Old school Barkskin scaled with the caster. I think I'm gonna play with spell level upcasts giving a higher AC minimum and see how that goes in my games.

Quote from DukeLuke >>

Old school Barkskin scaled with the caster. I think I'm gonna play with spell level upcasts giving a higher AC minimum and see how that goes in my games.

If you do, I’d recommend a +1 AC increase for every two spell levels above 2nd (4, 6, 8). Also, if cast at 5th level or higher, it no longer requires concentration.

Great with moon druid, action to cast this on yourself, bonus action TRANSFORM, now your low ac creature has an ac of 16 which can actually make attacks miss.

So, just a thought.  If you're tied up barkskin still keeps your ac at a 16. On the ground, ac 16. Blinded and any other combo of negative ac effects... ac 16 no matter the negatives. So it has its use. Just not as versatile as mage armor.

So, considering the limitations:

• It's 2nd level.
• It lasts a fixed hour - not much time for a protection spell in the world. Mage Armor, for example, lasts 8 hours, and its a 1st level spell.
• It requires all three types of spell components to cast.
• It ignores your Dexterity bonus altogether.
• It requires concetration.

Going just by general requirements for other spells, this is a LOT of restrictions for a spell that has a rather mundane effect.

This spell has, in the past, provided a boost to natural armor, stacked with Dex bonuses and armor bonuses because it actually is supposed to affect the skin of the creature, not create a shield around them. This is the most baffling spell in this edition and I am not sure why any character would prepare it, save for ultra-specific situations: 1) You're a ranger or druid and you want your animal companion to have a better AC for a battle; or you are a light armor (maybe medium armor) wearing class that wants a better AC for a short time, possibly like a Fairy that needs light armor or less to be able to fly.

If this spell comes up in any campaign I am running, we are definitely homebrewing it because as it is, it's just terrible.

So, my memory going back a bit is somewhat fuzzy, but when DnD used to really differentiate "natural" armor vs "armor" vs "<insert conditional armor here>" armor, Barkskin used to be a specific boost to natural armor. I think it was a +3, and it stacked with your Dex bonus and it would also stack with Mage armor, which used to give a straight +4 bonus to armor. It's also possible that Barkskin scaled at one point, but it also did NOT require concentration. Given the many circumstances under which concentration can fall in 5E (such as just casting certain other spells in combat), you may not even get the full hour. 5E likes to treat everything as a single "armor" now, but that doesn't really make sense. In addition, most natural armors allow you to utilize a shield and benefit from the use of the shield, such as a lizardfolk's skin. Completely unarmored, I think a lizard person with a shield starts with a 15 AC, and that's not even adding the Dex bonus. 

So, yeah, it's pretty nerfed in 5E. 

16AC for an hour or 13+Dex for eight hours? Level 2 vs level 1 slot. Can be used on armored target's or not.

Both have their uses but Barkskin does seem weak for a level 2 spell slot.

I think, as it is, this spell is only ever useful for Moon druids. If you think the fight is going to last more than two or three rounds, cast barkskin on yourself, change into a low Ac but High damage wild shape as a bonus action, use your move to place yourself on a good position next round (for example, in melee range to an enemy with ranged attacks), profit on your next turns. It might be useful to have either Warcaster or Resilient (Constitution) to help maintaining your concentration.

Brown bear, Giant eagle, Giant octopus, Giant toad, Giant vulture and Lion are all good picks for a powerful combo, and bear and lion are already available at level 3 when you gain access to this spell. At level 6, Giant constrictor snake and Rhinoceros are also insanely powerful. Several of those have attacks that auto-grapple and restrain enemies or that knock them prone, so that's a free advantage for all of your party's martials, especially the rogue.

What I don't get is why a Circle of the Land druid or a Nature domain cleric would ever want to use this spell. It could be useful once in a while, especially if your DM lets the "bark-like appearance" of their skin give the target a Stealth bonus for hiding in the woods, but it needs to be discussed beforehand.

I would houserule it as a non-concentration spell, able to target one more creature per upcast level and to stack with the use of a shield and cover.

Personally, the only fix this needs is that you can wear a shield with it, and maybe upcasting to multi-target.

The standard casual AC for lvl3-4 characters is 15-16AC for most damage classes. (Studded Leather + 16Dex| Mage Armor +14Dex| Scalemail + Shield| Scalemail +14Dex| Chainmail)

, and 18AC for heavy armored classes with shields. (Chainmail + Shield| Scalemail + 14Dex + Shield) Notably shielded fighters, rangers, paladins and clerics.

Druids with 14Dex AND a shield can only ever reach 16AC, limiting you to 1.Using a shield, and 2.Having 14 Dex, in order to be comparable to every other class, whilst also not scaling any higher.

