Dungeons & Dragons shines as a tabletop game because it is fun for both players and game-masters. The DM, or Dungeon Master, can enjoy seeing his or her players mucking about in their created world, and the players can enjoy being on an adventure. However, being a DM can place a person in a precarious position.
How much power should you give your players in terms of found items and weapons? If players get too overpowered, a DM's perfectly-planned and challenging encounters can turn into a toddler's playtime. One of the worst things a DM can gift his or her party is exceedingly strong armor. Read on if you want to know what armor you should be very particular in handing out to a D&D party.
10 Armor Of Resistance
DMs have to strike a fine balance between being generous to their players and being cruel. If you're too cruel, the game is no longer fun for your party. If, on the other hand, you're too kind, your world, story, and monsters get wiped out by overeager, overpowered players. If you decide to give one member of the party Armor of Resistance, that's fine. Just don't try to gift this handy piece of equipment out to an entire party. You could end up with specialized fighters who are all resistant to a specific kind of damage (acid, fire, necrotic, etc.).
9 Mithral Armor
Normally, players have to choose between being especially armored or especially stealthy. If you want to armor up your character with the most protective armor, you can't exactly expect to be able to sneak around enemies unheard. Mithral armor takes care of that pesky problem for players. Unfortunately, it makes life harder for a DM. Mithral armor does not give players who don it disadvantage on Stealth checks and it also does not possess a Strength requirement. If you're not careful, you could have a party of well-armored, dexterous nightmares slaughtering your campaign.
8 Plate Armor Of Etherealness
Rule number one for yourself as a DM should be to not make your life harder. Giving your party Plate Armor of Etherealness would be doing the exact opposite of that rule. Characters in possession of this armor can use the Etherealness spell. This spell allows the wearer of the armor to traverse the Ethereal Plane for ten minutes at a time.
If your players have this armor, you're essentially giving them the power of Kitty Pryde. They can walk past dangerous encounters on your regular plane of existence without a scratch while existing in the Ethereal Plane.
7 Armor Of Invulnerability
Armor of Invulnerability is a Fighter class dream. It grants the wearer Resistance to any nonmagical damage. Slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, you name it, you're resistant to it. And to make matters worse (for the DM), players who wear the Armor of Invulnerability can take an Action once a day to make themselves immune to all nonmagical damage for ten minutes. That means any nonmagical attack will not cause them any harm. If your party gets their hands on even one set of this armor, your encounters will suddenly feel a lot shorter. We hope you like magical attacks.
6 Adamantine Armor
Okay, so Adamantine Armor is not the worst thing in the world to give a player. Like Adamantium in Marvel Comics, Adamantine Armor is one of the strongest materials in the world. While wearing this armor, any critical hit against your character turns into a normal one. That doesn't sound too bad from a DM's perspective. But just as it is incredibly satisfying for a player to get a crit on an opponent, you don't want to deny yourself that same pleasure. Do not, we repeat, do not, give your entire party their own set of Adamantine Armor.
5 Dragon Scale Mail
The name of the game is Dungeons & Dragons. As such, you might want to throw a ton of dragons in the way of your party of adventurers. There's nothing wrong with that (aside from being a mite on the cruel side), but be careful not to have your whole party wearing Dragon Scale Mail if that's the case. This armor is made from the scales of dragons, and its purpose is to help in the fight against a dragon. It gives wearers advantage against the Breath Weapon of any dragon, and you can magically Sense where a dragon is within thirty miles of you once a day.
4 Armor Of Vulnerability
Where before we were warning you against making your players too overpowered, you should also not seriously mess with their ability to fight. Well, you shouldn't try to mess with the entire party's ability to fight.
Impatient characters often don armor before trying to Identify it, and that's when some DMs trick them by letting them wear Armor of Vulnerability. This armor seriously screws with players. Players are able to be Resistant to one kind of damage, but are cursed to be vulnerable to two other kinds of damage aside from it.
3 Demon Armor
Speaking of cursed armor, only terribly mean DMs give their entire party a set of Demon Armor. True, you give characters who wear it the ability to speak Abyssal and a sweet pair of clawed gauntlets. However, you also can't take the armor off unless you have the Remove Curse spell handy. In addition to that, you can't properly fight demons while wearing this armor. You have disadvantage on attack rolls against them and on saving throws against their attacks on you. Of course, this would be a less-than-fine way to fight a horde of demons.
2 Dwarven Plate
Don't let the understated powers of Dwarven Plate fool you into giving some to your D&D party. Dwarven plate gives characters a +2 bonus to their Armor Class. It also allows wearers to use a reaction to reduce the distance they move if they are forcibly pushed against their will. For DMs who like to experiment with space and other effects during combat, Dwarven Plate can be a nuisance. One second you're setting up your players like bowling pins, the next, they're halting all your plans by a distance of ten feet.
1 Animated Armor
This is a strange one. Typically, Animated Armor is a type of Construct a caster will toss at an unsuspecting party. It's a tool of the DM. A gleaming set of armor with no one inside it will start attacking, and players now have to contend with a walking, fighting AC of 18. It's all fun and games until a DM makes the foolish decision to gift this construct to a caster in their party. Do you have any idea what kind of shenanigans your players can now get into with Animated Armor at their disposal? Just think of the most conniving player you've ever met, and you'll know what sort of hole you dug yourself into.