Last Updated on November 7, 2023
Moderately Armored Feat
Prerequisite: Light Armor Proficiency
You have trained to master the use of medium armor and shields, gaining the following benefits:
- Increase your Strength or Dexterity score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
- You gain proficiency with medium armor and shields.
(For a list of all the Feats in D&D 5e you can refer to our Feats List)
Why Take The Moderately Armored Feat?
On the surface, a +1 bump to either strength or dexterity can come from various sources as your character levels up. It’s the additional things you get here that can make this feat worthwhile.
Ideal for Rogues, this feat unlocks the realms of medium armor to you as well as a shield.
Medium armor can, if you take the wrong one, quickly become a burden for rogues giving them disadvantage on their stealth rolls.
The five types of basic medium armor are:
- Hide
- Chain Shirt
- Scale Mail
- Breastplate
- Half Plate
Hide isn’t an improvement for AC.
Scale and Half-Plate are out for the stealth disadvantage they impose, so that leaves us with the Chain Shirt and Breast-Plate.
Along with a shield, If you’re counting along with me, you’ve already realized we now have our wiry rogue at an Armor Class of 17 or 18, depending on your budget.
A huge bonus.
Why this Feat instead of Multiclassing?
So why have we gone to all of this effort of taking the feat instead of multiclassing? The answer is simple: progress.
We haven’t halted our journey toward things a rogue excels at, such as evasion and uncanny dodge or slowing ourselves gaining extra sneak attack dice!
If we had multiclassed, we wouldn’t have gained any usable weapons (we already have all the finesse weapons we need!).
There are sure to be times where you stand back-to-back with the fighter and a horde bearing down on you with steel your only defense; all of this made possible by taking a simple feat!
If you’re looking for other Feats, try these two:
Rich is an avid D&D player and DM. He has been playing since the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st and 2nd editions. He has run campaigns of various editions with family and friends for over 20 years. Playing DnD 5th Edition in person at local game stores and online with VTT’s over the past 10 years has provided a consistent connection to how the game has grown. He strongly believes in understanding the source material, but catering the games to your individual players. Feel free to ask anything in the comments or drop him an email: [email protected].