druid more easily than others (not forgetting that it saves a proficiency feat or multiclass splash)...

It doesn't "save" a feat for a warforged, the only way they can have better than composite plating is to take the Mithral or Adamantine body feats.

In regards to the warforged being made out of the material to begin with: There's no maximum level restriction on warforged body feats. One could just as easily take Adamantine Body at level 18.

Now, if at character creation warforged received a bonus feat that was strictly limited to their choice of body feat, there might be some cause for argument. As this is not the case, the point is moot.

All that said, I'm all in favor of more warforged "body" feats, including "reforged" (reduced HP recovery from repair spells in trade for better innate positive energy healing), and some sort of medium armor option.

[Clatterfist]

Yeah, I expressed that badly. I meant that it's easier to get the armour in light of having to spend a feat either way, and then not having to find the special material but starting with it.

I think body feats used to be level one only, or maybe that's just a pen and paper rule. That's pretty much where I'm coming from.

Warforged really do need a medium armour choice, although that's a whole other "thing". Mithral Body is meant to give medium armour level protection, not light... it's only light 'cos of the special property of being mithral. It's meant to be much more protective than what they're turning it into, that's for sure. Composite Plating is meant to be equivalent to a light armour: Is +2 regular leather (non-studded) under the old system? That's the sort of level you should get by default on a warfie.