There may come a time when a character needs to destroy some armor or a weapon. By RAW (rules as written), in D&D 5E you can’t attack armor or a weapon during combat while some creature has it in its possession. Nevertheless, this need sometimes arises and that is the reason I created the following tables to use in my games. The AC (armor class) listed for the various types of armor is the AC for the armor itself and not the AC that the armor provided to its wearer. Damage types that any armor or weapon is resistant to only does half damage to the item, and any that they are vulnerable to does double damage.
Armor
All armor types are immune to cold, force, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, and thunder damage.
Armor
AC
HP
Resistance
Vulnerable
Light Armor
Padded
10
10
bludgeoning
acid, fire, slashing
Leather
11
12
bludgeoning
acid, fire, slashing
Studded leather
12
14
bludgeoning
acid, fire
Medium Armor
Hide
12
14
bludgeoning
acid, fire, slashing
Chain shirt
12
15
bludgeoning, slashing
piercing
Scale mail
14
16
bludgeoning, slashing
piercing
Breastplate
14
17
bludgeoning, slashing, piercing
Half plate
15
18
bludgeoning, slashing, piercing
Heavy Armor
Ring mail
14
17
bludgeoning, slashing
piercing
Chain mail
16
18
bludgeoning, slashing
piercing
Splint
17
19
bludgeoning, slashing
Plate
18
20
bludgeoning, slashing, piercing
Shield
Shield
14
10
bludgeoning, slashing, piercing
fire (wood shields only)
Weapons
All weapon types are immune to poison, cold, radiant, necrotic, thunder, force, and psychic damage.
Weapon
AC
HP
Resistance
Vulnerable
Simple Melee Weapons
Club
15
10
fire
Dagger
19
18
fire
bludgeoning
Greatclub
15
13
fire
Handaxe
19
18
fire
bludgeoning
javelin
19
18
fire
Light hammer
19
15
bludgeoning, fire
Mace
19
18
bludgeoning, fire
Quarterstaff
15
10
–
fire
Sickle
19
13
fire
Spear
19
13
fire
Simple Ranged Weapons
Crossbow, light
17
10
–
fire
Dart
19
4
fire
bludgeoning
Shortbow
15
5
–
fire
Sling
11
6
bludgeoning
fire
Martial Melee Weapons
Battleaxe
19
18
fire
Flail
11
10
bludgeoning
fire
Glaive
19
18
fire
Greataxe
19
18
fire
Greatsword
19
18
fire
Halberd
19
18
fire
Lance
19
18
fire, bludgeoning
Longsword
19
18
fire
Maul
19
18
bludgeoning, fire
Morningstar
19
18
fire
Pike
19
18
fire
Rapier
19
15
fire
bludgeoning
Scimitar
19
15
fire
Shortsword
19
15
fire
Trident
19
18
fire
War pick
19
18
fire
Warhammer
19
18
fire
Whip
11
8
bludgeoning
fire
Martial Ranged Weapons
Blowgun
15
6
–
fire
Crossbow, hand
17
6
–
fire
Crossbow, heavy
17
13
–
fire
Longbow
15
10
–
fire
Net
15
5
bludgeoning
fire
Weapons with wooden shafts.
The Staff has these traits which are different from its metal head:
AC 15, HP 10, no resistances, vulnerable to fire.
Magical armor and weapons.
Other than potions and scrolls, most magic items have resistance to all damage.
Ronny – table 9-8 in 3.5e PHB says HP = 5 * Armor Bonus. Compared to your numbers, main difference is for the Heavy Armor. Why not use that rule instead of your numbers? Thoughts?
Well, for one thing in 5E, other than shields, armor doesn’t have an armor bonus. It is either a flat AC (as for heavy armor) or an AC + DEX modifier.
That being said, there would be nothing wrong with using the 3.5 armor hit points. For those who are interested here are the 3.5 armor Hit Points:
Light armor; Padded 5 HP, Leather 10 HP, Studded leather 15 HP, Chain shirt 20 HP
Medium armor; Hide 15 HP, Scale mail 20 HP, Chainmail 25 HP, Breastplate 25 HP
Heavy armor; Splint mail 30 HP, Banded mail 30 HP, Half-plate 35 HP, Full plate 40 HP
Shields; Buckler 5 HP, light wooden 5 HP, light steel 5 HP, heavy wooden 10 HP, heavy steel 10 HP, tower 20 HP
As you can see, 3.5 had many more types of armor. This was all simplified for 5E. I think I will stick with the table I came up with. I believe it to be better in keeping with the 5E way of doing things (as I see it). But I can see a good case being made for increasing the HP for every type of armor by 5 or 10 PH – which would put them more in line with the 3.5 numbers.
For my games, I don’t see any good in-game reason for requiring someone intent on destroying a suit of armor to have to hit it two or more three more times.
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Ronny – table 9-8 in 3.5e PHB says HP = 5 * Armor Bonus. Compared to your numbers, main difference is for the Heavy Armor. Why not use that rule instead of your numbers? Thoughts?
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Well, for one thing in 5E, other than shields, armor doesn’t have an armor bonus. It is either a flat AC (as for heavy armor) or an AC + DEX modifier.
That being said, there would be nothing wrong with using the 3.5 armor hit points. For those who are interested here are the 3.5 armor Hit Points:
Light armor; Padded 5 HP, Leather 10 HP, Studded leather 15 HP, Chain shirt 20 HP
Medium armor; Hide 15 HP, Scale mail 20 HP, Chainmail 25 HP, Breastplate 25 HP
Heavy armor; Splint mail 30 HP, Banded mail 30 HP, Half-plate 35 HP, Full plate 40 HP
Shields; Buckler 5 HP, light wooden 5 HP, light steel 5 HP, heavy wooden 10 HP, heavy steel 10 HP, tower 20 HP
As you can see, 3.5 had many more types of armor. This was all simplified for 5E. I think I will stick with the table I came up with. I believe it to be better in keeping with the 5E way of doing things (as I see it). But I can see a good case being made for increasing the HP for every type of armor by 5 or 10 PH – which would put them more in line with the 3.5 numbers.
For my games, I don’t see any good in-game reason for requiring someone intent on destroying a suit of armor to have to hit it two or more three more times.
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Ronny – thank you for the reply. Appreciated!
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