Mithral and Adamantine armor... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Mithral and Adamantine armor... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Warric
03-01-07, 09:06 AM Hello all,

I don't know if this is the case in general, but it seems that my players adore mithral armors, and don't give adamantine armor, a second thought.

I was thinking about making a house rule that armor made out of adamantine gives the usual benefits in the DMG plus increasing the base armor class of the armor by 1 or 2. For instance, fullplate gives an armor bonus of +8. If it is made out of adamantine, under my proposed house rule, it would give an armor bonus of +9 or +10.

Anyone have any comments? Too good? Or do you think adamantine is fine the way it is?
nightwing
03-01-07, 10:13 AM sounds reasonable to me. Adamantium's claim to fame is being harder and stronger than any other metal, so should be harder to pierce or dent. Don't forget to make adamantine armor heavier than normal armor as well.

You might balance the AC bonus by considering even "medium" adamantine armor as heavy. So basically "light" adamantine armor (chain shirt) would be considered medium, and medium and heavy adamantine armor would be considered heavy. Just a thought.
TwiddleStootch
03-01-07, 10:25 AM Well adding in more penalties kind of defeats the purpose of adding bonuses,now doesn't it?

But I think Adamantine armor is fine, it just depends on the character.
In general, a Tank Fighter, warrior Cleric or Paladin should all be wearing Fullplate eventually, so what is nicer then adding in 3/- damage reduction? NOT MUCH OF ANYTHING!

So it might just be your party make up, most core classes do want lighter armor.
Devlonir
03-01-07, 10:41 AM Thats right, for anyone with 13 or less dex who doesnt want to spend money one gloves of dex, the adamantine armor is the way to go! with a low dex, there is no use to the mithral armor, because your AC doesnt increase. Adamantine fullplate gives you a DR that it used for everything except elemental attacks... that just rocks! simple as that.
mvincent
03-01-07, 01:47 PM Adamantine fullplate gives you a DR that it used for everything except elemental attacks... and spells, spell-like effects, supernatural abilities, breath weapons, area effects, negative energy, sonic effects, disease, ability damage, etc.

that just rocks! simple as that.In practice, DR 3/- is unlikely to be that helpful at level 10+ (i.e. once you can afford). At those levels most characters are killed by spells or attacks that do huge amounts of damage (where the DR is unlikely to change anything). DR 3/- could offer some respite from hordes of mooks, but so can a decent AC (likely more so). Plus, hordes of those low damage guys aren't likely to be a threat anyway (as you have more of a chance to get healing and/or retreat if you start getting low on HP). I can sympathize with the OP's lament. As a chronic optimizer, I don't touch adamantine armor.
Warric
03-01-07, 03:29 PM Here's how I see it and also why I brought the question up to hear other DM's opinions...

Some background...
There are two fighters and a fighter/cleric in a party of six. Armor is in demand. All the characters are around levels 10-12. One player plays his fighter as a tank. His current AC is normally around 30 or 31 with Mithril fullplate +2 that he painstakingly saved for and subsequently commissioned. The other fighter wields 2 weapons and has always had a good Dex, and is saving to purchase a suit of Mithral Breastplate soon. Now, why are they choosing Mithral over Adamantine? They obviously feel it gives them better protection in the field. In addition, looking at players posts among these boards, they always seem to bring up Mithral when armor comes up.

My musings...
Let's take a look at both metals made into fullplate armor.

Masterwork Full Plate: +8 AC, Max Dex: +1, Wgt: 50lb., Chk Pen: -5, 1,650gp

Mithral Full Plate: +8 AC, Max Dex: +3, Wgt: 25lb., Chk Pen: -3, 10,500gp

Adamantine Full Plate: +8 AC, Max Dex: +1, Wgt. 50lb. Chk Pen: -5, 16,500gp

The way I see it, from a combat standpoint, Mithral gives you a better AC overall when you factor in the Max Dex bonus (even PCs of average Dex can get up to +3 quite easily by 12th level through the use of potions, magic items, and the bonus ability point every fourth level). I feel that this offsets the damage reduction granted from adamantine for the most part. DR/3 doesn't amount to much often in higher level adventures as someone pointed out. Mithral also has other fringe benefits, lower Chk Pen, and lower weight. By the way it's 6,000gp less!

