SOURCE: Player’s Handbook

Rating the Benefits of Lightly Armored

Benefit #1 – 

Add 1 to Strength or Dexterity, to a max of 20

Half an ASI is a great benefit, lowering the cost of taking Lightly Armored to half a feat. Strength and Dexterity are also excellent stat choices, especially Dex, which can further increase a character’s AC. 

Benefit #2 – 

Gain proficiency in Light Armor

There are three light armor options and only three base classes that don’t already come with existing proficiency. Light armor is generally best on characters with high Dex.   

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How It Functions

Choosing a light armor

There are currently 3 types of light armor in D&D 5e:

• Padded – 5g, AC 11 + Dex modifier, Disadvantage on Stealth checks
• Leather – 10g, AC 11 + Dex modifier
• Studded Leather – 45g, AC 12 + Dex modifier

The first thing to know is that light armor has no limits on the maximum Dexterity modifier a character can add to their AC. For characters with a Dexterity higher than 14, light armor allows them to add their full Dex mod to AC.

Who is this useful for? Most characters will have some Dex, generally around the 12-14 mark. The only characters who might pump the stat are those who use it to attack. So Rogues, Rangers, Monks, and the handful of Dex-based Fighters out there. 

Realistically, any character who takes light armor is going to want studded leather. The bonus provided by basic leather armor is so low that it’s almost not worth wearing armor, and padded armor just sucks. +1 to AC, but still rolling with disadvantage on Stealth checks is an awful set of bonuses. This is a shame because historically, padded gambesons offer pretty decent protection, for what they are.

Who doesn’t have proficiency in light armor?

So, who actually qualifies to take this feat?

There are currently only three classes that don’t come with natural proficiency in Light Armor:

• Monk
• Sorcerer
• Wizard

The issue, and the problem with the Lightly Armored feat in general, is that all of these classes don’t need light armor. Here’s the breakdown:

The Monk

Monk class features explicitly push a Monk towards building high Dex. Unarmored Defense allows a Monk to add their Dex and Wisdom bonuses together to find their AC, and Martial Arts lets all Monk attack and damage rolls use Dex. 

More importantly, most of the Monk’s class features do not work if they are wearing armor. 

We’ll say that again. Wearing armor means a Monk can’t use most of their special abilities. So, no taking Lightly Armored for Monks. 

Wizards and Sorcerers

Early levels can be rough for Sorcerers and Wizards. Saddled with the lowest hit die in the game (d6,) zero options for armor, and very limited class resources that often can’t be spent on defense. Making a mistake in the first few levels for one of these classes tends to end up with someone unconscious and bleeding on the ground. 

So why not take Lightly Armored, and push your AC a couple of points higher?

Two simple reasons:

1) D&D is a multiplayer game, and not being attacked is normally the best defense. Your party should be trying to keep the squishy casters alive. Don’t get hit. 

2) Mage Armor. 

Why Mage Armor is better than Lightly Armored

The best light armor is Studded Leather, which offers an AC of 12 + Dex, and costs 45g. 

Mage Armor is a level 1 spell, which lasts for 8 hours, ie, most of an adventuring day. The spell is on both the Sorcerer and the Wizard spell list. 

When cast, Mage Armor surrounds a character with magical force, treating their AC as 13 + Dexterity mod. 

So, Mage Armor costs a single spell slot, is invisible, which has RP and mechanical benefits, and provides better protection than any published light armor, all from level 1, without costing a feat. 

Key Stats

Lightly Armored gives a character half an ASI in Strength or Dexterity. 

No form of light armor has any stat requirement, though increasing Dex will increase a character’s AC. 

Ideal Characters for Lightly Armored

Top Classes

This guide is going to break with convention slightly. Normally, this section has class and build recommendations that can best use the feat we’re reviewing. 

But the Lightly Armored feat is so niche, with so few effective build paths for its use, that it feels unnecessary and disingenuous to do that. 

Seriously, unless you’re playing an extremely out there version of 5e, where for example no one starts with real proficiencies, then your class and background will almost always provide the proficiencies you need. 

Race or Subrace Choices

Mountain Dwarf – So, uh, this race comes with light and medium armor proficiency as a racial benefit. If your build isn’t race-dependent, Mountain Dwarf gives you one and a half feats almost for free. 

Warforged – A whole bunch of defensive benefits, including an all-important +1 to AC which applies whenever wearing armor, which Lightly Armored synergizes with. 

Lizardfolk – Playing a 6 foot tall dinosaur man gives a character innate natural armor of 13 + Dex, which is explicitly better than every type of light armor. Plus a bunch of other benefits. 

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Moderately Armored – Proficiency in Medium Armor and Shields is a much better deal that increases most characters’ AC by 3-4 points. 

Magic Initiate – Hey look, a feat that lets a character cast Mage Armor once per day. Plus gives them two cantrips! That’s pretty neat. 

Spells that Synergize

Mage Armor – As we said earlier, Mage Armor is explicitly better than wearing light armor in almost all cases. If you have this spell, use it instead. 

Shield of Faith – +2 AC with a decent duration pushes AC into reasonable levels.  

Shield – A +5 AC emergency button that casts on a reaction. Shield is one of the best low-level defensive abilities in 5e. 

Strategies for Maximizing Lightly Armored Effectiveness

Taking moderately armored

In our opinion, the number one reason to take Lightly Armored is knowing that you’re also going to take the Moderately Armored feat. 

See, Lightly Armored sucks. No two ways about it. But Moderately Armored can increase the AC of a Wizard or Sorcerer from 15 to 18, permanently. Plus, there’s always the bonus of finding some sweet magical armor that pushes that number up further. 

Is this worth two feats? Probably not. Most mages can gain similar defenses from their magical might. But it is pretty cool. 

Taking a multiclass dip

Instead of taking the Lightly Armored feat, a character might consider taking a one level dip in a class that offers armor proficiencies. 

Probably the best choice for most casters is the Cleric. A one-level dip into Cleric can give a character armor proficiencies all the way up to Heavy! A suite of spells otherwise not available to arcane casters, including healing. And an interesting level 1 ability that might for example boost healing or buff allies. 

The downsides of mage armor

Two small issues with mage armor might come up in particular campaigns, which might justify a Wizard wearing a secondary layer of protection like studded leather. 

1) the spell only lasts 8 hours. Adventuring days that last longer than this, or getting ambushed when lying in bed, reduces the AC of the caster to its awful base level, probably around 12. 

2) Dispel Magic. Which can strip a character’s magical protection, Mage Armor included. 

Final Thoughts on Lightly Armored

Lightly Armored is a bad feat. Almost no character even wants it, because 90% of published classes already start with proficiency in at least light armor. And the other classes, the ones that don’t gain armor proficiencies naturally, have better options. 

Looking at the feat from a design perspective, I think Lightly Armored was added for a sense of completeness. There needed to be a feat to gain light armor proficiency, in the vanishingly rare situations where someone doesn’t have it. 

This is that feat. Your build probably has no reason to take it. So, uh, don’t?