"... blah, fluff, blah, you must be proficient with the armor you are wearing to cast a spell."
Means, unless I missing something, Mountain Dwarves are the only armor wearing wizards (by RAW and presuming no multi-classing). With multi-classing and super low XP for 1st level it is eminently min-maxish of any Wizard to take a level of Fighter.
Now, DMs are free to plug this "hole". It's just weird (still assume I missing something somewhere...) Although, maybe armor is not a big deal with all the "impossible to die" rules (full hp regen every night, partial hp regen rests, multiple saves before death, lots of spells to auto-make saves / heal / be not dead, healing potions in the equipment list, etc.).
Personally I like Dwarves to be the antithesis of magic and Elves to be fighter/mage types. I'd house rule Dwarves to have advantage on saving throws against magic and be unable to take Wizard levels. And Elf Fighter/Wizards being one of the very few multi-class options available.
[wtf is up with basic PDF jacking cut and paste?]
As I understand it mountain dwarves can cast in armor. And I'm ok with it! :-)
ReplyDeleteYou can copy-paste text from the printer-friendly version of the rules. However, the copied text includes the line breaks. For example:
ReplyDeleteUsing These Rules
The D&D Basic Rules document is divided into
three parts.
Part 1 is about creating a character, providing the
rules and guidance you need to make the character
you’ll play in the game. It includes information on
the various races, classes, backgrounds, equipment,
and other customization options that you can choose
from. Many of the rules in part 1 rely on material in
parts 2 and 3.
I'm not that shocked. Dwarves have been getting progressively more munchkined up in each edition. :) Indeed my only errata to that would be to call dwarves "munchkins". Fixed. ;)
ReplyDeleteyou want a strong wizard in armor that gets no boost to Int? go for it. Means you arent as good at casting spells then elves or humans. But, if you think dwarves should NEVER be wizards ... then houserule it. In my world, dwarves are the first wizards and past that knowledge to the humans, who then excelled in it.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of mechanics, the armor doesn't break anything. In the end, the dwarven wizard in heavy armor ends up with about the same AC as a wizard using his DEX and a Mage Armor spell. 5th Edition has a much lower scale of numbers, so it just doesn't matter as much if someone creates a dwarven wizard in armor. It makes for nice flavor, though.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this, it makes an interesting change to the standard robed wizard, and also fits in with the OD&D elf fighter/wizard.
DeleteWizard dwarves make my stomach turn. I like to think of them as master engineers. I say give them explosives! Not magic!
ReplyDeleteBy the way had a 5e starter set TPK last weekend, so it is not totally impossible to die. It did take a series of really bad roles and bad choices.