Why is there no extra feat beyond Lightly Armored? Because giving people not normally allowed to wear it is a powerful ability in and of itself. D&D is meant to be a team game, in which a collection of specialists join forces so that the sum is greater than the parts. Casters are supposed to be squishy so that they need someone else to defend them well, so letting them take armor at all is pretty cool.
More on top of that would make wearing Light armor even more desirable than higher grades, so there would need to be even more feats for them to keep the different grades equally useful. Heavy armor is very restricting now, and only compensates by having a higher armor class, but since it removes Dex entirely, few people get much benefit from it. Half-plate armor and a 14 Dex turns out better than chainmail. As you go up in grades of Heavy armor, they get very expensive.
At the lower ends of the game, armor class makes a big difference. It stops being so as early as the start of Tier 2, at 5th level. Monsters have a lot of ways to affect you that aren't slowed down much by armor, and of course a natural 20 always crits. The being able to hit no matter what their armor class part is makes packs of low level monsters a treat in Tier 2 and sometimes beyond that, and the damage from the crit is a nice bonus on top of that.
Any feat on top of Lightly Armored would need very careful consideration. Casters can already use Mage Armor to set their base AC to 13, they get dex on top of that, and they can use the Shield spell. That's 18 AC and dex on top of that. With a half decent dex, as low as a 14, you have a 20, and that's the same as someone wearing the heaviest non-magical armor in the game and a non-magical shield, and in addition the Shield spell will add 5 on top of that. The price that a caster pays is that it uses up their resources.
With Lightly Armored, a caster with a 14 dex and Studded leather armor would have a 14 armor class. That's the same as Hide armor, the lowest level of Medium, so just with Lightly Armored, they get Medium armor, and if they have a higher dex, they get even better. That's powerful enough in my opinion, unless you want to make a Feat that lets people use their dex with heavy armor, or you create a new category called Ultra Heavy Armor.
What would it do? They don't write feats just to complete sets. They write them to add something meaningful to your character. You don't need a feat to remove disadvantage on Stealth while wearing light armor... Because you don't *have* disadvantage on Stealth while wearing light armor. I guess it could give you *advantage*? But that's probably not appropriate, because it's the same effect you can get from a magic item, among other reasons. (It also negates any need to look for/create advantages for yourself in the moment, which some would argue is... The game.)
Light armor is the kind to get out of the way and let your class features and Dexterity take the spotlight. That's the entire point of it.
And dodge projectiles better (or at least anything that gives a dex save)
You can block Dex save things with intervening matter - in fact, cover applying to Dex saves but not any other saves is one of the big reasons Dex saves are the worst ones for a spell to target, in general. That said, the feat's wording could be improved a lot. I'm skeptical whoever wrote it actually studied the other two armor feats - for one thing, putting a stat prereq on an armor mastery feat is ridiculous. For another, that +2 to Dex save thing protects you against something like 2 or 3 spells and nothing else in the entire game. Here's my attempt.
Light Armor Master
Prerequisites: Light armor proficiency You have practiced moving in light armor and situating yourself to take hits on your light armor instead of your body. While wearing light armor, calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier. You gain the following benefits:
Your light armor bonus is added to your Dexterity saving throws; this bonus does not stack with cover.
Nonmagical piercing and slashing damage that you take is reduced by your light armor bonus.
Wearing light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Up to 15 pounds of the weight of light armor you are wearing doesn't count against your carrying capacity.
And dodge projectiles better (or at least anything that gives a dex save)
You can block Dex save things with intervening matter - in fact, cover applying to Dex saves but not any other saves is one of the big reasons Dex saves are the worst ones for a spell to target, in general. That said, the feat's wording could be improved a lot. I'm skeptical whoever wrote it actually studied the other two armor feats - for one thing, putting a stat prereq on an armor mastery feat is ridiculous. For another, that +2 to Dex save thing protects you against something like 2 or 3 spells and nothing else in the entire game. Here's my attempt.
Light Armor Master
Prerequisites: Light armor proficiency You have practiced moving in light armor and situating yourself to take hits on your light armor instead of your body. While wearing light armor, calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier. You gain the following benefits:
Your light armor bonus is added to your Dexterity saving throws; this bonus does not stack with cover.
