Movement for mithral medium armor?

[Artoomis]

That is your opinion. Doing so devaluates heavy armor proficiency as well, harming Paladins, Fighters, Clerics and Warriors.

I personally think a happy medium would be to allow the chain / mail armors to have the reduced proficiency benefits from mithral. This way, the perceived 'best' armors, Breast Plate and Full Plate still require normal proficiency to learn how to move properly in due to how solid they still are and the often overlooked armors are made more attractive since one needs less training to learn how to account for the now much lighter plates and bands over the chain.

Well let's review the pertinent FACTS:

1. It is a matter of some debate as to whether or not, within the DMG as written, mithral armor is one category lighter for proficiency purposes.

2. WotC has issued a FAQ Q&A on this topic.

That said, it really is up to each group to decide whether or not to follow the FAQ. You can ignore the FAQ if you like, but the point of the FAQ entry is give advice on what to do when the rules are not completeely clear, and that's been done in this case.

Debating the relative merits of the FAQ that was issued is fine, but the fact is that right now the FAQ "ruling" is that meduim mithral armor requires only light armor proficiency to avoid non-proficiency penalties.

 

[frankthedm]

Debating the relative merits of the FAQ that was issued is fine, but the fact is that right now the FAQ "ruling" is that meduim mithral armor requires only light armor proficiency to avoid non-proficiency penalties.

The FAQ did not issue a "ruling". The faq specificly used "reasonable interpretation" and then spent a paragragh accepting it was not a rule and pointed out the mistakes that meant wotc made.

The description of mithral on page 284 of the DUNGEON
MASTER’s Guide is less precise than it could be in defining how
it interacts with armor proficiency rules. The simplest answer—
and the one that the Sage expects most players and DMs use—
is that mithral armor is treated as one category lighter for all
purposes, including proficiency. This isn’t exactly what the
DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide says, but it’s a reasonable
interpretation of the intent of the rule (and it’s supported by a
number of precedents, including the descriptions of various
specific mithral armors described on page 220 of the DUNGEON
MASTER’s Guide and a variety of NPC stat blocks).

 

[irishfast]

does mithral breastplate qualify as medium armor for the feat Armor Specialization?

if said mithral breastplate was, say, +2 Mithral Breastplate of Invulnerability, does the DR 2/-- from armor specialization stack with the DR 5/magic from the armor? if the armor is worn and the feat is taken, and the character is hit with a magic weapon, does he still get the DR 2/-- from the feat, since the magic weapon bypasses the DR 5/magic?

can i possibly ask any more questions of people who are not my DM?

 

[GorTeX]

1) IMO, yes
2) the DR2/- does not stack with DR5/Magic, it overlaps with it. If you are hit with anything other than a magic weapon, you'll get DR5, but if the weapon is magic, then the DR2/- kicks in...
3) Surely you can come up with more than 3 questions

 

[moritheil]

DR pretty much never stacks and always instead overlaps. The only exception is feats and/or features that specifically increase existing DR (and I wouldn't call that stacking; that's an increase.) Note that that doesn't mean that it's not useful to have more than one type of DR; DR/magic is pretty easily overcome, for example, and you may want to pick up some other type of DR if you're sure you're going to be hit (particularly if your DM is crafty and gives NPCs Sense Weakness.)

That being said, it looks like we're finding two entrenched camps in this debate. I think a reminder that die-hard zealots are rarely swayed on this forum may be in order.