Quote from IamSposta >>

I know this conversation went nap nap a while ago, but I had an idea I wanted to run past anyone who cared:

• Mithral Weapons count as silvered.
• Heavy weapons lose that property.
• Non heavy weapons that are not light gain the light property.
• Light weapons that are not finesse gain the finesse property.
• Weapons that are already both light and finesse only cost half as much to make mithral.

Thoughts?

 Let’s take them one at a time

count as silvered  - not a problem. Mithril really comes from Tolkien ( even if it’s best real world analog is titanium) and Mithril definitely had a effect on the Nazgûl that regular steel didn’t so this makes sense to me.

heavy weapons loose that status - not on our life. Heavy desperately needs to be renamed bulky or awkward to eliminate this misconception.Their problem is not weight but size and shape and while Mithril will help lower the weight it has no effect on the size or shape. 

non heavy get the light property - same sort of naming problem light isn’t about weight it’s about size and shape and should be called “small” weapons so just because your long sword is lighter it’s still 3+’ of blade and doesn’t handle like a short sword or dagger. 

Finesse- ok now you’re onto something - Finesse is about allowing for a Dex build rather than strength build and the lightness of Mithril makes it very appropriate here. Essentially any non two handed Mithril weapon should be a finesse weapon.

costs - no way Mithril is going to be cheaper than a steel weapon of the same sort. The ore is far rarer, the working skills are far harder, the temperatures to work are far higher so you are talking about a specially designed and constructed forge ( very expensive) run by a true master smith (so your going to pay for all that expertise) and sing hard to find and very so very expensive raw materials so I would expect a Mithril weapon to cost anywhere from 3-5 times what a steel weapon of the same sort costs - assuming you can find the materials, smith and forge to get it made.

As I said earlier (like, way back in April of last year):

Quote from IamSposta >>

I meant less expensive compared to other mithral weapons, like a dagger or a Shortsword would cost less to make of mithril alloy than a longsword, rapier, or Greatsword would.

Looking at from a real world perspective assuming Mithril is actually titanium (yes I know some folks disagree but please bare with with me for this argument) there are some interesting interactions. At liquid temperatures (very hot) iron and titanium dissolve into each other freely. This means the solution can range from 1% Ti in 99% Fe to 1% Fe in 99% Ti or anywhere in between. But when you take a 50-50 solution and cool it down to a solid something wild happens - it splits into 2 different alloys - one is roughly 30% Ti in 70% Fe and the other is roughly 30% Fe in 70% Ti. Yes you can find ores of each that essentially are pure (Rutile for titanium) but the most common Ti ore is Ilmenite which is basically the 70-30 end member. The associated magnetites are also the 70-30 other end member. If you make a steel sword from that iron ore it will be about 5/6th the weight and have increased temperature and corrosion resistance. If you make a Mithril blade from ilmenite ore it will be about half the weight of a steel sword  but have all the difficulties and requirements of a pure 100% Ti) Mithril sword. Yes there are electrochemical ways to purify these ores but they aren’t cheap. These solid solutions make it even more difficult to give a simple set of rules for how Mithril weapons are different than steel weapons  for the game. At half the weight instead of 1/3  I could still see allowing Mithril weapons to act as silvered weapons and be finesse weapons but not anything else.

Yes a Mithril dagger should cost less than a Mithril long sword but not necessarily by the difference in the cost of the ore needed you still have to have that special forge and the Mithril specialist smith so that is about 2/3 of your costs the same so your dagger could well still be 70% of the cost of the long sword.

Dude (gender neutral usage), it’s a game mechanic, it has to be simple. If it costs 300 gp to make a mithral Longsword, a dagger shouldn’t cost more than 150. Just keepin’ things simple for players & DMs.

Just treat it as an uncommon magic weapon - 1d6 x 100 GP and chalk it up to different smiths, different prices - or different demand different prices when you roll a 4 for the dagger and a 2 for the sword.

I was treating Mithral weapons as nonmagical like Adamantine weapons are nonmagical.

I was really just talking about pricing - suggesting that even for nonmagical items like the Mithril and Admantine items the XANTHARS magic items pricing scale is the best way to price them even if that sometimes means something like a Mithril dagger  costs more than a Mithril sword.

I was thinking of it more like how silvering weapons works.

In my games, mithril weapon remain sharp forever, never corrode, never break. I'm fine with that, but I'm not sure about my players - I think maybe they want something that's actually mechnically better. 

But then on the other hand I know they smile from ear to ear when some npc get's all gushy: 'Oh my gods, is that mithril? Wow, I've never seen a mithril weapon before. Is it true what they say - does it really never dull or rust?' 

