The hide armor is the worst armor in the PHB, and yet for some reason it states that it’s favored by druids (despite being inferior to studded in every respect).
Does anybody know if such armors were ever used in real-world history and were they really that awful?
Does the hide armor has any redeeming features whatsoever?
It has few, if any, metal pieces. This makes it the most protective armor that druids can wear, unless they use dragonhide, ironwood, leafweave (RoW), wildwood (RoW), or spend feats for mammoth leather (RoS) or stone plate (RoS).
I'm pretty sure hides have been used as armor in RL. Here's a website I found that's a brief history of armor. Of course I could still be wrong b/c I simply don't think everything on the internet is true. :o)
It has few, if any, metal pieces. This makes it the most protective armor that druids can wear, unless they use dragonhide, ironwood, leafweave (RoW), wildwood (RoW), or spend feats for mammoth leather (RoS) or stone plate (RoS).
But studded leather is just as protective AND light...
studded leather has metal peices, metal is what the studs tend to be made out of.
from the SRD
Druids are proficient with light and medium armor but are prohibited from wearing metal armor; thus, they may wear only padded, leather, or hide armor.
note that st. leather is not on that list.
studded leather has metal peices, metal is what the studs tend to be made out of.
from the SRD
Druids are proficient with light and medium armor but are prohibited from wearing metal armor; thus, they may wear only padded, leather, or hide armor.note that st. leather is not on that list.
Hmmm... so the maggots have been cheating me all these years... someone is going to fight in his pejamas tonight...
Also note that there are a number of ways one can give your druid the benefits of metal armor without having metal in them.
A) Yes, Hide Armor sucks and IMO the armor table in general is just half-baked to begin with. Go here for what is, IMO, a set of armor statistics that finally makes sense. It's Kolja Raven Liquette's website, who has a number of ideas I'm rather fond of for homebrew/houserule stuff.
B) Back to my original remark (I digressed, obviously), there are special materials such as ironwood, darkweave (eberron), and the like that one /can/ use in place of metal. Of course, some special materials say that armor not primarily made of metal can't be made from them, but there's no reason you can't rule that said material can't be used for studded leather (maybe at a fraction of the extra cost, with the only benefit being that a druid can wear it).
C) Honestly, the druid restriction on armor doesn't make much sense. They're given the ability to wear medium armor. Hide armor blows, which makes it at least SEEM like the only reason it was thrown in was so druids would actually /have/ medium armor to wear. Then what happens? Lo and behold, special rules get introduced later on that let them have other kinds of medium armor. My vote: blow off the silly armor restriction and just let them wear any medium armor. It's NOT going to break your game. Besides, metal comes from the earth. From nature. How druids have a problem with such a fantastic working of man born /of the earth/ I have no idea.
The druidic restriction on worked metal is suppossed to hark back to their connection to the sidhe, the celtic fey, who were allergic to worked iron. (IIRC?) Same thing for thier weapon choices. The weapons and armor proficiencies for druids need to be reworked in light of thier new role as primary caster. If they had spell progression more like a bard, it'd be ok, but full spell progression, a critter, plus ok equip profs add up to make Druid a slighlty overpowered class, IMO.