Worldbuilding and Character Development for 5E D&D Inspired by Game of Thrones — Studded Leather Armor

I recently finished rewatching Game of Thrones all the way through for a second time and the series engaged me in different ways this time around. It’s fun knowing the fate of characters and seeing how each step of their journey influences their outcomes for one thing and I simply missed a lot of the nuance the first time around for another. Like for so many fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons nerds the show appeals to me as a source of gaming inspiration too. One particular standout from the show is the armor worn by warriors across Westeros and Essos. A wealth of worldbuilding and character development potential for 5E D&D awaits through armor and I’m excited to explore them. Let’s get into it.

Armor offers more than protection in 5E D&D

There’s A Song of Ice and Fire from Green Ronin custom designed to reflect the realities of Westeros with play centered around noble houses and the characters from them, which I played once at PAX Unplugged. But I’m more interested in a very particular aspect of Game of Thrones I’ve always found really neat — the distinctive armor worn by people of various regions.

In 5E D&D there’s 12 kinds of armor in three different categories — light, medium and heavy — plus shields. Generally a warrior wishes to wear the best possible armor for protection in battle. I wonder if there’s not perhaps equally useful reasons for donning different armor types including worldbuilding from either side of the Dungeon Master screen.

It’s worth noting when it comes to 5E D&D mechanics I am not a believer in the necessity of squeezing every possible incremental bonus from every source. If you’re in the camp plate armor or bust you’ll have to continue reading with a grain of salt. In fact part of my curiosity in exploring this idea is wondering how armor can inform other character choices.

Light armor in 5E D&D

There’s three types of light armor in the 5E D&D Player’s Handbook plus another one found in Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. Light armor takes one minute to both don and doff.

“Made from supple and thin materials, light armor favors agile adventurers since it offers some protection without sacrificing mobility. If you wear light armor, you add your Dexterity modifier to the base number from your armor type to determine your Armor Class.”

Light. Leather, Padded, Pride Silk Outfit, Studded Leather

Medium armor in 5E D&D

There’s six types of medium armor in the PHB. Medium armor takes five minute to don and one minute to doff.

“Medium armor offers more protection than light armor, but it also impairs movement more. If you wear medium armor, you add your Dexterity modifier, to a maximum of +2, to the base number from your armor type to determine your Armor Class.”

Medium. Breastplate, Chain Shirt, Half Plate, Hide, Scale Mail, Spiked Armor

Heavy armor in 5E D&D

There’s only four varieties of heavy armor in 5E D&D. Heavy armor takes ten minutes to don and five minutes to doff.

“Of all the armor categories, heavy armor offers the best protection. These suits of armor cover the entire body and are designed to stop a wide range of attacks. Only proficient warriors can manage their weight and bulk. Heavy armor doesn’t let you add your Dexterity modifier to your Armor Class, but it also doesn’t penalize you if your Dexterity modifier is negative.”

Heavy. Chain Mail, Plate, Ring Mail, Splint

Making the most of studded leather armor in 5E D&D

According to the 5E D&D PHB studded leather armor is made from tough but flexible leather reinforced with close-set rivets or spikes. It costs 45 gold pieces and provides an Armor Class of 12 plus Dexterity modifier, putting it a step ahead of leather armor is this way. It weighs 13 pounds and does not cause disadvantage on Stealth checks.

Finding monsters based on the armor they typically wear is a bit challenging even with the functionality from D&D Beyond. Studded leather proved extra challenging because the search feature doesn’t seem to work too well for this in particular. I know there’s more out there than a pair of individual NPCs from Dragon of Icespire Peak and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. A bit of manual searching turned up bandit captains, drow elite warriors, gladiators and assassins in the Monster Manual, shadow dancers, drow shadowblades and soul mongers from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, gnoll flesh gnawers, archers, orc red fangs of Shargaas, hobgoblin devastators and the master thief from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and I’m calling this an acceptable sample size.