You should edit that so that the light property is only applied if the weapon lacks the light, heavy and two-handed properties.

In the Hobbit, Tolkien states that mithril is a silver-steel metal that is a fraction of the weight of steel (with the same durability), so I just make mithril weapons count as silvered and give them a +1 to attack rolls (due to their light weight).

Mithral weapons can also count as silvered for the purposes of overcoming resistances.

Quote from DawnSpawn >>

Mithral weapons can also count as silvered for the purposes of overcoming resistances.

 Is it one of your ruling or its in the rules somewhere?

For me, mithral weapons retain their stats but the damage is now considered magic. This is already an advantage over mundane weapons because many monsters are resistant or even immune to their damage. I recommend classifying them as common magic items. Their price is between 50 and 100 gold pieces plus the cost of the weapon. Thus they do not rival the +1 weapons that are considerably better.

For me Mithril is a titanium analog making it lighter and more heat and corrosion resistant. So if I am homebrewing something for Mithral weapons it would be based on speed of use. Perhaps a free extra attack with the weapon every other round. I don’t really see anything useful in the increased resistances. 

similarly Admantine is a tungsten analog hence its usefulness in both limiting damage (for armor) and enhancing penetration and damage (for weapons).

Lighter weapons do not get more attacks in the real world. Nor in game - a dagger gets no more attacks than a great sword.  At best, a lighter weapon could allow a larger weapon to be used.  I could easily see ruling a rapier, mace, warpick, morningstar, flail, etc. would count as a light weapon for TWF purposes.

Cool idea. Not sure if getting an extra attack because of the weapon being light. I can see a reason why heavy weapons made from Mithral might remove the heavy tag, and longswords ect being given the light property for the sake of two weapon fighting/dual wielding. 

I do know that Mithral weapons count as silvered for the purpose of overcoming resistance to weapon damage that aren’t silvered. Devils would hate the stuff.

- Treated as Silvered for damage resistance purposes. (werewolves, etc.)

- Weapon is now considered light, possibly finesse capable.

- It counts as a magical weapon, as would adamantine.

Ok, a few things to consider since February 2024:
1) the rules about magical vs nonmagical damage have changes - significantly. This means some of those concerns about needing silvered weapons have also changed. However, I agree with Sposta and others that there is no problem considering Mithral weapons to silvered.  My major concerns were with the light and heavy tags. Here I stand by my earlier post that those tags should be renamed bulky and small not heavy and light. As such the lower weight of mithral should have no impact on the tags. The tag that should be applied to most Mithral weapons is finesse. To see why we need to look at 3 pieces of physics - Momentum (M= my), Kinetic Energy (KE=1/2mv^2), and Force (F=ma). Looking at these let’s make the math fairly si ple by assuming that the weight of the steel weapon is 1, the normal speed of the steel weapon is 1 and the time to stop on a hit is 0.1 seconds. Then for the steel weapon we get:
M=1x1=1, KE= .5x 1x1=0.5 and F= (1x1)/.1=10
assuming the reduced weight of Mithral let’s you swing half again as fast as the steel you get:
M=.5x1.5=0.75.    KE=.5x.5x1.5x1.5=0.563.     And F= (.5x1.5)/.1=7.5
if we assume the Mithral let’s you swing even faster - 2x the initial speed we get:
M=.5x2=1.     KE= .5x.5x2x2=1 and   F= (.5x2)/.1=10
These calculations tell me some interesting things.
First I suspect that the second set is probably the closest to reality of what a lighter weapon effectively does. Momentum is the resistance to changes in speed or direction so in case 2 you can reverse your weapon significantly quicker allowing you to counter your foes attacks more easily so a mithril weapon might actually grant a +1 to AC.
Second, the force of impact actually goes down in the second case but the energy of impact is slightly higher. The damage however is not enough in my mind to warrant a +1 to damage. And the lower force effectively would mean being able to swing longer - something that really doesn’t matter in the vast majority of D&D combats  
I suspect case 3 is unrealistic as your not going to be swinging twice as fast just because the weight is less - your probably already swinging about as fast as you can. If for some reason you do manage that then your momentum is equal to the steel weapon so you would lose the +1 to AC but your damage (KE) is doubled and you get tired as fast as wielding the steel weapon. The only time I see this as having an impact would be when under the effects of a haste spell/potion and I could accept giving those wielding mithril weapons the double damage then.

So, in a normal fight mithril weapons do normal damage but act as silvered weapons while granting a +1 to AC ( rather like the 2014 TWF did). But when the wielder is affected by haste the lose the +1 to AC and get double damage on all hits including the extra strike..