Entry: Variant Encumbrance: When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table.
Entry: Mithral Armor: Mithral is a light, flexible metal. A mithral chain shirt or breastplate can be worn under normal clothes. If the armor normally imposes disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks or has a Strength requirement, the mithral version of the armor doesn't.
Issue: The mithral armors have the same weight as their normal counterparts, so when using Variant Encumbrance you only receive the Stealth benefit.
That interaction you're mentioning is interesting, but Mithral Armor might have been designed without Variant Encumbrance or optional rules in mind, just considering the regular ones.
That variant rule has been removed from the 2024 rules though.
This opens up another topic of whether that omission means they can’t be used with 2024 or whether the backwards compatibility kicks in and it’s still a rule variant that is totally allowed with 2024 rules. But either way Mithral Armor existed and in 2014 and I couldn’t find any guidance about this interaction with Variant Encumbrance.
When you play D&D with the 2024 Player’s Handbook, it replaces all rules, classes, subclasses, spells, feats, equipment, species, and backgrounds in the 2014 version of the book. There are a few exceptions; the following options don’t appear in the 2024 book and are still usable from 2014: [...]
Any subclass, spell, or feat from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything or Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything that appears in this book replaces the version that appears in the Everything book.
(for the DMG, I listed some of DMG variant rules not present in 2024 in a different thread, in case anyone's interested)
Entry: Variant Encumbrance: When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table.
Entry: Mithral Armor: Mithral is a light, flexible metal. A mithral chain shirt or breastplate can be worn under normal clothes. If the armor normally imposes disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks or has a Strength requirement, the mithral version of the armor doesn't.
Issue: The mithral armors have the same weight as their normal counterparts, so when using Variant Encumbrance you only receive the Stealth benefit.
Any information, advice or opinions? Thanks!
That interaction you're mentioning is interesting, but Mithral Armor might have been designed without Variant Encumbrance or optional rules in mind, just considering the regular ones.
That variant rule has been removed from the 2024 rules though.
EDIT: clarity.
This opens up another topic of whether that omission means they can’t be used with 2024 or whether the backwards compatibility kicks in and it’s still a rule variant that is totally allowed with 2024 rules. But either way Mithral Armor existed and in 2014 and I couldn’t find any guidance about this interaction with Variant Encumbrance.
Well, I'd say many optional/variants rules, if not present in 2024, could still be used, based on the information WotC provided to us: Updates in the Player’s Handbook (2024) | Dungeons & Dragons
(for the DMG, I listed some of DMG variant rules not present in 2024 in a different thread, in case anyone's interested)