On Breast Plate... On someone with good Dex, not only do you get a great AC, but now you move 30'.

On a Chain Shirt... Now certain Spell Casters might even consider it.

I guess my main beef is that Mithral is more versatile and cheaper to boot. So I want to try to make Adamantine a more tempting option while at the same time keeping it on par with it's expensive cost.

My house rule proposal...
Adamantine gives the usual benefits described in the DMG, plus the following: +1 or +2 to the base AC of the armor. I haven't decided yet what to change it to or if I'll change it at all.

From a background point of view, Adamantine is considered one of the hardest metals in existence, hence my extra bonus to AC. Mithral is a great boon because of its light weight. I think my proposed change would make Adamantine more attractive to characters that are heavy fighting types and Mithral to characters that are finess fighter types.
Thunder Dragonbane
03-01-07, 04:03 PM I currently have a Paladin character that has a 10 DEX and my GM gave me mithril fullplate of speed a couple of sessions ago. Because it is only +1 armor my AC didn't change from the old +1 fullplate that I had. Had I been offered adamantine armor with my dex I would have taken that instead.

Now I have to go and do somthing about my poor DEX, just to really get the most of my armor.
Warric
03-01-07, 04:18 PM With that in mind, how would you vote on my proposed house rule... do you think the change is warranted to make adamantine more attractive or do you think the metals are fine the way they are and that I should just leave well enogh alone?
ciryx2k
03-01-07, 04:29 PM If you're going to do this, I'd go with +2 to AC. The reason for this is that it balances total possible AC mod with the mithril version to where a higher dex character would want mithril, a lower dex person would want adamantine. Generally a higher dex character is going to want the lower check penalty instead of DR 3/-. A fighter with a low dex could care less about having a check penalty reduced by two, he'd rather have the DR 3/-. These are only my opinions, but I feel you would see your lower dex fighters and clerics heading towards adamantine if you did this.
Warric
03-01-07, 04:50 PM If you're going to do this, I'd go with +2 to AC. The reason for this is that it balances total possible AC mod with the mithril version to where a higher dex character would want mithril, a lower dex person would want adamantine.

In other words taking the fullplate example to the ultimate...Mithral fullplate +5 will give a total of +16 AC by itself (+8 armor, +5 enhancement, +3 Dex). Adamantine fullplate +5 will give a total of +14 by itself (+8 armor, +5 enhancement, +1 Dex)

By the way, Mithral Breastplate +5 will give a total of +15 AC (+5 armor, +5 enhancement, +5 Dex) and a Mithral Chain Shirt +5 will give a total of +15 by itself (+4 armor, +5 enhancement, +6 Dex)

All of these beat the best Adamantine armor possible.

I tend to agree with you... I'd like to go with the house rule increasing it to +2, giving lower Dex characters the opportunity to be on par with the high Dex characters as far as AC goes. In my mind it also justifies the higher cost of adamanitne.

Another idea I thought of was to decrease the cost of adamantine... but that seems distastful to me.
FriendoftheDork
03-01-07, 05:32 PM Why don't you just lower the price? Adamamntium is fine at mid levels, just too damn expensive.

Mithral is too cheap, especially light armor. The benefit of speed outweighs DR/3.
Keiichi_m
03-01-07, 06:10 PM And this is why I prefer dex fighters. Mithral will allow better movment, lighter for the purposes of encumberance, can rival plate armor with a high enough dex, less Armor chech penalty, and hot damn you have better luck with a ranged weapon too.
mvincent
03-01-07, 06:22 PM I currently have a Paladin character that has a 10 DEX and my GM gave me mithril fullplate of speed a couple of sessions ago. That is excellent armor. At higher levels, you'll should likely be getting gloves of dex.

And this is why I prefer dex fighters. Mithral will allow better movment, lighter for the purposes of encumberance, can rival plate armor with a high enough dex, less Armor chech penalty, and hot damn you have better luck with a ranged weapon too.Celestial armor is is even better for dex fighters.

how would you vote on my proposed house ruleUnfortunately, I never involve myself in house-rules, but I'm certain that almost anything you do to adamantine (within reason) wouldn't be unbalancing.
jadehawk
03-01-07, 06:36 PM I really don't think a house rule is necessary. Mithril is typically better for armour, but in the same breath Adamantine is typically better for weapons. I don't see a reason to make adamantine more attractive to make armour (or to make mithral more attractive for weapons). Of course, if you feel the need to go ahead.