Studded leather armor falls under the purview of sneaky sorts and those who operate in the shadows almost exclusively. Most often these are specialized forces and leader types. The lone gnoll and orc ones stand out mostly because these monstrous humanoid types usually wear either leather armor or hide armor and jump up to chain shirts for their leader types. This makes some sense in the context of how each armor progresses on a scale of expected violence. If leather armor is for those for whom violence is a distinct possibility once a creature dons studded leather armor they’re anticipating it to be very likely.

One piece of information I came across while reading up on different types of armor in a historical perspective regards the eponymous studs of studded leather armor. A lot of sources maintain there’s no historical evidence for studded leather armor at least as D&D nerds generally think of it but I read how the components of heavier armor like a breastplate sometimes attached to a layer of leather armor beneath by connecting to a series of metal studs. Paying close attention to Game of Thrones while rewatching the series illustrates this through the kind of armor those of House Stark wear. In some ways a greater suit of armor comprises each type of armor, at least in the case of light armors found in 5E D&D.

A culture for which studded leather armor is the norm remains prepared to fight and probably lives in a region where danger is ever present to some extent. I mentioned House Stark and the seat of power in the North of Westeros certainly fits this scenario. The Night’s Watch protects the realms of men from threats beyond the Wall but warriors in the Seven Kingdoms are no strangers to war and conflict either. The North was the only one of those kingdoms not to fall to the Andal invaders and every Northman learns skill at arms to survive in the harsh region. It’s not surprising their default armor is a step up from their less grim counterparts to the south.

A folk hero makes a fine example of someone for whom studded leather armor gave them the edge they needed to step up when destiny called. Sturdier armor provides extra confidence and when a situation escalates the versatility to remain relatively stealthy and avoid unnecessary peril offers more flexible options and strategies.

Like padded armor and leather armor if studded leather features prominently in a character’s background the warriors of the culture might learn to incorporate speed and accuracy through Dexterity, which also benefits Stealth though. But these warriors selection of weapons takes a quantum leap forward. Unlike their lesser counterparts the warrior wearing studded leather armor can make use of Dexterity and Stealth but with better armor class and significantly better weapons they can afford to sacrifice a measure of defense to focus on offense.

• Weapons with Lower Cost. Light crossbow, shortbow, *glaive, *greataxe, *halberd, *longsword, *morningstar, *rapier, *scimitar, *warhammer (*martial weapons)
  • These weapons’ cost lies between the price of leather armor and studded leather armor. I hadn’t thought ahead when I started this series with padded armor so when I got to this point I decided to curate each armor’s list of weapons this way. I was curious how it would all pan out and I see the fatal flaw now. When I get to medium armor I’ll come up with an alternative.
• Battle Master Builds. Archer, Gladiator, Outrider, Strategist
• Actions in Combat. Disarm, Shove Aside
• Feats. Alert, Athlete, Dual Wielder, Charger, Crossbow Expert, Defensive Duelist, Fighting Initiate (Archery, Interception, Superior Technique), Mage Slayer, Martial Adept (Ambush, Brace, Disarming Attack, Maneuvering Attack, Parry, Precision Attack, Pushing Attack, Sweeping Attack, Tactical Assessment, Trip Attack), Mobile, Mounted Combatant, Polearm Master, Sentinel, Sharpshooter, Skulker

Now the really fun worldbuilding part — who are these studded leather armor clad warriors? Whether their lands are wealthy or the people plainly pragmatic they place armor as a priority. Their warriors will come into conflict as a matter of course and investing in decent armor and training in a variety of weapons and tactics is key to their survival. Those few outliers of monsters wearing studded leather inspires me to think along those lines. Gnolls, orcs and hobgoblins fall under the umbrella of monstrous humanoids and their studded leather suggest some degree of industry.

Rather than imagine some sort of cultural power struggle between these three species I think it would be cool if along with their increased complexity of armor and weapons they’re more culturally sophisticated as well. At least insofar as flesh gnawers, red fangs and devastators can put their differences on the back burner and avoid constant conflict. My interest lies mainly with orcs in this dynamic mostly because I created the Hero Forge representation of the studded leather armor warrior and settled on an orc while doing so.

