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A druid gains medium armor proficiency, but is not allowed to use metal armor. A warforged with medium armor proficiency can normally set their Integrated Protection to Composite Plating, granting an AC of 13 + prof. bonus + Dex mod (max 2).

Does Composite Plating count as metal armor for the purposes of a druid's armor restrictions? Also, if a warforged druid later gains heavy armor proficiency, can they use the Heavy Plating mode? In other words, is a warforged druid restricted to only the Darkwood Core mode?

The warforged race is described in Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron. (The version this question asks about also appears in the Eberron Races UA; as Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron is a living document, it will likely be updated based on UA feedback at some point in the future.)

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    \$\begingroup\$ Note: the final version of the Integrated Protection trait in Eberron: Rising from the Last War and in the updated version of Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron has totally changed how it works, making this question only relevant to the original/UA version. \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Nov 23, 2019 at 0:26

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Yes, a warforged druid is able to use its Integrated Protection feature.

Is composite plating necessarily metal? Are warforged druids stuck with darkwood core?

I put this one to Jeremy Crawford, and he said that warforged druids CAN use composite plating. “It’s their body.”

From http://keith-baker.com/wgte-faq/ (Keith Baker is a co-author of Wayfinders Guide to Eberron and the creator of the Eberron setting itself).

His answer does not reference Heavy Plating, but by the same logic it is permissible as well as long as you have the proficiency.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ More direct quote from Jeremy Crawford would be better. Also, is it an official Sage Advice ruling or just something he said somewhere? In some contexts, it may matter. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mołot
    Sep 12, 2019 at 10:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ This makes sense, since the implication of a druid not wearing metal armour is that it was by choice, and a warforged presumably didn't have a choice in how they were built or what they were built from (but then, maybe that's not strictly true since I know little about warforged, not really being into Eberron...) \$\endgroup\$
    – NathanS
    Sep 12, 2019 at 10:27
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Any druid can wear any armor

Well, nothing prevents it mechanically — according the Sage Advice article from March 2016 it's a matter of preference, not a disability:

Druids don’t lack the ability to wear metal armor. They choose not to wear it

Druids prefer not to carry metal things with them. But a Warforged is made of steel anyways:

they’re formed from stone and steel

So, if your Warforged chose the druid path (which is already a little non-standard lore-wise), it can choose to use (or not to use) any Plating mode it wishes. In the end of the day, it's up to the player.

The Standard Caveat: D&D 5th edition empowers the DM in ways that 3rd, 3.5, and 4th did not. While rule zero has always applied, 5th edition chooses not to explicitly codify many things. If your DM says you can't, you can't.

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