On a side note, I have played a character who truly preferred adamantine armour (a low dex dwarven fighter). And I have played a character who actually found mithril weapons (and tools) more preferable for a time (a low strength halfling rogue). The dwarf had no dexterity to speak of, and wasn't slowed down by the armour (as I recall, or correct me if I'm wrong and only weight doesn't slow them down?). The halfling had a rediculously low carry capacity and pulled out every trick in the book to stay in his light load.
StevenO
03-01-07, 07:32 PM I think Adamantine Armor is fine as it is. If you want to make improvement I recommend changes to the secondary charactisitics (like reducing ACP) instead of making changes to the AC provided.

To be honest characters with higher Dex scores will always prefer Mithral because it lets them use more of that ability modifier. Mithral FullPlate may be a little easier to wear because it counts as medium armor but how well does the potential +2 AC match up to Adamantine's DR3/-? If you want to make adamantine more attractive just increase the Max Dex +1 and reduce the ACP by 1 and you'd find it to be a lot more attractive without much real change.
Xykon
03-01-07, 11:34 PM I think if you want to modify adamantine armor add the DR by a point or 2. i.e.

1. light armor = DR 2/- or 3/-
2. medium armor = DR 4/- or 6/-
3. heavy armor = DR 6/- or 9/-

My biggest gripe about adamantine is that for a fullplate (16,500 gp) the only advantage you get is a DR 3/- versus a normal masterwork fullplate (1,650 gp).

If you think about it, cost-wise you get masterwork fullplate at roughly level 4.
Not unless your adventures can get massive amounts of treasure, cost-wise you tend to get adamantine fullplate at least level 12.

When facing CR 12 monsters, DR 3/- is nothing. See if that amounts to anything when you're facing 2 fire giants (EL 12) - each doing full attacks: +20/+15/+10 (3d6 + 15 damage).

If you really want the DR 3/-, do this:
1. Be a barbarian, put your points in STR, then DEX.
2. Get a mithral full plate (10,500 gp)
3. At level 13 -- which is roughly the same time you get an adamantine fullplate, you get DR 3/-.
4. At this point, you even get better armor (you use the extra 6k to enchant it to +2), if you have a high dex, you can get a net +3 - +4 extra AC from enchantments and dex.
Warric
03-01-07, 11:39 PM Good responses everyone. I'll mull it all over. I guess I'm just looking for more variety in the end. And trying to present more options than the obviously beneficial Mithral armor route.
Matthew77
03-02-07, 10:29 AM When facing CR 12 monsters, DR 3/- is nothing. See if that amounts to anything when you're facing 2 fire giants (EL 12) - each doing full attacks: +20/+15/+10 (3d6 + 15 damage).

3d6 + 15 averages 25.5 damage per hit

I'm going to assume 4 out of the 6 attacks hit, so your level 12 fighter is looking at 102 points of damage.

Lets give our fighter a 16 Con, so he averages 8.5 HP per level. Interestingly, this gives him exactly 102 HP at level 12.

So the difference between normal plate and adamantine plate is the difference between being at 12hp at the end of the round, or being on the ground with zero.
Tarus
03-02-07, 02:26 PM Well, your math is true but if you had the mithril they would probably score one less hit.

Of course...isn't adamantine stronger? Thus it would be more likely to survive damage and such? Rarely a problem for armor but still. Then also to consider is that even at higher levels some combats may have more attacks. Against a large number of creatures or against creatures with two weapon fighting and/or lots of lighter attacks the adamantine gets better.

Vs one powerful attack of 40 damage, a -3 for the DR isn't that great. But if a foe (or group of foes) takes 15 attacks to deal 50 damage you are reducing that by 45 damage. Its a matter of circumstances I suppose.
FrostWolf
03-04-07, 01:56 AM It's all about price and usefullness. Mithril is great for arcane spellcasters with a twilight enchantment, granting them a net -20% arcane spell failure. This is even better for crossclassing. Your Barb/sor can now enlarge and bull's Str, THEN rage and wreck the BBEG with no spell failures. Also, Mithril is far less expensive, easier to move in, and gives access to a higher class of armor, dropping heavy to medium and medium to light.