Nonmagical piercing and slashing damage that you take is reduced by your light armor bonus.
Wearing light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Up to 15 pounds of the weight of light armor you are wearing doesn't count against your carrying capacity.
Dex saves are traditionally dodging rather than deflecting. For passive deflecting, heavier armour is better. So why would this apply to any dex save when heavier armour does not? And why would it reduce damage better than heavier armour?
Because it's a feat for light armor mastery. You could 100% homebrew feats that do something similar for medium and/or heavy armor, granting 3/4 cover rather than 1/2 cover.
You mean worse? Reducing P/S by 1-2 depending on armor is worse than reducing P/S/B by 3 regardless of armor.
And dodge projectiles better (or at least anything that gives a dex save)
You can block Dex save things with intervening matter - in fact, cover applying to Dex saves but not any other saves is one of the big reasons Dex saves are the worst ones for a spell to target, in general. That said, the feat's wording could be improved a lot. I'm skeptical whoever wrote it actually studied the other two armor feats - for one thing, putting a stat prereq on an armor mastery feat is ridiculous. For another, that +2 to Dex save thing protects you against something like 2 or 3 spells and nothing else in the entire game. Here's my attempt.
Light Armor Master
Prerequisites: Light armor proficiency You have practiced moving in light armor and situating yourself to take hits on your light armor instead of your body. While wearing light armor, calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier. You gain the following benefits:
Your light armor bonus is added to your Dexterity saving throws; this bonus does not stack with cover.
Nonmagical piercing and slashing damage that you take is reduced by your light armor bonus.
Wearing light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Up to 15 pounds of the weight of light armor you are wearing doesn't count against your carrying capacity.
Dex saves are traditionally dodging rather than deflecting. For passive deflecting, heavier armour is better. So why would this apply to any dex save when heavier armour does not? And why would it reduce damage better than heavier armour?
Because it's a feat for light armor mastery. You could 100% homebrew feats that do something similar for medium and/or heavy armor, granting 3/4 cover rather than 1/2 cover.
You mean worse? Reducing P/S by 1-2 depending on armor is worse than reducing P/S/B by 3 regardless of armor.
2. Worse at base level, but scalable with magic items. You can get your DR even higher than a Heavy Armor Master can, *and* there's 2 other benefits in the feat (again, light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on Stealth, so it's not 3 other features). Way too good.
In my opinion, all the light armor fantasy stuff is already covered by other features and feats. Deflect Missiles, Parry, Uncanny Dodge, whatever the Drunken Master's redirection move is called, Dueling fighting style, Skulker, Bladesong, etc. You aren't meant to have everything on one character. Figure out what you're trying to accomplish and there's certainly something for it. I feel like this thread is just trying to fill a perceived hole: medium and heavy armor mastery exist, and light armor exists, so why not light armor mastery? We like symmetry and patterns, it's in our psychology. People are furious whenever Magic the Gathering prints an incomplete cycle of cards for the same reason. But that doesn't mean it's bad design that needs fixing. And frankly if there was a feat that every light armor user would hugely benefit from, like the ones proposed so far, I think that'd be way worse. Do y'all miss the feat taxes from 3.5e, or what?
2. Worse at base level, but scalable with magic items.
No. Repeating my post, this time with emphasis:
calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier.
+1, +2, and +3 armor doesn't add anything to your lab for the feat.
You can get your DR even higher than a Heavy Armor Master can, *and* there's 2 other benefits in the feat (again, light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on Stealth, so it's not 3 other features). Way too good.
padded armor absolutely does apply disadvantage on Stealth.
The feat offers multiple features in an attempt to be feat-worthy. It has to compete with +2 to a stat, which is hard to do. Most feats in the game suck and no-one should ever take them. A feat has to be good enough to be worth considering, or why bother?
And dodge projectiles better (or at least anything that gives a dex save)
You can block Dex save things with intervening matter - in fact, cover applying to Dex saves but not any other saves is one of the big reasons Dex saves are the worst ones for a spell to target, in general. That said, the feat's wording could be improved a lot. I'm skeptical whoever wrote it actually studied the other two armor feats - for one thing, putting a stat prereq on an armor mastery feat is ridiculous. For another, that +2 to Dex save thing protects you against something like 2 or 3 spells and nothing else in the entire game. Here's my attempt.
