Baron Opal II
Legend
Huh, I thought Bilbo's shirt was an alloy. Okay.
I'd always heard that mithril was supposed to be aluminum, but titanium makes more sense.The closest thing to mithral is probably titanium. It's lighter than steel, can be polished, doesn't corrode, it was the new "wonder metal" when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit.
However, mithral is also an inherently magical metal. If it was not, Frodo would have been killed by the cave troll's spear.
So I have no problem with it functioning like silver, it gives people a reason to make mithral weapons.
I don’t recall elves ever calling it that, but the dwarves do several times. It’s essentially a magic metal that is silver but doesn’t tarnish and is light but strong, and can be worked like copper but when set and forged becomes harder and stronger than steel.I normally play 3.5, though I've played 5e, 4e, Pathfinder, and every earlier version of D&D back to the three saddle-stitched books.
This question is more general, and the answers might vary depending on the rule set you prefer. What I'm hoping for is to prompt a bit of discussion
I've seen more than a few players who like to list Mithral weapons an their character sheets. They say that "True Silver" hits like silver, with regards to hitting/bypassing DR on some creatures.
What's your opinion?
My own take is that Silver is Silver, and hits like Silver. Mithral isn't Silver and hits like lightweight steel.
One argument is that Tolkien, whose works first mention this metal, has Elves refer to it as True Silver.
My counter, I suppose, is that I've never seen a D&D rules set that used that term or reference.
In 3.5, Silver weapons do less damage because the metal is relatively soft. It's a balance thing, at least to me.
So tell me how you feel, and give some reasons why.