Heavily Armored 5e

Published on July 21, 2023, Last modified on September 28th, 2023

Boost your defense in D&D 5e with the Heavily Armored feat. Increase Strength and gain heavy armor proficiency to become an unyielding fortress!

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What Is Heavily Armored 5e?

If your character is destined to be a frontline tank, soaking up damage and protecting your allies, the Heavily Armored feat is your ticket to becoming an unyielding fortress. This feat not only allows you to increase your Strength score, but it also grants you proficiency in heavy armor, enabling you to wear the most protective gear in the game. Stand tall and firm, for you are the bulwark against the storm!

How Does Heavily Armored Work?

This feat provides two benefits:

Your Strength score increases by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with heavy armor.

Let’s break these benefits down:

The increase in Strength score is beneficial for characters who rely on Strength for their attacks and abilities. It also contributes the Strength scores required for heavy armor (13 for chain mail, 15 for splint and plate).

Gaining proficiency in heavy armor is the main draw of this feat. Heavy armor provides the best base Armor Class in the game, making you harder to hit. However, it does come with a Strength requirement and can impose disadvantage on Stealth checks.

Is Heavily Armored Good?

We gave Heavily Armored a C Tier rating In our 5e Feats Tier List, making it a below-average feat in D&D 5e.

Heavy armor is one of the more sought after proficiencies due to the non-scaling AC of 5e. That said, it comes with a fair amount of downsides in that you have to devote a lot of resources to STR, and you get disadvantage on Stealth checks. If your character build values AC over ASI for their primary stats, this is a reasonable pick up.

One thing to keep in mind is that a one-level dip the fighter or paladin class, also gives you heavy armor proficiency on top of some other solid bonuses. Plus, you already need a 13 in Strength to choose the class, so the requirement for heavy armor will be fulfilled.

Remember, if you want the heavy armor proficiency from the fighter or paladin class, you’ll have to choose that class at 1st level. There are some ways to get around this when multiclassing, like choosing a subclass that provides heavy armor proficiency like one of the heavy armor cleric subclasses.

Heavily Armored 5e Interactions

A Note on Armor Proficiency

Wearing heavy armor that you don’t have a proficiency in gives you disadvantage with ability checks, saving throws, and attack rolls made with Strength or Dexterity, and you can’t cast spells.

Strength and Heavy Armor

Even if you have a proficiency with heavy armor you have to have at least a 13 in Strength to wear chain mail. If you don’t meet the Strength requirement, your speed is reduced by 10, which is a huge debuff.

What’s more, to make heavy armor truly worth it, you’ll want a 15 in Strength so you can wear splint or plate, because the 16 AC chain mail provides can easily be matched with medium armor and a decent Dexterity bonus.

Dwarves and Heavy Armor

Dwarves can skirt around the Strength requirements for heavy armor because their race features state, “Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor.” This can be especially helpful when you combine this feature with Customize Your Origin from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.

If you’re looking to up your AC but don’t want to invest in Strength, choose the dwarf race and pick your ASIs as you see fit. Then, grab this feat and you’ll be able to cast spells, make saves and checks, and attack as normal while wearing your heavy armor.

Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Heavily Armored?

The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Heavily Armored 5e feat is for a specific class/subclass.

Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
Green is a good option
Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

This feat is most beneficial for classes that rely on Strength but do not naturally gain heavy armor proficiency. Seeing as those are far and few between, the next best case for this feat is combining it with the dwarf race for casters that naturally have a lower AC.

Artificer: Not necessary for the Armorer artificer, but could be useful for the other subclasses that don't get heavy armor proficiency. Seeing as artificers want to be stacked into Intelligence first and Constitution second, it's a good idea to grab the dwarf race so you don't need to meet the heavy armor Strength requirements.

Barbarian: You have Unarmored Defense and can't get the benefits of Rage while wearing heavy armor, so this is a skip.

Bard: Decent way to boost your AC, but with a 13 Strength score, you might as well take a level of fighter at 1st level for the heavy armor proficiency and other goodies. This is especially true if you're going for a Valor or Swords bard.

Druid: Druids cannot wear metal armor, so this feat is not useful.

Fighter: Fighters already have heavy armor proficiency.

Monk: Monks rely on Dexterity and Wisdom for their Armor Class through Unarmored Defense, so this feat is not useful.

Paladin: Paladins already have heavy armor proficiency.

Ranger: Decent option to boost your AC if you find some mithril plate lying around or if you're going for a Strength-based melee ranger. Sacrificing your Stealth for heavy armor can be tough for rangers, though.

Rogue: Rogues typically rely on Dexterity and Stealth, making this feat less useful.

Sorcerer: Getting up to a 15 Strength for sorcerers is a tough ask, but the AC boost is undoubtedly handy. If you really want a heavy armor sorcerer, grab the dwarf race so you don't need to meet the heavy armor Strength requirements.

Warlock: Getting up to a 15 Strength for warlocks is a tough ask, but the AC boost is undoubtedly handy. If you really want a heavy armor sorcerer, grab the dwarf race so you don't need to meet the heavy armor Strength requirements.

Wizard: Getting up to a 15 Strength for wizards is a tough ask, but the AC boost is undoubtedly handy. If you really want a heavy armor sorcerer, grab the dwarf race so you don't need to meet the heavy armor Strength requirements.

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.