Light Armor Master
Prerequisites: Light armor proficiency You have practiced moving in light armor and situating yourself to take hits on your light armor instead of your body. While wearing light armor, calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier. You gain the following benefits:
Your light armor bonus is added to your Dexterity saving throws; this bonus does not stack with cover.
Nonmagical piercing and slashing damage that you take is reduced by your light armor bonus.
Wearing light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Up to 15 pounds of the weight of light armor you are wearing doesn't count against your carrying capacity.
Nice, you know it's balanced because there is a real chance I'd never take it. To be clear I am not being snide, it hits that nice spot where maybe in the right place I might consider it, but most of the time medium armor master is much better and worth doing what it takes to get it instead.
Sorry to do a necormancy, but this is an incredibly strong feat and doesn't really fit the style of the Armour Master half-feats. I don't know how people on dandwiki think these aren't completely busted.
I propose a compromise between the earlier posted half-feat and the dandwiki
Light Armor Master
Prerequisite: Proficiency with light armor
You have practiced moving in light armor to gain the following benefits:
Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Wearing light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on your Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
When you are wearing light armour and aren't incapacitated, you can use your reaction when you are hit by an attack or forced to make a Dexterity saving throw to add a +2 bonus to your AC or Dexterity saving throws until the end of that turn.
This isn't quite working within 5e's syntax but it's nowhere near as busted as the dandwiki version. The disadvantage on stealth checks is a nice bonus for padded users, but is honestly irrelevant for this feat. I think a pseudo half-shield that has an oppurtunity cost but no resource cost is the best way to balance the dandwiki feat out, while still making LAM a desirable feat to take.
The reaction also only lasts for one turn, not a whole round so it doesn't nearly come close to Shield's power level, but gives a nice variety in reactions (similar to Shield Master) for martials. It also feels thematically correct, you focus on dodging someone's attacks as your reaction but are still vulnerable to attacks or effects from other targets.
1 - Not everything has to be 100% realistic
2 If you want an explanation - My balls/boobs don't go everywhere so i can move more efficiently duh.
1 - Well, it's homebrew so i your dm can just say nope if your group finds it too unrealistic.
2 - It's easier with armor (possibly).
Why is there no extra feat beyond Lightly Armored? Because giving people not normally allowed to wear it is a powerful ability in and of itself. D&D is meant to be a team game, in which a collection of specialists join forces so that the sum is greater than the parts. Casters are supposed to be squishy so that they need someone else to defend them well, so letting them take armor at all is pretty cool.
More on top of that would make wearing Light armor even more desirable than higher grades, so there would need to be even more feats for them to keep the different grades equally useful. Heavy armor is very restricting now, and only compensates by having a higher armor class, but since it removes Dex entirely, few people get much benefit from it. Half-plate armor and a 14 Dex turns out better than chainmail. As you go up in grades of Heavy armor, they get very expensive.
At the lower ends of the game, armor class makes a big difference. It stops being so as early as the start of Tier 2, at 5th level. Monsters have a lot of ways to affect you that aren't slowed down much by armor, and of course a natural 20 always crits. The being able to hit no matter what their armor class part is makes packs of low level monsters a treat in Tier 2 and sometimes beyond that, and the damage from the crit is a nice bonus on top of that.
Any feat on top of Lightly Armored would need very careful consideration. Casters can already use Mage Armor to set their base AC to 13, they get dex on top of that, and they can use the Shield spell. That's 18 AC and dex on top of that. With a half decent dex, as low as a 14, you have a 20, and that's the same as someone wearing the heaviest non-magical armor in the game and a non-magical shield, and in addition the Shield spell will add 5 on top of that. The price that a caster pays is that it uses up their resources.
With Lightly Armored, a caster with a 14 dex and Studded leather armor would have a 14 armor class. That's the same as Hide armor, the lowest level of Medium, so just with Lightly Armored, they get Medium armor, and if they have a higher dex, they get even better. That's powerful enough in my opinion, unless you want to make a Feat that lets people use their dex with heavy armor, or you create a new category called Ultra Heavy Armor.
