While my gut reaction is to go along with the RAI interpretation and say you arent supposed to gain the resistances, I would say there is some precedent for it working with heavy armor. There are other totem options that explicitly state they do not work while you are wearing heavy armor.
Eagle. (PHB) While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor, other creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls against you, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. The spirit of the eagle makes you into a predator who can weave through the fray with ease.
Elk. (SCAG) While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor, your walking speed increases by 15 feet. The spirit of the elk makes you extraordinarily swift.
in contrast, all of the other totem abilities do not have this as a listed restriction. It seems odd that they would go out of their way to state that certain options do not work with heavy armor if their intention was for ALL of them not to work with heavy armor.
While my gut reaction is to go along with the RAI interpretation and say you arent supposed to gain the resistances, I would say there is some precedent for it working with heavy armor. There are other totem options that explicitly state they do not work while you are wearing heavy armor.
Eagle. (PHB) While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor, other creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls against you, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. The spirit of the eagle makes you into a predator who can weave through the fray with ease.
Elk. (SCAG) While you're raging and aren't wearing heavy armor, your walking speed increases by 15 feet. The spirit of the elk makes you extraordinarily swift.
In contrast, all of the other totem abilities do not have this as a listed restriction. It seems odd that they would go out of their way to state that certain options do not work with heavy armor if their intention was for ALL of them not to work with heavy armor.
The PHB has since been subject to errata that removed the clause about heavy armor. Below is how it currently reads.
Eagle. While you’re raging, other creatures have disadvantage on opportunity attack rolls against you, and you can use the Dash action as a bonus action on your turn. The spirit of the eagle makes you into a predator who can weave through the fray with ease.
And the Elk totem is from SCAG is unchanged, which I do find surprising. The only material there which did receive errata are ones reprinted elsewhere: Monk (Way of the Sun Soul), Paladin (Oath of the Crown), Rogue (Swashbucker), Wizard (Bladesinger), and the four cantrips. And for the sake of consistency, I've already dropped it in my home games. My wife played a forest gnome elk totem barbarian in my last campaign.
While it isn't official Sage Advice, it's clear that these additional benefits are in included with the core benefits of rage. The fact that there's no sentence precluding their use with heavy armor shouldn't matter. Anything dependent on rage should not work if the barbarian is wearing heavy armor. If you want to continue arguing, pedantically, you can. But I'm done. Pedantry has a time and place, and this isn't it. Look, I'm still annoyed that the Oxford comma has fallen in disuse, and that's caused (for me) problems with some official interpretations. Because it means there are multiple legitimate ways to read some features; such as with the Ranger's (Beast Master) Beast Companion. So I choose the one that works for me.
I get the frustration that an editing pass should have caught this, but it didn't. And if I had to guess, it's because everyone was internal. They all understood one another so, to them, it was as clear as can be. We know how this is supposed to work. Whether you agree with it or not, that's for you to handle at your table. I know what I'm doing.
hey use the Kalashtar race with only three levels in Totem Bear, you get consistent resitsance in all damage types, just multi class in any class you want after that and you have efectivly twice as much hit points and the 3d12 hit dice and hit points are not a bad thing to have as well.
So can you wear full plate and rage as a bear totem barbarian and have the damage mitigation? Does this new raging benefit remove the armor restriction since it specifically leaves it out?
No. You can't enter a rage while wearing heavy armor.
Level 1: Rage
You can imbue yourself with a primal power called Rage, a force that grants you extraordinary might and resilience. You can enter it as a Bonus Action if you aren’t wearing Heavy armor.
You have no means to actually enter the rage while you are wearing heavy armor.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
So can you wear full plate and rage as a bear totem barbarian and have the damage mitigation? Does this new raging benefit remove the armor restriction since it specifically leaves it out?
No. You can't enter a rage while wearing heavy armor.
Level 1: Rage
You can imbue yourself with a primal power called Rage, a force that grants you extraordinary might and resilience. You can enter it as a Bonus Action if you aren’t wearing Heavy armor.
You have no means to actually enter the rage while you are wearing heavy armor.
