Goodman Games

On page 70 of the rules it mentions that:

"Note that armor manufactured from mithril, adamantine, or other materials not containing iron may reduce the spell check penalty."

Is there a consensus on just how much the spell check penalty would be reduced by? I have an elven character that just advanced to 1st level in the campaign I am running and they are curious. I expected to see a chart to show what the check was adjusted by. Am I missing something? What value are other people using for a reduction in the spell check penalty?

I am using a value of no change at all, myself. At least, no change by default that is.

I think anything changing the downside to an item should be kept as a special thing worthy of a quest, not a handed out freebie to those with the luck to be an Elf.

In the cases of armors that have reduced check penalties for those of their type, my games will always have them accompanied by things like legendary smiths, lost metallurgic practices, magical enchantments or divine blessings - not just "everything made of mithril happens to be better," as that never really made sense to me... a shoddily forged knife is shoddily forged whether it's iron, steel, or tin.

My inclination would be to follow TND's philosophy for the most part. However, if a player's only character to survive the funnel is an elf with these stats ...

Str 10 Agil 6 Sta 13 Per 10 Int 7 Luck 12

... I would probably give the character a break and say that his initial mithril freebie armor was a lucky find that had a reduced spell check penalty.

IronWolf wrote:On page 70 of the rules it mentions that:
"Note that armor manufactured from mithril, adamantine, or other materials not containing iron may reduce the spell check penalty."

I haven't seen a stat for this either. I think the key word here is "may." I too hold to the philosophy TND mentioned where initial mithril doesn't have a spell check advantage, but if players show a desire for something better I'll certainly make it a quest reward.

Thanks all for the feedback. At least I'm not overlooking a chart!

I understand the craftsmanship not being the same across armors regardless of material. It sounded like iron was also a factor in the spell check penalty. So if the armor was made of mithril and had no iron it it, the check would at least reduce some. (i.e. the armor had no spell affecting iron, though it is still clunky causing problems with arm movement and such).

I think in this case I will set the expectation that mithril armor does not normally by default reduce the spell check penalty, but in the case for this elf he got lucky and received/found a set that reduces it by 1. Future sets may not have that ability, though one could certainly quest for a smith that could work with the material to produce a set, possibly one with even better spell check penalty reduction.

Thanks again!

Elven mail has half the penalty,it says so right on page *cough* of the rules.

After all if you are going to have Mithril in the game why not make it magical instead of iron for elves?

Personally, I'm inclined to skip the rule giving an elf mithril equipment when he hits first level. First, it essentially nullifies the iron weakness rule, and second of all, it is extremely un-appendix N. In the LoTR and the Hobbit it was an extremely rare material that was very valuable and certainly wouldn't be something that every 1st level elf would have. Similarly, it's a little tough to work into a storyline if the party reaches 1st level somewhere other than a very large city.

Eyeball360 wrote:...it essentially nullifies the iron weakness rule...

A counter-argument has been well illuminated here: http://www.goodman-games.com/forums/vie ... 72&t=41924.