Mithril Armor and proficiency.

[Quasqueton]

Here's an interesting little note to add to this discussion. I just noticed this in the Complete Warrior (I know it is not a core book):

The sample frenzied berserker (barbarian 6/ frenzied berserker 8) wears +1 mithral full plate armor. She does not have heavy armor proficiency (neither barb nor FB), but her attack bonus does not seem to include an armor check penalty.

The sample halfling outrider (ranger 5/halfling outrider 5) wears +1 mithral breastplate armor. She does not have medium armor proficiency (neither ranger nor HO), but her attack bonus does not seem to include an armor check penalty.

The sample justicar (ranger 6/justicar 10) wears +2 mithral breastplate armor. He does ot have medium armor proficiency (neither ranger no justicar), but his attack bonus does not seem to include an armor check penalty.

There may be more examples, but that's what I found quickly (after the FB armor caught my attention).

Quasqueton

 

[Will]

Huh. Now we just have to figure out if that's canonical or a writer screwing up.

Easy to do, witness all this discussion.

 

[Lamoni]

Thanks Quasqueton. I was beginning to be swayed the other way. I had always thought that mithral made it one category lighter. That is why they had to specifically mention that light armor stayed at light armor. I can understand why people would be confused by the wording when it talks about limitations when limitations aren't defined.

Even though CW isn't RAW, it does give more evidence and I would say that mithral heavy armor can be considered medium armor in every way. Mithral medium armor can be considered light armor in every way and mithral light armor can be considered light armor in every way. It would have been more clear if they would have written that rather than just stating that it overcame all other limitations. All other limitations sounds pretty encompassing to me, but they probably wanted to let you know that full plate is still a heavy armor type... even if it is treated just the same as a medium armor. Not necessary, but that is how it is.

We could probably rewrite half the book to overcome all the vagueness that is there... but in so doing we would probably create as many problems as we fixed since the different wording would no longer fit with the wording in other sections.

 

[Abbacabba]

From WOTC

Just to let everyone know;

Recently this was talked about over at 3rdedition.org and the question was sent to WOTC and they came back that M. Breastplate is Light armor for limitations and that Light Armor prof. is all you need to use it.


PS. rule clarifcation was asked to be for 3.5ed...

 

[DragonOfIntellect]

I think that medium mithral armor is considered light armor for purposes of profiency, since they specifically note that light mithral armor remains light armor, indicating that heavier armors do not stay the same in regards to profiency.