Adamantium lessens damage, or sunders better. But costs so much that you might as well get weapons and armors enchanted for said functions, becouse it would be less costly and better. Not to say it's useless, but why bother sinking so much cash into something that will be useless by the time you can afford it?

Light is -1 damage, and adds 5000 gold to the price. not worth it. for 5000gp you can get any +2 armor you want. And medium adamantium is +10,000 and heavy is +15,000!!

No. you want natural DR in your armor, Use the impact armor from Magic of Eberron. The pricings are more in the relm of usefullness.
weasel0
03-04-07, 02:28 AM if you really wanna add a "Damage Reduction" to a suit of armor add
Fortification:
This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the wearer, there is a chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally.

Fortification---------Chance for------Base Price
Type--------------Normal Damage---Modifier
________________________________________
Light------------------25%--------+1 bonus
Moderate--------------75%--------+3 bonus
Heavy----------------100%--------+5 bonus

Strong abjuration; CL 13th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, limited wish or miracle; Price varies (see above).DMG... i forget, in the magic armor ability descriptions. Under "Creating Magic Items"

Never be critically stuck or sneak attacked again!
Thunder Dragonbane
03-04-07, 11:44 AM [QUOTE=mvincent;11633237]That is excellent armor. At higher levels, you'll should likely be getting gloves of dex.

Did I mention he is a Paladin that uses no ranged weapons. I would prefer to have been offered adamantine. And the DR would have helped me greatly in last nites game.
Thunder Dragonbane
03-04-07, 11:50 AM With that in mind, how would you vote on my proposed house rule... do you think the change is warranted to make adamantine more attractive or do you think the metals are fine the way they are and that I should just leave well enogh alone?

