Ranger Wearing Med. Mithral Armor?

[Vegepygmy]

Interesting. I didn't see where in the DMG material type changes a piece of armour into a different type. I must have an old DMG 3.5 edition.

No. You just didn't look on page 220:

Elven Chain: This extremely light chainmail is made of very fine mithral links. Speed while wearing elven chain is 30 feet for Medium creatures, or 20 feet for Small. The armor has an arcane spell failure chance of 20%, a maximum Dexterity bonus of +4, and an armor check penalty of -2. It is considered light armor and weighs 20 pounds.

So there you have it. Text from the DMG itself indicating that a medium armor made of mithral effectively becomes light armor.

 

[Kask]

So there you have it.

Actually, there you have it for "elven chain". It is a specific item.

Sorry, thanks for playing.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Actually, there you have it for "elven chain". It is a specific item.

I see.

So it's your belief that "adamantine breastplate," "dwarven plate," "elven chain," and "mithral shirt" are all specific items that just happen to (respectively) cost exactly the same as an adamantine breastplate, suit of adamantine full plate, suit of mithral chainmail, and mithral chain shirt, and just happen to have exactly the same properties as those non-specific items, except that in the case of "elven chain," it has an additional, nonmagical property that changes its type from "medium armor" to "light armor" yet adds nothing to its market price?

Sorry, thanks for playing.

Same to you, pal.

 

[Kask]

So it's your belief that "adamantine breastplate," "dwarven plate," "elven chain," and "mithral shirt"

Actually, I believe that page 284 of the DMG tells exactly and only, what is effected by armour being made out of mithral. One of the things not effected is the proficiency feat needed to use the armour in question.

 

[irdeggman]

Actually, I believe that page 284 of the DMG tells exactly and only, what is effected by armour being made out of mithral. One of the things not effected is the proficiency feat needed to use the armour in question.

So the text that says

Heavy armors are treated as medium, medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light.

Doesn't count as specific text and a rules source for what it affects?

It goes on to describe how ASF, Max Dex bonus, and AC penealties are modified - but note that those specific things are not dependent on the "category" of armors but instead are dependent on the specific "type" of armor since there is a range of each for each category of armor.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Actually, I believe that page 284 of the DMG tells exactly and only, what is effected by armour being made out of mithral. One of the things not effected is the proficiency feat needed to use the armour in question.

I can't help but notice that you didn't answer my question. I wonder why.

 

[glass]

Thus the answer to the OPs's question is that a ranger can still use his abilities when wearing mithral armor that makes the armor category into the appropriate type since it specifically works for "limitations" like the barbarian (and the ranger's text is almost identical).

I don't think anyone was suggesting that he couldn't use his armour-dependant abilities. The debate was over whether he was taking non-proficiency while doing so.

I realise that the OP didn't explicitly ask this, but I'd consider it to be included in "can I get away with this?"


glass.

 

[irdeggman]

I think you (and most of us) are reading too much into the OP's question and as usual we end up go off on tangents 9even if related).

The OP asked:

Hey Guys,

Rangers are only proficient with light armor, and most of their abilities only work if wearing light armor. But what if the ranger was to wear Mithral medium armor? Could he then use his abilities? From the SRD:

Mithral
Mithral is a very rare silvery, glistening metal that is lighter than iron but just as hard. When worked like steel, it becomes a wonderful material from which to create armor and is occasionally used for other items as well. Most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations. Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light. Spell failure chances for armors and shields made from mithral are decreased by 10%, maximum Dexterity bonus is increased by 2, and armor check penalties are lessened by 3 (to a minimum of 0).

If it is Medium Armor, but light enough to be considered Light Armor, can the ranger get away with this? I'm working on a Dwarven Ranger/Rogue build, and I was going to outfit him in a Mithral breastplate -- I just want to be sure that I'm not trying to 'pull a fast one'. What do you think??

~Jace

Note that he was quoting the SRD which is missing the text that adresses his specific quesiton.

The DMG text includes a statement about a barbarian's abilities - which is missing from the SRD.

So I would assume he is using only the SRD and not the DMG as a reference.

While the SRD is real useful it does miss a lot of real specific text that covers issues (and rules) in more detail and prevents quesitons like the one originally asked.

Not all players have access to the DMG (either by not owning it or by disallowing due to table rules) so it is not unheard of to miss the applicable text in question.