D&D General Mithral v Silver

[LordEntrails]

I think I remember True Silver coming up in D&D back in the 70's or early 80's. But no idea the source, canon, 3rd party, or Tolkien! Anyone know?

As for me, I hate material specific immunities and resistances. I find them cumbersome and annoying as a player. Lets see; my sword is silver, my mace is adamantine, my hammer is holy and then I have pair of daggers, one lawful and one anarchic! Now which weapon do I use when fighting an adamantine flaming skeletal Archer?

 

[R_J_K75]

I find them cumbersome and annoying as a player.

Totally agree. As a DM and player it has to have a very specific reason for me to even give it a second thought. Even then its usually a one off. I dont want to bother with a plus or minus here or there or a condition.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think I remember True Silver coming up in D&D back in the 70's or early 80's. But no idea the source, canon, 3rd party, or Tolkien! Anyone know?

As for me, I hate material specific immunities and resistances. I find them cumbersome and annoying as a player. Lets see; my sword is silver, my mace is adamantine, my hammer is holy and then I have pair of daggers, one lawful and one anarchic! Now which weapon do I use when fighting an adamantine flaming skeletal Archer?

I like them, as long as there aren’t too many. Silver for lycanthropes. Magic weapons for incorporeal creatures. Non-magic weapons for fae (as opposed to “cold iron” being a special material). And, since Adamantine weapons in XGtE auto-crit objects, I like giving constructs vulnerability to them (or ignore resistance if they resist BP&S).

 

[Stormonu]

To me, mithril is different from truesilver, and it can't be used to bypass DR like silver.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've houseruled that Mithril weapons gain the finesse property. Weapons that already have the finesse property gain the light property. Weapons that already have both gain the Off Hand* property. If a weapon has all three, it doesn't gain any other benefits.

The off hand property is a homebrew property I added to most 1d4 light weapons. You can use it for TWF, even if your other weapon is not a light weapon. This allows for sword and dagger style without spending/wasting a feat. Mathematically, it helps TWF keep up at higher levels if you don't use feats (Great Weapon FIghting and Sharpshooter blow Two Weapon Mastery out of the water).

 

[Greenfield]

I can’t read your players minds of course, but at a guess, sliver would be a terrible material for making weapons out of, and “silvered” steel weapons is kind of vague - are they silver plated or something? Wouldn’t that wear off quickly? A magical metal that has the DR-bypassing properties of silver but the structural qualities of steel is a bit more appealing. Plus, mithril armor exists, so it makes sense players might want mithril weapons too.

"Alchemical Silver" is the alloy referenced in 3.*. And yes, it's a terrible metal, hence the -1 damage from silver weapons.

There's also a mix called Silversheen that can be applied. I makes the weapon "silver" temporarily. It does wear off.

In AD&D )Edition 1, 2), you needed "silver or better" to hit, say, a werewolf. Silver itself was quickly rendered obsolete, since magic weapons were considered "better".

It wasn't until 3x that Silver began to mean something. Maybe that's why I want to keep it that way.

 

[Greenfield]

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but here's what I did.

I house-ruled that mithral weapons have a +1 non-magical bonus to hit and damage rolls. They aren't magical, they don't detect as magical, and they don't bypass damage reduction like magical weapons do...but they are +1 weapons, and continue to function like +1 weapons even when they're in an anti-magic field. Similarly, adamantine weapons have a +2 non-magical bonus, and titanite weapons have a +3 non-magical bonus.

Hmm I seem to recall that special metal weapons are automatically "Master Worked" in 3.X, so they would get +1 to hot (doesn't stack with magic). No bonus to damage, at least in 3.X

 

[Wolf72]

Pretty sure you are correct on that MW component of getting +1 (or -1 ACP) that doesn't stack with anything but is there.

 

[the Jester]

In my game, mithral is not silver, and while it has its own properties, it doesn't substitute for silver.

Mithral is extraordinarily rare and valuable. A mithral piece, a very rare coin indeed, is worth 10,000 gp. So you won't see mithral weapons casually laying around. In fact, I can't recall ever having one in my game- though I could see it.

 

[Casimir Liber]

The mithril/mithral spelling always annoyed me - presumably had something to do with copyright I guess. Interesting thread.

Tolkien also had galvorn which never made it into gaming-lore....