Mithral/Adamantine Weapons

[Whammydill]

Has anyone found the info for what these materials do for weapons? I combed through the DMG and only found armor entries and AC for object entry.

[Vogonjeltz]

Nothing at all.

[pwykersotz]

Well...the armor is listed under Magic Items. Is it possible the intent is to let them bypass resistance to non-magical damage? It seems cheesy, but it is possible.

[Edge of Dreams]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialMaterials.htm

In 3.5, Adamantine weapons weighed more, and ignored hardness when sundering or attacking objects. Mithral weapons were lighter weight, but had no other special effect. Both were harder to break than normal metal weapons and had to be masterwork. That's all.

I see no reason for them to be any different in 5e.

[Vogonjeltz]

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialMaterials.htm

In 3.5, Adamantine weapons weighed more, and ignored hardness when sundering or attacking objects. Mithral weapons were lighter weight, but had no other special effect. Both were harder to break than normal metal weapons and had to be masterwork. That's all.

I see no reason for them to be any different in 5e.

5e isn't 3.5e.

[BigONotation]

5e isn't 3.5e.

Yes but they are both D&D, largely informed by the Forgotten Realms right? So likely the material is more or less unchanged.

[pwykersotz]

Yes but they are both D&D, largely informed by the Forgotten Realms right? So likely the material is more or less unchanged.

What is your avatar supposed to be? :smallconfused:

[BigONotation]

I believe Adamantite is much more rare than Mithril. The 5e starter set has a mithril and platinum mine in the game so take what you will from that. I would argue that weapons that are created from either material are inherently magical for the purpose of bypassing resistance given their nature. I would go one further with Adamantite and make it somehow the super material for weapons and armor. I'd expect it to have DR if it's armor and increase the AC, as well as increase the damage by a straight plus or step up in die (D8-> D10) for a weapon.

[Koury]

Adamantine weapons are not inherently magical. Helmed Horror, Gargoyle and Iron/Stone Golems all have either Damage Resistance or Damage Immunity to "nonmagical weapons that aren't adamantine."

There are probably more, those are just the ones I remember specifically having that property.

[Jeraa]

Yes but they are both D&D, largely informed by the Forgotten Realms right? So likely the material is more or less unchanged.

So is 3.0 D&D, where adamantine did not ignore hardness less than 20, it simply had a nonmagical enhancement bonus. Or 1st edition, where I don't think it had stats at all (other than something saying +5 weapons were made from adamantine or something). So which version of D&D should 5e adamantine be based on? Adamantines effects have changed with pretty much every edition.


I would go one further with Adamantite and make it somehow the super material for weapons and armor. I'd expect it to have DR if it's armor and increase the AC, as well as increase the damage by a straight plus or step up in die (D8-> D10) for a weapon.

There is adamantine armor in the Dungeons Masters Guide. Only thing it does is turn a critical hit into a normal hit.

[Slipperychicken]

I would imagine that an adamantine weapon would let you score criticals against people wearing adamantine armor.

[hamishspence]

What is your avatar supposed to be? :smallconfused:

Looks like a cleric of Tempus to me:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Tempus

[pwykersotz]

Looks like a cleric of Tempus to me:

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Tempus

Heh, I knew that would bite me when he fixed it. His avatar was super zoomed in to the upper left corner, with just a tiny bit of the head showing. :smallsmile:

[Celcey]

I don't know about Mithral, but I know that some monsters are immune to (non-magical, I think) weapons unless they're made of adamantine. It's like silvering your weapons, except the whole thing is made of adamantine. I haven't seen anything else about it as of yet, though.

[thepsyker]

Well, if there aren't items specifically labeled adamantine/mithril weapon then an item made of those materials presumably does whatever the DM decides it does. Personally I would probably give an item made of such materials the dwarven/elven crafted characteristics respectively from the tables at the front of the magic item lists, since those are the races that stereotypically use said materials.

[Maxilian]

Well the Adamantine armor is in the DMG and make all criticals, normal attacks but also says that adamantite is one of the hardest substance that exist, so... you could go on with that

[1Forge]

Couldnt you just home rule a +1 to mithral then make any mithral weapon light, finesse, and 1 handed, then make adamantium a +2 and make it unsunderable? (or something else this just came off the top of my head)

[Slipperychicken]

make adamantium a +2 and make it unsunderable? (or something else this just came off the top of my head)

There's no such thing as sundering in 5e yet. There are stats for objects, but no rules for breaking a weapon which someone's using.

