can celestial armor be given the mithral property?

[dungeon blaster]

Is this possible?

celestial armor + mithral + twilight = no arcane spell failure?

 

[frankthedm]

If the DM is asleep at the Screen you might get away with it.

A lot of folks say celestial armor = mithral, but YMMV.

 

[Neorealist]

No. modifying specific magical armors is in the realm of 'dm's fiat' and not something a player can ordinarily ask within the bounds of the rules. (akin to asking if you can enchant your holy avenger with flaming burst, or make your absorbing shield arrow catching) That said a reasonable case could be made for mithral to be used instead of silver or gold in it's construction.

In this specific case I'd personally rule that the special benefits of mithral are subsumed by the enchantment process that makes the ordinary metal the suit is usually constructed with so flexible. (ie: no difference except a slightly different color.)

You can get the same thing (0% arcane spell failure) with a Twilight mithral shirt though for a fraction of the price fyi.

 

[dungeon blaster]

I am the DM.


I agree that it makes the most sense that the chainmail is made of mithral or its celestial equivalent. Perhaps I will allow a greater twilight effect: -20% spell failure, +2 cost.

 

[Neorealist]

That seems fair; though for a +2 enchantment, i'd lower the armor check penalty of the armor by a couple as well. but either way, your mage will be a happy camper.

 

[Iku Rex]

(akin to asking if you can enchant your holy avenger with flaming burst, or make your absorbing shield arrow catching)

Not at all. Those additions can be made using the item creation rules as written and require no more DM fiat than adding the same abilities to a regular magic weapon.

However, specific magic armors (and weapons) are just that - specific. Variations may well exist in the campaign world, but only if the DM says so.

(In this case I'd say a mithral celestial armor is not only unbalanced; but the description makes a point out of how the armor is made from gold or silver. Those are not usually used for good armor, so obviously the materials are connected to the armor's special qualities. You could say that "silver or gold" refers to the armor's appearance, but then what is the default material? Mithral?)

 

[Neorealist]

To the above post:
Celestial armor IS a specific kind of armor, just as a holy avenger is a specific magic weapon.

(so we are in essence agreeing; since dm fiat means the same thing as "Variations may well exist in the campaign world, but only if the DM says so. ")

 

[Iku Rex]

That seems fair; though for a +2 enchantment, i'd lower the dex penalty of the armor by a couple as well.

That's not usually how magic item abilities work. -20% ASF should cost more than two stacking -10% ASF abilities, and it certainly shouldn't be better.

 

[Neorealist]

Sure, but i was going by what i preceive to be the general power level of a +2 enhancement; specifically i think just granting a -20% spell failure reduction was a bit weak so i tweaked it a little with a nearly meaningless (power-wise) small additional boon.

 

[Iku Rex]

To the above post:
Celestial armor IS a specific kind of armor, just as a holy avenger is a specific magic weapon.

(so we are in essence agreeing; since dm fiat means the same thing as "Variations may well exist in the campaign world, but only if the DM says so. ")

The difference is in the modification.

You can't "add" a new armor material to an armor or a weapon after it's been made. However, you can add new magic abilities to existing magic items and there are rules to cover it.

Using adding arrow catching to an absorbing shield as an example:
The shield is +1 (with an additional special ability). The "retail" price to add a +1 ability to a +1 shield is 8000 gp (+2 shield) - 2000 gp (+1 shield) = 6000 gp.

In order to make it a mithral absorbing shield you must get special permission form the DM, as such an item may not exist, may not be possible to create (no rules for it) and it can't be created by modifying an item we do know exists (the default shield) .

Edit:

Sure, but i was going by what i preceive to be the general power level of a +2 enhancement; specifically i think just granting a -20% spell failure reduction was a bit weak so i tweaked it a little with a nearly meaningless (power-wise) small additional boon.

-20% ASF is plenty powerful.

Removing the wizard's armor restriction for a few gold is bad enough (I'm not convinced twilight was a good idea either), but if you also remove some armor check penalty wizards will be running around with heavy shields and medium armor without even having proficiency with them.