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Other than the Shield bonus and the weight, is there any real mechanical difference between the two?
With a light shield you can hold another item (torch, weapon while casting, etc) in your shield hand.
Since both shield descriptions say "You strap a shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand." and then the light shield goes on to clarify that its its weight that lets you hold other items, then I'd allow a mithral heavy shield to be treated as a light shield.
also bashing damage, so it cuts both ways.
Yeah that was what originally prompted the question, but as I made my last post I started thinking that the bash damage might be a weight issue, in which case I think you could make an arguement that damagewise it should be treated as a light sheild, but AC wise it would be treated as a heavy shield.
Kind of a weird problem to be blunt.
yeah, I think it is GM call, unfortunately. the default strict RAW interpretation is that it has no effect on effective shield size because it doesn't say that it does, or that damage is a function of weight (even if this is implied by the "light" versus "heavy" distinction).
hmm, well if you made me rule as a GM, I would probably allow the shield to be considered light for bashing/TWF and heavy for AC and item handling restrictions (this last one more for balance than anything).
on further reflection, I think it would be a terrible idea to allow this, as it would set precedent for mithral weapons being considered a lighter weapon category, which could lend itself to all kinds of abuses or entanglements. So mithral weapons could then be effectively oversize for TWF, but otherwise their damage would be nerfed. i'm sure there are lots of other issues that would come up with a bit more creativity.
madness
Mithral armors are considered one category lighter for "purposes of movement and other limitations."
The Heavy Shield would weigh 7.5 lbs, have an Armor Check Penalty of only -1, and have a -5% Arcane Spell Failure. Additionally it would would gain a Hardness of 15 and 30 Hit Points. In all other respects it would be a Heavy Shield.
RAW the rules seem to imply that mithral-izing a heavy shield doesn't do anything in terms of treating it like a light shield. Was that actually the intended interpretation or a small oversight?
Should mithral heavy shields be treated as light shields?
Nope.
Special materials don't alter item statistics or uses beyond what is stated in the item.
If it were the case that you could gain additional benefit from mithral as a material, you'd also need to start hacking away at the other weight-based properties of mithral items. For example, a mithral warhammer probably deals less damage due to its reduced mass, and mithral rapier could potentially be so light as to be ineffectual. On the flipside, you'd have people arguing for Weapon Finesse on mithral longswords, or that mithral bastard swords can be wielded one-handed without Exotic Weapon Proficiency...
I'd go with the rules as written here.
Other than the Shield bonus and the weight, is there any real mechanical difference between the two?With a light shield you can hold another item (torch, weapon while casting, etc) in your shield hand.
Since both shield descriptions say "You strap a shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand." and then the light shield goes on to clarify that its its weight that lets you hold other items, then I'd allow a mithral heavy shield to be treated as a light shield.
I think I could agree with that.