Adamantine and Mithral

[TwinPeaksGuy]

Except that we regularly have druids trying to make medium and heavy armors out of thinks like the hook horror carapace you mentioned. It doesn't give your character a mechanical advantage. but it would them. Why should you allowed to make armor out of it and they are not? That hardly seems fair.

So by that logic since my fighter started with chain mail and gains a mechanical advantage by buying splint, that's a problem. If said druid wants better armor and is prepared to quest for materials, and pay a multiple of base to get armor(bulette carapace breastplate for example) they have proficiency in, why is that unfair? Giving people limitations they will never overcome is demoralizing. Finding creative solutions to problems and limitations is empowering, and that should be a good thing.

The other situation you mention, buying a building or land, specifically has mechanical advantages as well. They are listed in the DMG. Rules in the DMG for the most part are off limits to AL characters for similar reasons.

I am completely at a loss as to what impact having a house on the outskirts of Mulmaster has when trying to warhammer a xorn. Zero change to AC or to hit.

Even though you say you are not, you sure seem like you are looking for a mechanical advantage. You could for example write off 500 gp and say you bought a house. You'd never get to go there as part of an adventure, but it would let RP that you had a house. If you want to actually be able to safely rest there and grab food there during an adventure, not you have an advantage no else has. But sure, you RP that you had a house. Its the Axe-Lute argument all over again.

No idea what an Axe-lute is. And you're presuming players are such dicks that if they have a bolt hole in time of need they'd leave the rest of the party out in the cold to die. Thanks for left handedly calling me out as being that sort of asshat. Sorry, that's already amply covered in the players guide rules about the party working together and supporting each other, one of the definite pluses for AL play IMO.

I do think Adamantine and Mithral have RP sizzle value, and both could and should have minimal impact mechanically. Given the hints in the MM and DMG, I think un-spelled Adamantine should simply be reskinned silver from a mechanical PoV: it nullifies a resistance for a small set of creatures but its rarity merits a cost factor of some sort. Given that the list of affected creatures is even shorter than the one for silver, that seems totally in the spirit of RAI, and a call I have to guess many home game DMs will make. Mithral weapons are a little harder, might be 2/3 normal weight, which might remove properties like heavy or make some weapons finesse. Maybe its sole virtue as a weapon material is to make the Magic Weapon spell last 2 hours instead of one. Or maybe it's just especially shiny and cleans itself, I might prefer that. Is nerfing either of these to be on par with silvering or some other allowed option really that hard to figure out? Mundane +0 weapons of either material ought to be something the AL could make a global call on, should they choose.

If the League is ok with acting as a meta DM, then maybe they should learn to be ok with making houserules for things like this that would apply league wide, and not throw out the good in fear of the bad. I intellectually understand the fear, but not having dealt with these prior leagues it's pretty abstract to me, and looks exactly like disempowering everyone. I had thought was what 5e was supposed to solve.

 

[skerritthegreen]

So by that logic since my fighter started with chain mail and gains a mechanical advantage by buying splint, that's a problem.

No because its a rule that's covered in the PHB. You can buy better armor. The PHB doesn't have plate mail made of hook horror carapace. Now if we put such a thing as a reward in an adventure, that's different.

I am completely at a loss as to what impact having a house on the outskirts of Mulmaster has when trying to warhammer a xorn. Zero change to AC or to hit.

It doesn't, I'm not sure what your point is. AC/to hit are not the only mechanics in the game.

No idea what an Axe-lute is. And you're presuming players are such dicks that if they have a bolt hole in time of need they'd leave the rest of the party out in the cold to die. Thanks for left handedly calling me out as being that sort of asshat.

The axe-lute was an argument had on the WOTC boards over the course of several months. One player wanted his dwarf to wield a battle axe that was also a lute (and asked how you craft it and how much it would cost). Other players complained since it meant he bard would not have to use actions to swap between bard instrument and weapon and would also threaten by playing his lute. It led to other players demanding to be able to scribe scrolls on the inside of their shields, have helmets that carried potions with straws, etc... all to save actions. In short, I'm not calling you any sort of name. I am simply pointing out that "I want to RP this thing that has or leads to a mechanical advantage" has been the cause of lots of complaining and demanding mechanical advantages not covered in the rules for other players. I also point out that calling names and using swearing is again typical of your trollish behavior.

Mundane +0 weapons of either material ought to be something the AL could make a global call on, should they choose. If the League is ok with acting as a meta DM, then maybe they should learn to be ok with making houserules for things like this that would apply league wide, and not throw out the good in fear of the bad.

WOTC does not empower the AL Admins to make these sorts of house rules for the campaign. If you would like to request such a rule, the best way to make it happen is forward your complaint and solution to Customer Service and it will be consider by WOTC who may or may not choose to put it into the ALPG when they next update it.

 

[Mirtek]

If my gnome kills the hook horror in "Boltsmelter's Book" he can't use the carapace to make a new shield, even if the only difference is that it can be said to have sentimental value and perhaps it's worth 100gp instead of 10 (I would have gladly forfeited my split of the gold and all the mission downtime for such a shield, had the DM been allowed to offer it).