That is true in the 2024 version. The 2014 version, which is what this thread from 2022 was about, technically did not have that restriction. It just said you didn't gain most of the benefits of raging while wearing heavy armor.
Now it's been clarified how it should work. Where there is confusion for the rules lawyers, the new version helps guide intent.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
So can you wear full plate and rage as a bear totem barbarian and have the damage mitigation? Does this new raging benefit remove the armor restriction since it specifically leaves it out?
No. You can't enter a rage while wearing heavy armor.
Level 1: Rage
You can imbue yourself with a primal power called Rage, a force that grants you extraordinary might and resilience. You can enter it as a Bonus Action if you aren’t wearing Heavy armor.
You have no means to actually enter the rage while you are wearing heavy armor.
That is true in the 2024 version. The 2014 version, which is what this thread from 2022 was about, technically did not have that restriction. It just said you didn't gain most of the benefits of raging while wearing heavy armor.
I think the intent and wording were clear enough that most of the 5e community understood that barbarian and heavy armor were never meant to work together. Rage explicitly said so in 2014, also. The game designers were merely expanding that one section on the rage damage resistance for Bear totem. The limitation on the benefits of rage not working with heavy armor were still in place, but in Crawford's mind not required to mention...since they were still in place.
While my gut reaction is to go along with the RAI interpretation and say you arent supposed to gain the resistances, I would say there is some precedent for it working with heavy armor. There are other totem options that explicitly state they do not work while you are wearing heavy armor.
in contrast, all of the other totem abilities do not have this as a listed restriction. It seems odd that they would go out of their way to state that certain options do not work with heavy armor if their intention was for ALL of them not to work with heavy armor.
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The PHB has since been subject to errata that removed the clause about heavy armor. Below is how it currently reads.
And the Elk totem is from SCAG is unchanged, which I do find surprising. The only material there which did receive errata are ones reprinted elsewhere: Monk (Way of the Sun Soul), Paladin (Oath of the Crown), Rogue (Swashbucker), Wizard (Bladesinger), and the four cantrips. And for the sake of consistency, I've already dropped it in my home games. My wife played a forest gnome elk totem barbarian in my last campaign.
While it isn't official Sage Advice, it's clear that these additional benefits are in included with the core benefits of rage. The fact that there's no sentence precluding their use with heavy armor shouldn't matter. Anything dependent on rage should not work if the barbarian is wearing heavy armor. If you want to continue arguing, pedantically, you can. But I'm done. Pedantry has a time and place, and this isn't it. Look, I'm still annoyed that the Oxford comma has fallen in disuse, and that's caused (for me) problems with some official interpretations. Because it means there are multiple legitimate ways to read some features; such as with the Ranger's (Beast Master) Beast Companion. So I choose the one that works for me.
I get the frustration that an editing pass should have caught this, but it didn't. And if I had to guess, it's because everyone was internal. They all understood one another so, to them, it was as clear as can be. We know how this is supposed to work. Whether you agree with it or not, that's for you to handle at your table. I know what I'm doing.
hey use the Kalashtar race with only three levels in Totem Bear, you get consistent resitsance in all damage types, just multi class in any class you want after that and you have efectivly twice as much hit points and the 3d12 hit dice and hit points are not a bad thing to have as well.
No. You can't enter a rage while wearing heavy armor.
Level 1: Rage
You can imbue yourself with a primal power called Rage, a force that grants you extraordinary might and resilience. You can enter it as a Bonus Action if you aren’t wearing Heavy armor.
You have no means to actually enter the rage while you are wearing heavy armor.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
That is true in the 2024 version. The 2014 version, which is what this thread from 2022 was about, technically did not have that restriction. It just said you didn't gain most of the benefits of raging while wearing heavy armor.
pronouns: he/she/they
Now it's been clarified how it should work. Where there is confusion for the rules lawyers, the new version helps guide intent.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I think the intent and wording were clear enough that most of the 5e community understood that barbarian and heavy armor were never meant to work together. Rage explicitly said so in 2014, also. The game designers were merely expanding that one section on the rage damage resistance for Bear totem. The limitation on the benefits of rage not working with heavy armor were still in place, but in Crawford's mind not required to mention...since they were still in place.