This spell is clearly intended to be designed to compensate for Druid's low AC due to their RP armor problem. By letting it stack with shields, it becomes a lvl 2 spellslot, concentration, for +2 AC, with similar utility to shield of faith (lasts longer, but less useful for already high AC, more useful for exceptionally low AC). Its still weaker than Shield of faith in min-max scenarios, but has slightly more value if your friends dump Dex. At low levels this simple change allows any shield wearing class to have 18AC even with low Dex, as well as keep its current use to buff up squishies with low Dex to 16AC, without breaking its current wildshape synergy. Even so its still pretty situational, only ever seeing value on targets with less than 14Dex.

Also, thematically, it makes more sense that wielding a shield would still benefit you... Every other "natural/skin-armour" effect in the game benefits from shields, so why not barkskin?

This is a second-level spell that lasts 1 hour... it's the exact duration of Wildshape. And it is a massive buff to any of those animals! In addition - you can't cast spells when wildshaped so using concentration isn't that big of a deal. IMO the spell was created for the wildshaped druid - for moon druids... at level 3 you can become a brown bear with 16 ac. seriously, that's sick! a +5 to ac on a creature that only has 1 weakness ... low ac. Yes, it would be way better if you removed concentration. 

This said the new version of the spell - in DND ONE SUCKS! is only useful for casting on others... A self-cast would last 1 round and concentration would be gone! 

this has been useful 

Quote from Sethastian >>

Personally, the only fix this needs is that you can wear a shield with it, and maybe upcasting to multi-target.

The standard casual AC for lvl3-4 characters is 15-16AC for most damage classes. (Studded Leather + 16Dex| Mage Armor +14Dex| Scalemail + Shield| Scalemail +14Dex| Chainmail)

, and 18AC for heavy armored classes with shields. (Chainmail + Shield| Scalemail + 14Dex + Shield) Notably shielded fighters, rangers, paladins and clerics.

Druids with 14Dex AND a shield can only ever reach 16AC, limiting you to 1.Using a shield, and 2.Having 14 Dex, in order to be comparable to every other class, whilst also not scaling any higher.

This spell is clearly intended to be designed to compensate for Druid's low AC due to their RP armor problem. By letting it stack with shields, it becomes a lvl 2 spellslot, concentration, for +2 AC, with similar utility to shield of faith (lasts longer, but less useful for already high AC, more useful for exceptionally low AC). Its still weaker than Shield of faith in min-max scenarios, but has slightly more value if your friends dump Dex. At low levels this simple change allows any shield wearing class to have 18AC even with low Dex, as well as keep its current use to buff up squishies with low Dex to 16AC, without breaking its current wildshape synergy. Even so its still pretty situational, only ever seeing value on targets with less than 14Dex.

Also, thematically, it makes more sense that wielding a shield would still benefit you... Every other "natural/skin-armour" effect in the game benefits from shields, so why not barkskin?

The primary problem people have with this spell is that RAW, it doesn’t stack with shields (or cover for that matter).

Me being happy with a druid that has a 10 in dex. :D

this is one of the ones where i really like the rework they did for onednd much better.

Could you cast this on an enemy to potentialy lower their AC if its realy tough?

I don't think so, since it says the AC can not be lower than 16. if your BBEG already has an AC of 16+ then thematically they'd have tough bark looking skin, but the same AC with the new benefit of there being no way to get their AC below 16. That's my interpretation anyway.

FYI, I've added a "fixed" version of this spell in Homebrew. Search for "barkskin except it doesn't suck"

I've kept the spirit of the spell in terms of its intended use, but I've done away with the simply awful mechanics that WotC hasn't deigned to fix, despite the uselessness of this spell being a common meme for like 5 years. It's literally just mage armour except it's terrible. 

In my version, it no longer requires concentration (because half of the druid's spell list is concentration and you want to be able to use them while not having terrible AC the whole time), and while it sets your base AC to 16, you can still benefit from using a shield, spells such as shield of faith, and taking cover etc. So it doesn't stack with armour and is unaffected by Dex, meaning it's not OP, but the negatives have been removed so it also doesn't suck and sits at the usefulness that a level 2 spell should have. 

Quote from Reidine >>

So, just a thought.  If you're tied up barkskin still keeps your ac at a 16. On the ground, ac 16. Blinded and any other combo of negative ac effects... ac 16 no matter the negatives. So it has its use. Just not as versatile as mage armor.

I know this is old, but just in case someone stumbles across this thread.... what on earth are you talking about? Not one of these effects lowers your AC (very few things in 5e do, we're talking HIGHLY specific effects from a few creatures like rust monsters.); they simply give enemies advantage on attack rolls against you. 

a spell that will never be used. Stupid making it concentration. A druid "who all its effective spells are concentration" get a ac/16 but then can't cast entangle Ect...

Absolutely not.  It is an effect on your skin