You could call your normal shield a hook horror carapace shield, but it would still only be worth 10gp and provide them same AC bonus as before.

So by that logic since my fighter started with chain mail and gains a mechanical advantage by buying splint, that's a problem.

Since he's supposed to eventually buy this mechanical advantage by the core rules, this is not a problem. It's simply fullfilling the expectations set at 1st level.

However I agree with you that AL needs to find some way to make gold usefull. My monk had basically no use for gold at all from level 1, my heavy armor wearers have no more use for gold since buying plate at level 7.

At least they could let us buy potions of superior healing at 500gp each or something like that to alleviate the gold problem (my characters now have to carry platinum trade bars around, as the sheer amount of platinum coins would be silly)

 

[kalani]

Players are legally allowed to reflavor equipments providing the changes do not alter its mechanics.

If you want to make a hook horror shield - you can. It is identical to the one in the PHB and has metal reinforcement or other metal components, making it unusable by Druids. Likewise, you could make metal-reinforced Durkwood armor but you couldn't make stone plate that a Druid could use, and it would still count as metal armor for the purpose of class abilities and spell effects

I have a character who uses o-yoroi armor (reflavored splint) and another character which is a leprechaun (reflavored forest gnome)

 

[TwinPeaksGuy]

Players are legally allowed to reflavor equipments providing the changes do not alter its mechanics.

If you want to make a hook horror shield - you can. It is identical to the one in the PHB and has metal reinforcement or other metal components, making it unusable by Druids. Likewise, you could make metal-reinforced Durkwood armor but you couldn't make stone plate that a Druid could use, and it would still count as metal armor for the purpose of class abilities and spell effects

I have a character who uses o-yoroi armor (reflavored splint) and another character which is a leprechaun (reflavored forest gnome)

That's wonderful! Why isn't that better known, that's totally something to do with a friendly DM as a side mission some day. I would MUCH rather work to attain it anew than retcon the souvenier, and if it costs me a hundred gold in healing potions, so what, the gold is kind of starting to pile up pointlessly anyway. This sort of flavoring and storytelling might keep me engaged for a few more months. The issue of not being able to establish a safe permanent home will still persist, but that totally makes my day about the reskinned shield.

 

[Mirtek]

That's wonderful! Why isn't that better known, that's totally something to do with a friendly DM as a side mission some day. I would MUCH rather work to attain it anew than retcon the souvenier, and if it costs me a hundred gold in healing potions, so what, the gold is kind of starting to pile up pointlessly anyway. This sort of flavoring and storytelling might keep me engaged for a few more months. The issue of not being able to establish a safe permanent home will still persist, but that totally makes my day about the reskinned shield.

Note that you can not earn any xp, gold, downtime or renown on such a side mission. I am not even sure you could record it on your AL log (at most as as an entry in the notes section of your last normal AL adventure)

 

[kalani]

You cannot run side quests other than those specifically listed in the adventure. DMs are empowered to add encounters only if necessary (such as if they Attack a guard station), but ideally - DMs should try to avoid such encounters.

 

[TwinPeaksGuy]

You cannot run side quests other than those specifically listed in the adventure. DMs are empowered to add encounters only if necessary (such as if they Attack a guard station), but ideally - DMs should try to avoid such encounters.

Nevermind then. I would think it would cost gold and downtime, have zero renown or xp, but if it can't go on the sheet and I never had to RP for searching for it and getting it, it's not RP flavor, it just kinda feels like lying. Additional point in favor of home game to me. Wanting things like this should be an opportunity, not something to avoid.

So then how do Beastmasters get a companion animal in the league? What about the special Faction missions mentioned in the PG? Doesn't quite add up. Maybe they're why some expeditions have bonus renown for some factions, and the local DM just glosses that over??

 

[kalani]

If however you fight something in-game, you could harvest its parts for such an RP-friendly craft project. I've harvested umber hulk parts myself before with the intention of creating an umber hulk claw scimitar (same cost and mechanics as a regular crafted scimitar but added points for cool-factor)

 

[TwinPeaksGuy]

You could call your normal shield a hook horror carapace shield, but it would still only be worth 10gp and provide them same AC bonus as before.
Since he's supposed to eventually buy this mechanical advantage by the core rules, this is not a problem. It's simply fullfilling the expectations set at 1st level.

But the Druid has proficiency with Medium armor. Normally, all medium armor is all or mostly metal. I put those two facts together, and I see a story hook, an adventure in the making, not a reason that a druid will never have a breastplate or half plate of any kind. It's a potential challenge to overcome, after hard work and RP and a pile of gold. If said druid took the feat for heavy armor, and does some really cool stuff on the way to putting together plate armor made from monster parts, I think they've earned it.

And like I said, any druid playing the class probably spends 90% of their fighting time wild shaped anyway. The armor looks kind of like a fish owning a bicycle to me, but I support their desire to get it.