If my GM had offered me adamantine +1 armor I would have taken it. If that also had the bonus of +2 over the normal armor's bonus I would not object.
Full plate with a +11 bonus sounds better to me at the moment than replacing my old +1 fullplate with different +1 fullplate.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Warric 03-01-07, 09:06 AM	Hello all, I don't know if this is the case in general, but it seems that my players adore mithral armors, and don't give adamantine armor, a second thought. I was thinking about making a house rule that armor made out of adamantine gives the usual benefits in the DMG plus increasing the base armor class of the armor by 1 or 2. For instance, fullplate gives an armor bonus of +8. If it is made out of adamantine, under my proposed house rule, it would give an armor bonus of +9 or +10. Anyone have any comments? Too good? Or do you think adamantine is fine the way it is?
nightwing 03-01-07, 10:13 AM	sounds reasonable to me. Adamantium's claim to fame is being harder and stronger than any other metal, so should be harder to pierce or dent. Don't forget to make adamantine armor heavier than normal armor as well. You might balance the AC bonus by considering even "medium" adamantine armor as heavy. So basically "light" adamantine armor (chain shirt) would be considered medium, and medium and heavy adamantine armor would be considered heavy. Just a thought.
TwiddleStootch 03-01-07, 10:25 AM	Well adding in more penalties kind of defeats the purpose of adding bonuses,now doesn't it? But I think Adamantine armor is fine, it just depends on the character. In general, a Tank Fighter, warrior Cleric or Paladin should all be wearing Fullplate eventually, so what is nicer then adding in 3/- damage reduction? NOT MUCH OF ANYTHING! So it might just be your party make up, most core classes do want lighter armor.
Devlonir 03-01-07, 10:41 AM	Thats right, for anyone with 13 or less dex who doesnt want to spend money one gloves of dex, the adamantine armor is the way to go! with a low dex, there is no use to the mithral armor, because your AC doesnt increase. Adamantine fullplate gives you a DR that it used for everything except elemental attacks... that just rocks! simple as that.
mvincent 03-01-07, 01:47 PM	Adamantine fullplate gives you a DR that it used for everything except elemental attacks... and spells, spell-like effects, supernatural abilities, breath weapons, area effects, negative energy, sonic effects, disease, ability damage, etc. that just rocks! simple as that.In practice, DR 3/- is unlikely to be that helpful at level 10+ (i.e. once you can afford). At those levels most characters are killed by spells or attacks that do huge amounts of damage (where the DR is unlikely to change anything). DR 3/- could offer some respite from hordes of mooks, but so can a decent AC (likely more so). Plus, hordes of those low damage guys aren't likely to be a threat anyway (as you have more of a chance to get healing and/or retreat if you start getting low on HP). I can sympathize with the OP's lament. As a chronic optimizer, I don't touch adamantine armor.
Warric 03-01-07, 03:29 PM	Here's how I see it and also why I brought the question up to hear other DM's opinions... Some background... There are two fighters and a fighter/cleric in a party of six. Armor is in demand. All the characters are around levels 10-12. One player plays his fighter as a tank. His current AC is normally around 30 or 31 with Mithril fullplate +2 that he painstakingly saved for and subsequently commissioned. The other fighter wields 2 weapons and has always had a good Dex, and is saving to purchase a suit of Mithral Breastplate soon. Now, why are they choosing Mithral over Adamantine? They obviously feel it gives them better protection in the field. In addition, looking at players posts among these boards, they always seem to bring up Mithral when armor comes up. My musings... Let's take a look at both metals made into fullplate armor. Masterwork Full Plate: +8 AC, Max Dex: +1, Wgt: 50lb., Chk Pen: -5, 1,650gp Mithral Full Plate: +8 AC, Max Dex: +3, Wgt: 25lb., Chk Pen: -3, 10,500gp Adamantine Full Plate: +8 AC, Max Dex: +1, Wgt. 50lb. Chk Pen: -5, 16,500gp The way I see it, from a combat standpoint, Mithral gives you a better AC overall when you factor in the Max Dex bonus (even PCs of average Dex can get up to +3 quite easily by 12th level through the use of potions, magic items, and the bonus ability point every fourth level). I feel that this offsets the damage reduction granted from adamantine for the most part. DR/3 doesn't amount to much often in higher level adventures as someone pointed out. Mithral also has other fringe benefits, lower Chk Pen, and lower weight. By the way it's 6,000gp less! On Breast Plate... On someone with good Dex, not only do you get a great AC, but now you move 30'. On a Chain Shirt... Now certain Spell Casters might even consider it. I guess my main beef is that Mithral is more versatile and cheaper to boot. So I want to try to make Adamantine a more tempting option while at the same time keeping it on par with it's expensive cost. My house rule proposal... Adamantine gives the usual benefits described in the DMG, plus the following: +1 or +2 to the base AC of the armor. I haven't decided yet what to change it to or if I'll change it at all. From a background point of view, Adamantine is considered one of the hardest metals in existence, hence my extra bonus to AC. Mithral is a great boon because of its light weight. I think my proposed change would make Adamantine more attractive to characters that are heavy fighting types and Mithral to characters that are finess fighter types.