Since I like to incorporate a monstrosity from the Basic Rules into these worldbuilding exercises too I’m going with the phase spider this time around. The etherally jaunting arachnids are a solid low challenge rating creature absolutely capable of causing great trouble in a region. Orcs in this studded leather armor society can face these phase spider infestations with a solid degree of confidence. Phase spiders aren’t the most precise or hardest hitting monstrosities out there and make for a really neat extraplanar danger making life interesting in the region.

The lore behind a red fang of Shargaas described in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes was kind of interesting to read. Shargaas is a murderous deity of darkness and xenophobic of anything not an orc while those who follow the faith are considered weaklings to other orcs, forced to live remotely away from others of their kind. Killers and other covert operatives come from the followers of Shargaas and they revere giant bats, which they sometimes use as mounts. Borrowing some of these elements to layer onto these studded leather armor orc warriors greatly intrigues me.

A standard orc warrior from this culture blends parts from both the gnoll and hobgoblin societies living in their vicinity. They’ve got the ferocity of gnolls but the measured thinking of hobgoblins and since I’ve already developed a soft spot for these orcs I imagine they’re in the best position to come out on top. Their warriors train to be disciplined and tactical but sometimes a warrior’s got to pick up a greataxe and start swinging.

Worth mentioning is all these creatures — orcs, gnolls, hobgoblins and the phase spiders too — include hills as an environment where they’re typically found. Hills always felt like a step up in the progression of a D&D adventurer’s career, when dangers become greater and monsters more deadly so it makes sense a step up in armor goes along with the escalation. This factors heavily into these warriors gear as well since they’re the first ones in this series with a decent ranged weapon (although there’s a lot to be said for a good old sling!). The light crossbows and shortbows these warriors carry make a tremendous difference in the kind of tactics they can employ. Weapons with reach give an additional layer of offense and when things get really close these warriors put a small selection of powerful martial weapons to brutal efficiency.

I liked imagining a greater singular threat in the region like the manticore represented for leather armor clad warriors and there’s three really terrific monstrosities on the short list this time around. Bulettes, gorgons and chimera are all the same challenge rating and make for fantastic big dangers for a region. Sure, a group of veteran adventurers may scoff at such monsters but to Joe Orc out on patrol any one of them is terrifying. Since there’s a three way power struggle with gnolls and hobgoblins perhaps one of each of these monsters threatens each of those societies’ lands.

And that’s studded leather armor. I’m enjoying the heck out of this series about 5E D&D armor and despite the overall lack of interest from readers as far as I can tell I feel very happy with the results. Playing an orc folk hero from a region like this sounds like a ton of fun to me. Roleplaying opportunities with other warriors, the character’s perspective on their homeland and how they’ll develop as a character both mechanically and narratively seem quite rewarding to me as a player. And this time around there’s even additional cultures that emerged for even more engaged game play. From a Dungeon Master perspective I’m loving all these thought projects and filing them away for use in my own setting.

From here I’ll make the jump to medium armor, which I anticipate generating more intriguing concepts and ideas. I’ll get a kick out of it at any rate. Ideas like this fly in the face of achieving numerical superiority in 5E D&D but in my experience this is the most forgiving edition of the game. There’s so much more to be gained through engaged roleplaying than the quest to have the highest numbers on a character sheet. Before bristling let me be clear I’m not suggesting optimized characters lack engagement opportunities. What I am explicitly putting forth is there’s value in considering less than optimal choices. This is not because of a perceived superiority in more mechanically challenged characters but rather simply a different set of pros and cons to help define who they are through their adventures.

*Featured image — An orc warrior of the hill lands on patrol. This warrior’s culture exists in a rough and tumble region where survival is no guarantee so good weapons and armor are a priority. I used the amazing resources at Hero Forge to put this image together in just a few minutes with full color. The darker color scheme reminded me of a discussion we had a while back about the night and these warriors felt like they’re stick with muted tones. Plus they low key incorporate themes related to Shargaas the orc deity of the dark so it seemed even more appropriate. There’s so much you can do with Hero Forge! Check it out for yourself here.

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