Heavy Armor Master 5e
Published on August 14, 2023
Steel yourself against your enemies’ attacks and stand tall in the heat of battle with the Heavy Armor Master feat!
Chris Rallis - Wizards of the Coast - Throne Warden
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Learn more.What Is Heavy Armor Master 5e?
Heavy Armor Master is a feat for those who wish to become nigh invulnerable in the thick of combat. With this feat, not only do you get a boost to your Strength, but you also gain the ability to shrug off some of the damage from nonmagical weapons. When you’re clad in heavy armor, the blows of swords and axes feel less deadly, allowing you to remain standing while others might fall.
How Does Heavy Armor Master Work?
This feat provides a few key benefits:
- Increase your Strength score by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
- While you are wearing heavy armor, nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from weapons is reduced by 3.
Breaking it down, the Strength increase is always beneficial, especially for frontline fighters who rely on Strength for their attacks. The damage reduction, on the other hand, is where this feat truly shines. Over the course of a battle, reducing each hit by 3 can amount to a significant chunk of damage negated, allowing you to stay in the fight longer.
Is Heavy Armor Master Good?
In our 5e Feats Tier List, Heavy Armor Master was given an A Tier rating, making it an excellent pickup for specific classes.
Getting a +1 to STR and reducing non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage by 3 points is highly effective for tanks, especially at lower levels. It’s important to note that negating damage is always more efficient than expending healing resources.
Heavy Armor Master 5e Interactions
Heavy Armor Master and Falling
Seeing as Heavy Armor Master only reduces damage from weapons, don’t expect to take 3 damage off any of your falls, no matter how intentional they are.
Which 5e Classes Make the Most of Heavy Armor Master?
The color code below has been implemented to help you identify, at a glance, how good the Heavy Armor Master 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 provides a solid defensive boost to a very narrow subset of classes. Proficiency with heavy armor is one of the more difficult proficiencies to come by, and the prerequisites are quite demanding.
Artificer: Only applicable to the Armorer subclass, but it's a solid defense boost when applied.
Barbarian: Barbarians can't wear heavy armor and Rage, as much as they would love the extra damage reductions.
Bard: Bards don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Cleric: A solid pickup for martial-minded heavy armor clerics. It'll allow you to tank more hits, so you can spend your resources outputting damage or healing allies.
Druid: Druids don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Fighter: Damage reduction like this is a massive boost to being able to stay alive through fights, especially good on builds not looking to use a shield.
Monk: Monks don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Paladin: Damage reduction like this is a massive boost to being able to stay alive through fights, especially good on builds not looking to use a shield.
Ranger: Rangers don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Rogue: Rogues don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Sorcerer: Sorcerers don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Warlock: Warlocks don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
Wizard: Wizards don't get proficiency with heavy armor.
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