Thunder Dragonbane 03-01-07, 04:03 PM	I currently have a Paladin character that has a 10 DEX and my GM gave me mithril fullplate of speed a couple of sessions ago. Because it is only +1 armor my AC didn't change from the old +1 fullplate that I had. Had I been offered adamantine armor with my dex I would have taken that instead. Now I have to go and do somthing about my poor DEX, just to really get the most of my armor.
Warric 03-01-07, 04:18 PM	With that in mind, how would you vote on my proposed house rule... do you think the change is warranted to make adamantine more attractive or do you think the metals are fine the way they are and that I should just leave well enogh alone?
ciryx2k 03-01-07, 04:29 PM	If you're going to do this, I'd go with +2 to AC. The reason for this is that it balances total possible AC mod with the mithril version to where a higher dex character would want mithril, a lower dex person would want adamantine. Generally a higher dex character is going to want the lower check penalty instead of DR 3/-. A fighter with a low dex could care less about having a check penalty reduced by two, he'd rather have the DR 3/-. These are only my opinions, but I feel you would see your lower dex fighters and clerics heading towards adamantine if you did this.
Warric 03-01-07, 04:50 PM	If you're going to do this, I'd go with +2 to AC. The reason for this is that it balances total possible AC mod with the mithril version to where a higher dex character would want mithril, a lower dex person would want adamantine. In other words taking the fullplate example to the ultimate...Mithral fullplate +5 will give a total of +16 AC by itself (+8 armor, +5 enhancement, +3 Dex). Adamantine fullplate +5 will give a total of +14 by itself (+8 armor, +5 enhancement, +1 Dex) By the way, Mithral Breastplate +5 will give a total of +15 AC (+5 armor, +5 enhancement, +5 Dex) and a Mithral Chain Shirt +5 will give a total of +15 by itself (+4 armor, +5 enhancement, +6 Dex) All of these beat the best Adamantine armor possible. I tend to agree with you... I'd like to go with the house rule increasing it to +2, giving lower Dex characters the opportunity to be on par with the high Dex characters as far as AC goes. In my mind it also justifies the higher cost of adamanitne. Another idea I thought of was to decrease the cost of adamantine... but that seems distastful to me.
FriendoftheDork 03-01-07, 05:32 PM	Why don't you just lower the price? Adamamntium is fine at mid levels, just too damn expensive. Mithral is too cheap, especially light armor. The benefit of speed outweighs DR/3.
Keiichi_m 03-01-07, 06:10 PM	And this is why I prefer dex fighters. Mithral will allow better movment, lighter for the purposes of encumberance, can rival plate armor with a high enough dex, less Armor chech penalty, and hot damn you have better luck with a ranged weapon too.
mvincent 03-01-07, 06:22 PM	I currently have a Paladin character that has a 10 DEX and my GM gave me mithril fullplate of speed a couple of sessions ago. That is excellent armor. At higher levels, you'll should likely be getting gloves of dex. And this is why I prefer dex fighters. Mithral will allow better movment, lighter for the purposes of encumberance, can rival plate armor with a high enough dex, less Armor chech penalty, and hot damn you have better luck with a ranged weapon too.Celestial armor is is even better for dex fighters. how would you vote on my proposed house ruleUnfortunately, I never involve myself in house-rules, but I'm certain that almost anything you do to adamantine (within reason) wouldn't be unbalancing.
jadehawk 03-01-07, 06:36 PM	I really don't think a house rule is necessary. Mithril is typically better for armour, but in the same breath Adamantine is typically better for weapons. I don't see a reason to make adamantine more attractive to make armour (or to make mithral more attractive for weapons). Of course, if you feel the need to go ahead. On a side note, I have played a character who truly preferred adamantine armour (a low dex dwarven fighter). And I have played a character who actually found mithril weapons (and tools) more preferable for a time (a low strength halfling rogue). The dwarf had no dexterity to speak of, and wasn't slowed down by the armour (as I recall, or correct me if I'm wrong and only weight doesn't slow them down?). The halfling had a rediculously low carry capacity and pulled out every trick in the book to stay in his light load.
StevenO 03-01-07, 07:32 PM	I think Adamantine Armor is fine as it is. If you want to make improvement I recommend changes to the secondary charactisitics (like reducing ACP) instead of making changes to the AC provided. To be honest characters with higher Dex scores will always prefer Mithral because it lets them use more of that ability modifier. Mithral FullPlate may be a little easier to wear because it counts as medium armor but how well does the potential +2 AC match up to Adamantine's DR3/-? If you want to make adamantine more attractive just increase the Max Dex +1 and reduce the ACP by 1 and you'd find it to be a lot more attractive without much real change.
