So we're turning our 3.0 campaign into a 5e. And I've used barkskin a lot as in 3.0 it's one of the best 2nd level spells for a druid. But in 5e it says your AC cannot go below 16. But what if my AC is 17? Would I gain +6 AC? Or if someone lowers my AC somehow then it wouldn't go below 16, just like the spell says.
I think the most logical think is to read that your AC "can't be less than 16" which means that can be effectively higher. So in our campaign we played as if your skin turns into your armour providing you a base AC of 16 + Dex Bonus + Magical items. We had a Ranger with dex mod +3 and his AC would be 19. It does not makes sense to me that an agile Ranger just loses his/her dex bonus on the magic... if that was the case, it would lose it's dex mod on the attack then.
Except that's not how it works RAW - you choose whichever method of AC calculation is best and pick one. Barkskin just says the final number can't be below 16, so you do your AC calculation as normal and take either the number you calculate OR 16, whichever is higher.
Mage Armor - establishes a way of calculating your base Armor Class, 13 + your Dex mod. It explicitly requires that you not be wearing armor, if you put armor on, the spell ends.
Shield Of Faith - Grants a +2 bonus to someone's AC on top of whatever it would be without Shield Of Faith in effect. No maximum, just a straight boost. The only limitation is you can't gain double the bonus from two people casting Shield Of Faith on you at the same time.
Barksin - doesn't set a base Armor Class, and doesn't add a set bonus to your existing Armor Class. All it does is set a minimum value. If your AC is less than 16, it becomes 16. If your AC is 16 or more, the spell has no practical effect. It works in much the same way that Gauntlets Of Ogre Power make your Strength a minimum of 19.
Let's say you're wearing Studded Leather and have a Dex of 16, giving you an Armor Class of 15. Your party's Druid casts Barkskin on you. Your AC becomes 16. If you take the Studded Leather off, your AC is still 16(instead of 13). If you put the armor back on and pick up a Shield, your AC becomes 17, NOT 18. If you pick up the Shield without putting your armor back on, your AC would be 16(instead of 15).
For the reasons outlined by JD, I have never felt that barkskin was all that valuable of a spell. It sets a minimum AC to a value that is relatively attainable by many classes, and is only given to classes that can easily attain the AC set by the spell. In cases where a PC might not already have a 16 AC, you are likely only adding a point or two. It also uses concentration (unlike mage armor). Even as a moon Druid using wildshape, the spell has limited use because you could be spending your concentration on a damaging or controlling effect rather than fixing the bad AC of your beast form.
I do think that for perhaps a bear, a +5 to AC might add quite a bit of longevity to your form, but as I said it comes at the cost of using your concentration. Most (wildshape eligible) beasts tend to have an AC in the range 12-14 with only a few outliers on either side. I feel like this spell’s design purpose might have been to address that, but its implementation doesn’t quite fulfill its design goal.
Imo Barkskin sucks. It has concentration which makes me not even want to bother with it. I will cast mage Armor and use my better dex to get a higher ac some times, and for longer.
So we're turning our 3.0 campaign into a 5e. And I've used barkskin a lot as in 3.0 it's one of the best 2nd level spells for a druid.
But in 5e it says your AC cannot go below 16. But what if my AC is 17? Would I gain +6 AC? Or if someone lowers my AC somehow then it wouldn't go below 16, just like the spell says.
If you have AC 17, you don't benefit from Barkskin as the spell just sets a minimum for the AC to 16.
Thank you! Good to know!
I think the most logical think is to read that your AC "can't be less than 16" which means that can be effectively higher. So in our campaign we played as if your skin turns into your armour providing you a base AC of 16 + Dex Bonus + Magical items. We had a Ranger with dex mod +3 and his AC would be 19. It does not makes sense to me that an agile Ranger just loses his/her dex bonus on the magic... if that was the case, it would lose it's dex mod on the attack then.
Except that's not how it works RAW - you choose whichever method of AC calculation is best and pick one. Barkskin just says the final number can't be below 16, so you do your AC calculation as normal and take either the number you calculate OR 16, whichever is higher.
Let's compare three different spells:
Mage Armor - establishes a way of calculating your base Armor Class, 13 + your Dex mod. It explicitly requires that you not be wearing armor, if you put armor on, the spell ends.
Shield Of Faith - Grants a +2 bonus to someone's AC on top of whatever it would be without Shield Of Faith in effect. No maximum, just a straight boost. The only limitation is you can't gain double the bonus from two people casting Shield Of Faith on you at the same time.
Barksin - doesn't set a base Armor Class, and doesn't add a set bonus to your existing Armor Class. All it does is set a minimum value. If your AC is less than 16, it becomes 16. If your AC is 16 or more, the spell has no practical effect. It works in much the same way that Gauntlets Of Ogre Power make your Strength a minimum of 19.
Let's say you're wearing Studded Leather and have a Dex of 16, giving you an Armor Class of 15. Your party's Druid casts Barkskin on you. Your AC becomes 16. If you take the Studded Leather off, your AC is still 16(instead of 13). If you put the armor back on and pick up a Shield, your AC becomes 17, NOT 18. If you pick up the Shield without putting your armor back on, your AC would be 16(instead of 15).
For the reasons outlined by JD, I have never felt that barkskin was all that valuable of a spell. It sets a minimum AC to a value that is relatively attainable by many classes, and is only given to classes that can easily attain the AC set by the spell. In cases where a PC might not already have a 16 AC, you are likely only adding a point or two. It also uses concentration (unlike mage armor). Even as a moon Druid using wildshape, the spell has limited use because you could be spending your concentration on a damaging or controlling effect rather than fixing the bad AC of your beast form.
I do think that for perhaps a bear, a +5 to AC might add quite a bit of longevity to your form, but as I said it comes at the cost of using your concentration. Most (wildshape eligible) beasts tend to have an AC in the range 12-14 with only a few outliers on either side. I feel like this spell’s design purpose might have been to address that, but its implementation doesn’t quite fulfill its design goal.
Imo Barkskin sucks. It has concentration which makes me not even want to bother with it. I will cast mage Armor and use my better dex to get a higher ac some times, and for longer.
The initial question has been answered - please dont resurrect old posts that aren't nessecary.
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