[Draken]

Couldnt you just home rule a +1 to mithral then make any mithral weapon light, finesse, and 1 handed, then make adamantium a +2 and make it unsunderable? (or something else this just came off the top of my head)

Sunder isn't really a thing in this edition.

I'm using these effects for the two in the campaign I am running.


Adamantine
Armor – Adamantine armor turns critical hits into normal hits.
Weapons – Adamantine weapons ignore the damage resistance and damage threshold of objects (and the resistance of some creatures).
Implements – Adamantine implements grant +2 bonus to armor class, this bonus does not stack with that granted by a shield.

Mithral
Armor – mithral armor has no strength prerequisite and does not impose disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Weapons – Mithral weapons lose the Heavy property (if they have it) and gain either the Finesse or Light property (only one).
Implement - Mithral implements raise your movement speed by 5 feet.


Implements are sort of an upgrade spell focuses (I imported them from 4ed, more or less. Just something for casters to hold onto).

[EvanescentHero]

I thought the DMG had rules for sundering?

[Slipperychicken]

I thought the DMG had rules for sundering?

It has rules for disarming, and for breaking objects, but IIRC nothing for breaking an object held or worn by an opponent.

You could probably houserule it as an attack roll against an object, only you can use the weilder's AC if it's higher than the object's AC.

[Submortimer]

Well, Mithral Armor and Adamantine armor are each uncommon magical items. I would say that Mithral and Adamantine weapons are the same.

Mithral weapon
- Counts as a magic weapon
- Counts as a Silvered weapon
- Weapon gains the finesse trait, and loses the heavy trait if it had it before
- weapon weighs 1/3 as much as normal

Adamantine weapon
- Counts as a magic weapon
- Counts as a cold iron weapon
- Weapon deals an extra die of damage on a critical
- Weapon weighs 1.5x more than usual

These benefits can only be applied to weapons primarily composed of metal. There might be some flexibility in there, such as an adamantine greatclub (Tetsubo) or a whip made of coiled mithral, but that would be up to the DM.

[Flashy]

- Counts as a cold iron weapon

This actually isn't a thing anymore, weirdly enough.

[1Forge]

I like your thinking Sub, those are great bonuses. I didn't even think of silvered weapons or cold iron effects.
Also I know sundering isn't an official rule (and apparently cold iron) but home-brew can easily fix that. Ex: Criticals automatically force a sundering check to the opponents armor, or Armour takes the damage of your attack divided by 10 (and has to be a whole #) that could be cool then item health would be based on its cost or something. I mean D&D is a game of imagination theres hundreds of ways to make adamantine and mithral objects a thing.

[Slipperychicken]

This actually isn't a thing anymore, weirdly enough.

I don't mind it. I think that a progression of normal<silvered<magic is all we really need (though I really miss masterwork). Simplifying weapon quality and materials will help reduce the "golf bag" effect which we saw in 3.5, where weapon-users would keep several versions of the same weapon for bypassing different resistances and other hazards. Off the top of my head, a 3.5 greatsword-using fighter might keep mutliple greatswords on his person: one cold iron (for fey), one ironwood (for rust monsters), one silver (for lycanthropes and fiends), one adamantine (for objects and constructs with hardness), one +1 [special effect here] (for creatures with no damage-reduction), another +2 weapon (for creatures which have DR/+2), and maybe a few weapon-oils for ghost-touch and other useful-but-situational effects.

[Easy_Lee]

Adamantine
Armor – Adamantine armor turns critical hits into normal hits.
Weapons – Adamantine weapons ignore the damage resistance and damage threshold of objects (and the resistance of some creatures).
Implements – Adamantine implements grant +2 bonus to armor class, this bonus does not stack with that granted by a shield.

Mithral
Armor – mithral armor has no strength prerequisite and does not impose disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.
Weapons – Mithral weapons lose the Heavy property (if they have it) and gain either the Finesse or Light property (only one).
Implement - Mithral implements raise your movement speed by 5 feet.

Just wanted to say that I really like these. Nice job.

[Submortimer]

This actually isn't a thing anymore, weirdly enough.

I'm AFB, so I totally didn't remember. I knew they brought over silver for lycanthropes, I just didn't realize they didn't also bring over cold iron for fey.

[Chronos]

DR/+2 was only in 3.0, not 3.5. In 3.5, you only had DR/magic and DR/epic.

And don't forget that the golf bag probably also contained multiple sorts of weapons, to deal with DR/slashing or the like. A morningstar was a popular choice for a backup weapon, as it covered both piercing and bludgeoning.