Xykon 03-01-07, 11:34 PM	I think if you want to modify adamantine armor add the DR by a point or 2. i.e. 1. light armor = DR 2/- or 3/- 2. medium armor = DR 4/- or 6/- 3. heavy armor = DR 6/- or 9/- My biggest gripe about adamantine is that for a fullplate (16,500 gp) the only advantage you get is a DR 3/- versus a normal masterwork fullplate (1,650 gp). If you think about it, cost-wise you get masterwork fullplate at roughly level 4. Not unless your adventures can get massive amounts of treasure, cost-wise you tend to get adamantine fullplate at least level 12. When facing CR 12 monsters, DR 3/- is nothing. See if that amounts to anything when you're facing 2 fire giants (EL 12) - each doing full attacks: +20/+15/+10 (3d6 + 15 damage). If you really want the DR 3/-, do this: 1. Be a barbarian, put your points in STR, then DEX. 2. Get a mithral full plate (10,500 gp) 3. At level 13 -- which is roughly the same time you get an adamantine fullplate, you get DR 3/-. 4. At this point, you even get better armor (you use the extra 6k to enchant it to +2), if you have a high dex, you can get a net +3 - +4 extra AC from enchantments and dex.
Warric 03-01-07, 11:39 PM	Good responses everyone. I'll mull it all over. I guess I'm just looking for more variety in the end. And trying to present more options than the obviously beneficial Mithral armor route.
Matthew77 03-02-07, 10:29 AM	When facing CR 12 monsters, DR 3/- is nothing. See if that amounts to anything when you're facing 2 fire giants (EL 12) - each doing full attacks: +20/+15/+10 (3d6 + 15 damage). 3d6 + 15 averages 25.5 damage per hit I'm going to assume 4 out of the 6 attacks hit, so your level 12 fighter is looking at 102 points of damage. Lets give our fighter a 16 Con, so he averages 8.5 HP per level. Interestingly, this gives him exactly 102 HP at level 12. So the difference between normal plate and adamantine plate is the difference between being at 12hp at the end of the round, or being on the ground with zero.
Tarus 03-02-07, 02:26 PM	Well, your math is true but if you had the mithril they would probably score one less hit. Of course...isn't adamantine stronger? Thus it would be more likely to survive damage and such? Rarely a problem for armor but still. Then also to consider is that even at higher levels some combats may have more attacks. Against a large number of creatures or against creatures with two weapon fighting and/or lots of lighter attacks the adamantine gets better. Vs one powerful attack of 40 damage, a -3 for the DR isn't that great. But if a foe (or group of foes) takes 15 attacks to deal 50 damage you are reducing that by 45 damage. Its a matter of circumstances I suppose.
FrostWolf 03-04-07, 01:56 AM	It's all about price and usefullness. Mithril is great for arcane spellcasters with a twilight enchantment, granting them a net -20% arcane spell failure. This is even better for crossclassing. Your Barb/sor can now enlarge and bull's Str, THEN rage and wreck the BBEG with no spell failures. Also, Mithril is far less expensive, easier to move in, and gives access to a higher class of armor, dropping heavy to medium and medium to light. Adamantium lessens damage, or sunders better. But costs so much that you might as well get weapons and armors enchanted for said functions, becouse it would be less costly and better. Not to say it's useless, but why bother sinking so much cash into something that will be useless by the time you can afford it? Light is -1 damage, and adds 5000 gold to the price. not worth it. for 5000gp you can get any +2 armor you want. And medium adamantium is +10,000 and heavy is +15,000!! No. you want natural DR in your armor, Use the impact armor from Magic of Eberron. The pricings are more in the relm of usefullness.
weasel0 03-04-07, 02:28 AM	if you really wanna add a "Damage Reduction" to a suit of armor add Fortification: This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical hit or sneak attack is scored on the wearer, there is a chance that the critical hit or sneak attack is negated and damage is instead rolled normally. Fortification---------Chance for------Base Price Type--------------Normal Damage---Modifier ________________________________________ Light------------------25%--------+1 bonus Moderate--------------75%--------+3 bonus Heavy----------------100%--------+5 bonus Strong abjuration; CL 13th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, limited wish or miracle; Price varies (see above).DMG... i forget, in the magic armor ability descriptions. Under "Creating Magic Items" Never be critically stuck or sneak attacked again!
Thunder Dragonbane 03-04-07, 11:44 AM	[QUOTE=mvincent;11633237]That is excellent armor. At higher levels, you'll should likely be getting gloves of dex. Did I mention he is a Paladin that uses no ranged weapons. I would prefer to have been offered adamantine. And the DR would have helped me greatly in last nites game.
Thunder Dragonbane 03-04-07, 11:50 AM	With that in mind, how would you vote on my proposed house rule... do you think the change is warranted to make adamantine more attractive or do you think the metals are fine the way they are and that I should just leave well enogh alone? If my GM had offered me adamantine +1 armor I would have taken it. If that also had the bonus of +2 over the normal armor's bonus I would not object. Full plate with a +11 bonus sounds better to me at the moment than replacing my old +1 fullplate with different +1 fullplate.