Barkskin: You Should Really Use Moisturizer

Usable By: Druid, Ranger

Spell Level: 2

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

Components: V, S, M (a handful of oak bark)

You touch a willing creature. Until the spell ends, the target’s skin has a rough, bark-like appearance, and the target’s AC can’t be less than 16, regardless of what kind of armor it is wearing.

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

A way 5e designers attempted to balance classes and differentiate them from each other was through weapon and armor proficiencies. Fighters, for example, get access to nearly every weapon and armor option in the game just for existing. You can be a longbow wielding high DEX character with light armor or a high STR/CON low DEX meat shield with heavy armor and a shield. If you’re playing a druid, your AC then is limited to just medium armor, light armor, and shields out the gate; no chain mail for you! Barkskin then offers you up that sweet 16 AC heavy chain mail is offering the fighters at the cost of a 2nd level slot; seems like a reasonable trade off for these different classes, right?

Wrong. Turns out medium armor with a +2 DEX can easily give you a 15 or 16 AC with little to no drawbacks. Dexterity as a stat is already the best stat in the game agnostic of most classes as it impacts a huge array of skills, saving throws, and attack rolls. Most of the time if you’re rolling up a druid, you’re going to want a +3 WIS and a +2 DEX out the gate, largely because the majority of the rest of the ability scores don’t matter a whole lot to you. If you’re just using studded leather armor and have a shield, you’re looking at an AC of around 16 anyway.

This leaves barkskin as a +1 or +2 AC at its best case on nearly every druid. The major exception here appears to be circle of the moon druids. If you’re running around biting and clawing in wild shape, you’re normally working with the beast's abysmal AC. Barkskin seems like a decent solution to the problem. Taking your brown bear AC from 11 to 16 is a +5 bonus, that’s as good an upgrade as having a permanent Shield up! The reality of it though is while it may mitigate a handful of strikes, it requiring your concentration leaves it in a volatile space.

You’re casting the spell with the expectation of going into a spot to get hit less. Fundamentally, you’re using concentration to engage areas that are most likely going to be able to drop your concentration. It isn’t uncommon for a single hit early and a bad save to drop the Barkskin, basically blowing your 2nd level slot on nothing. Even should it stay up, you’re spending a 2nd level spell slot often to defend the gigantic pool of bonus HP wild shape is giving you. In the lower to mid tiers, a single use of wild shape isn’t going to be worth more than one of your 2nd level slots, nor in a lot of games will it mitigate enough attacks to offset a single wild shape’s HP.

Barkskin ultimately doesn’t have a great home anywhere. Even if you are the druid diving into the thick of things as a panther, the reality of moon druid’s is your best options tend to have huge swaths of HP and damage and to hit modifiers that are roughly as good as you can get. While a handful of tables may be running hard enough fights where a 16 AC is needed on top of the bonus hundred or more HP you’ve got, the majority will not ask that much of you. Every other druid has next to no reason to cast this. Your friends probably have good enough armor, and you too can wear armor that can easily get out as high an AC as it offers. Barkskin just isn’t good enough at 16 AC.

5e Spells

Barkskin: You Should Really Use Moisturizer