What rules cover usage of multiple overlapping items?

[ronlugge]

I'm looking through the books, and they seem to be missing any section dealing with how much a person can wear / use at the same time. You can only wear one weapon or shield per hand, and you can only get the base AC from one armor type, but nothing seems to stop characters from having fifty rings on their fingers, or using robes at the same time as armor. Am I missing something?

[eleazzaar]

You can only have three items that require magical attunement, so 47 of those rings will need to be mundane.

[CNagy]

Attunement. Most items of any significant power will require your character to attune to them, and there is a limit on how many items you can attune to. So you can wear 10 magic rings, but only the weakest will function freely and you'll have to choose which of the rest you want to function. Attunement is not limited by type, so the choice may come down to something like "do I attune to this ring, this rod, or this robe?"

[Ace Jackson]

I'm looking through the books, and they seem to be missing any section dealing with how much a person can wear / use at the same time. You can only wear one weapon or shield per hand, and you can only get the base AC from one armor type, but nothing seems to stop characters from having fifty rings on their fingers, or using robes at the same time as armor. Am I missing something?

Many of the magic items require "attunement" and I believe that in base RAW you can have up to 3 attuned items at any given time.

Attunement doesn't simply mean "in use" either, you need a short rest to attune and gain the benefits. No swapping for a ring of fire resistance in the middle of the fight.

[ronlugge]

So there's nothing -- for example -- stopping you from wearing both Adamantine Plate and Efreeti Chain Mail at the same time?

[JNAProductions]

Physical space. Have you ever tried layering armor over yourself?

[Ralanr]

So there's nothing -- for example -- stopping you from wearing both Adamantine Plate and Efreeti Chain Mail at the same time?


Physical space. Have you ever tried layering armor over yourself?

Logic...we meet again oh heinous of enemies. By the rule of cool, be gone!

But yeah, basically that.

[Fighting_Ferret]

You mean something like page 141 of the DMG.

Multiple Items of the Same Kind:
"Use common sense to determine whether or not more than one of a given kind of magic item can be worn. A character can't normally wear more than one pair of footwear, one pair of gloves or gauntlets, one pair of bracers, one suit of armor, one item of headwear, and one cloak..."

It is preceded by Wearing and Wielding Items and page 140 DMG.
To paraphrase... you have to be actively wearing or wielding it to get the effects. It goes onto to say magic items generally conform to the wearers size, and that creatures with odd anatomies might not be able to wear/use certain types of items.

Page 136-138 covers Attunement
Basically stating that you can only have 3 attuned items on at any given time, and that items that aren't attuned only offer the non-magical benefit. It also has a blurb stating that you can only be affected by one of the same item.

On the magic ring thing... all the rings that grant an always on bonus require attunement. The rings that don't are the ring of animal influence, ring of swimming, ring of water walking, and ring of three wishes.

[Keltest]

I would rule that you could wear robes with mithril chain shirts or breastplates, which can explicitly be worn under clothes, but other than that magical robes would take the same slot as armor. You could probably sell me on mundane robes being worn over armor.

[HoarsHalberd]

Physical space. Have you ever tried layering armor over yourself?

Chainmail under half plate was quite a common trope. (I know that's what he said) Personally I'd do it on a case by case basis. Full plate or splint mail: You can only do light armour underneath. (Like the quilted padding most Knights wore under their armour.) Anything less can be combined to give the base AC of the highest and any magical effects the armour has that are not modifiers to AC. If I was being nice...

[BootStrapTommy]

Chainmail under half plate was quite a common trope. (I know that's what he said) Personally I'd do it on a case by case basis. Full plate or splint mail: You can only do light armour underneath. (Like the quilted padding most Knights wore under their armour.) Anything less can be combined to give the base AC of the highest and any magical effects the armour has that are not modifiers to AC. If I was being nice... These kind of things are included in the armor. For example, the difference between Chain Shirt and Chainmail, is that Chainmail is Padded Armor with a Chain Shirt on top. And with gaunlets!

[Fighting_Ferret]

I think alot of the confusion from armor is what games and movies have done to what was actually worn.

A hauberk, is a mail shirt that comes down to mid thigh and has sleeves, at least to the elbow, but can be full sleeved. It is usually worm with a coif (or hood), and leather gloves or mail mittens.

A haubergeon is a mail shirt that comes down to just bellow the waist line and has short or usually no sleeves.

Most armour was worn over a gamebeson, or padded jack, which would lessen the impact of blows. The actual steel was to keep the weapon from dealing piercing/slashing damage to the otherwise delicate human underneath. Plate allows for better deflection with better weight balancing, and larger pieces were easier and faster to make. However, the articulations in the finer joints, elbows, fingers, ankles, and knees require multiple smaller plates be joined in a flexible manner that required they be fitted to the individual wearer. A breast plate was a simple device by comparison, but steel was still expensive and boiled leather with plates attached in rows, while more burdensome, was still more common and was commonly referred to as a coat of plates. Of course plates covering the thighs and lower leg/foot held on by leather straps would be common, as would gorget (neck), which also helped hold onto helmets, and armor that covered the shoulders and arms. Simple gauntlets might only offer plates sewn onto the back of the hand and finger joints of a leather glove. Chain mail was often used to provide armour in the areas that some of these incomplete plated options offered, particuarly the vulnerable joints, but often as a pair of sleeves that attached to the body armour via leather straps.

Back to now and the game... it makes sense to only allow one "set" of armour to be worn at any time.