I play a monk and I was lucky and found a ring of protection. After attuning it gave me +1 to my AC. Now I thought if you would buy a cloak of protection, attune to it I would get another +1 to my AC. BUT my friends told me that it doesn’t work like this because both items have the same spell - „protection“. We are all new to D&D and I‘m not quiet sure what is right.
I read that you could wear the Ring (+1 to AC), the cloak (+1 to AC), the bracers of defense (+1 to AC (and different spell!)), and a staff (I forgot the name of it) which also gives you +1 to AC.
Now I got the cloak and looking for the bracers because we agreed that this would be ok.
Short answer: Wearing, using, and attuning to both a Ring of Protection and a Cloak of Protection is perfectly fine and valid RAW (Rules as Written). Your friends are incorrect here as there is no rule preventing these items from interreacting at all.
Long Answer: In the Dungeon Master's Guide in the Attunement section for Magic Items (Found here: DMG - Attunement) we see the following text in the second to last paragraph.
"An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time, and a creature can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can’t attune to more than one copy of an item. For example, a creature can’t attune to more than one Ring of Protection at a time."
The green text above is the important bit so I'll focus on that. It says a creature can't attune to more than one "Copy" of an item, a ring and cloak are not the same items and thus not copies so this doesn't apply in this situation. I see where the inference on your friends part comes in as they're both _____ of Protection and its an easy leap to assume they're the same thing, simply enchanted on a different item, however this is not the case RAW and they're just as different as any other two items.
Things do what they say and don't do anything they don't say in DnD. If your group wants to change that and say things don't work that way you're totally free (and encouraged) to do that, but know that is moving outside the realm of RAW and into homebrew/house rule territory.
Hi,
I play a monk and I was lucky and found a ring of protection. After attuning it gave me +1 to my AC. Now I thought if you would buy a cloak of protection, attune to it I would get another +1 to my AC. BUT my friends told me that it doesn’t work like this because both items have the same spell - „protection“. We are all new to D&D and I‘m not quiet sure what is right.
I read that you could wear the Ring (+1 to AC), the cloak (+1 to AC), the bracers of defense (+1 to AC (and different spell!)), and a staff (I forgot the name of it) which also gives you +1 to AC.
Now I got the cloak and looking for the bracers because we agreed that this would be ok.
I just want to know what’s right.
Looks like you're fine because they're not coming from the same "source", i.e. 2 Rings of Protection.
https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/95651/do-save-bonuses-stack-from-multiple-magic-items-in-al
edit: Fine in that its okay to have both the ring and the cloak and get the +AC from both items.
Short answer: Wearing, using, and attuning to both a Ring of Protection and a Cloak of Protection is perfectly fine and valid RAW (Rules as Written). Your friends are incorrect here as there is no rule preventing these items from interreacting at all.
Long Answer: In the Dungeon Master's Guide in the Attunement section for Magic Items (Found here: DMG - Attunement) we see the following text in the second to last paragraph.
"An item can be attuned to only one creature at a time, and a creature can be attuned to no more than three magic items at a time. Any attempt to attune to a fourth item fails; the creature must end its attunement to an item first. Additionally, a creature can’t attune to more than one copy of an item. For example, a creature can’t attune to more than one Ring of Protection at a time."
The green text above is the important bit so I'll focus on that. It says a creature can't attune to more than one "Copy" of an item, a ring and cloak are not the same items and thus not copies so this doesn't apply in this situation. I see where the inference on your friends part comes in as they're both _____ of Protection and its an easy leap to assume they're the same thing, simply enchanted on a different item, however this is not the case RAW and they're just as different as any other two items.
Things do what they say and don't do anything they don't say in DnD. If your group wants to change that and say things don't work that way you're totally free (and encouraged) to do that, but know that is moving outside the realm of RAW and into homebrew/house rule territory.
Check out my latest homebrew: Mystic Knight (Fighter) v1.31
Thanks so much for the answers.
So I could have worn both and my AC would have been +2 . Well now I know.