<Insert clever signature here>
What would it do? They don't write feats just to complete sets. They write them to add something meaningful to your character. You don't need a feat to remove disadvantage on Stealth while wearing light armor... Because you don't *have* disadvantage on Stealth while wearing light armor. I guess it could give you *advantage*? But that's probably not appropriate, because it's the same effect you can get from a magic item, among other reasons. (It also negates any need to look for/create advantages for yourself in the moment, which some would argue is... The game.)
Light armor is the kind to get out of the way and let your class features and Dexterity take the spotlight. That's the entire point of it.
You can block Dex save things with intervening matter - in fact, cover applying to Dex saves but not any other saves is one of the big reasons Dex saves are the worst ones for a spell to target, in general. That said, the feat's wording could be improved a lot. I'm skeptical whoever wrote it actually studied the other two armor feats - for one thing, putting a stat prereq on an armor mastery feat is ridiculous. For another, that +2 to Dex save thing protects you against something like 2 or 3 spells and nothing else in the entire game. Here's my attempt.
Light Armor Master
Prerequisites: Light armor proficiency
You have practiced moving in light armor and situating yourself to take hits on your light armor instead of your body. While wearing light armor, calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier. You gain the following benefits:
2. Worse at base level, but scalable with magic items. You can get your DR even higher than a Heavy Armor Master can, *and* there's 2 other benefits in the feat (again, light armor doesn't impose disadvantage on Stealth, so it's not 3 other features). Way too good.
In my opinion, all the light armor fantasy stuff is already covered by other features and feats. Deflect Missiles, Parry, Uncanny Dodge, whatever the Drunken Master's redirection move is called, Dueling fighting style, Skulker, Bladesong, etc. You aren't meant to have everything on one character. Figure out what you're trying to accomplish and there's certainly something for it. I feel like this thread is just trying to fill a perceived hole: medium and heavy armor mastery exist, and light armor exists, so why not light armor mastery? We like symmetry and patterns, it's in our psychology. People are furious whenever Magic the Gathering prints an incomplete cycle of cards for the same reason. But that doesn't mean it's bad design that needs fixing. And frankly if there was a feat that every light armor user would hugely benefit from, like the ones proposed so far, I think that'd be way worse. Do y'all miss the feat taxes from 3.5e, or what?
No. Repeating my post, this time with emphasis:
calculate your light armor bonus as follows: your AC due to the armor without any bonuses minus 10 minus your Dexterity modifier.
+1, +2, and +3 armor doesn't add anything to your lab for the feat.
padded armor absolutely does apply disadvantage on Stealth.
The feat offers multiple features in an attempt to be feat-worthy. It has to compete with +2 to a stat, which is hard to do. Most feats in the game suck and no-one should ever take them. A feat has to be good enough to be worth considering, or why bother?
Nice, you know it's balanced because there is a real chance I'd never take it. To be clear I am not being snide, it hits that nice spot where maybe in the right place I might consider it, but most of the time medium armor master is much better and worth doing what it takes to get it instead.
My Brews:
Race: Tropical Dwaves Spells: Summon Spirits Rites of Mummification
Monster: Osprey Feat: Skill Mastery–Animal Handler (Provides DCs for training animals applicable to those with and without this feat)
Sorry to do a necormancy, but this is an incredibly strong feat and doesn't really fit the style of the Armour Master half-feats. I don't know how people on dandwiki think these aren't completely busted.
I propose a compromise between the earlier posted half-feat and the dandwiki
Light Armor Master
Prerequisite: Proficiency with light armor
You have practiced moving in light armor to gain the following benefits:
This isn't quite working within 5e's syntax but it's nowhere near as busted as the dandwiki version. The disadvantage on stealth checks is a nice bonus for padded users, but is honestly irrelevant for this feat. I think a pseudo half-shield that has an oppurtunity cost but no resource cost is the best way to balance the dandwiki feat out, while still making LAM a desirable feat to take.
The reaction also only lasts for one turn, not a whole round so it doesn't nearly come close to Shield's power level, but gives a nice variety in reactions (similar to Shield Master) for martials. It also feels thematically correct, you focus on dodging someone's attacks as your reaction but are still vulnerable to attacks or effects from other targets.
Let me know what you think.
Edit: missed the 2nd page, sorry 🤦♀️