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Allo there,
For armor made of special materials, such as adamantine and mithril, it states "Weapons or armors fashioned from [adamantine/mithral] are always masterwork items as well." A masterwork set, or piece, of armor has its armor check penalty lessened by one; however, adamantine armor is also indicated as having its armor check penalty lessened by one and mithril armor is indicated as having its armor check penalty lessened by three (to a maximum of 0).
As the only benefit to armor of masterwork quality is that its armor check penalty is lessened by one, is it then meant that armor made of those special materials that are considered masterwork quality have that armor check penalty reduction for being masterwork in addition to their material based reduction in armor check penalty? So . . .
Normal Half-Plate has a -7 armor check penalty
Masterwork Half-Plate has a -6 armor check penalty
Adamantine* Half-Plate has a -5 armor check penalty
Mithril* Half-Plate has a -3 armor check penalty
* = per descriptions, always considered of masterwork quality.
Is the previous correct or did I possibly overlook or misunderstand something -- or is this simply an instance of dodgy writing? Thank you.
-Tsauhm-
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The armor check penalty given in the special material description replaces the masterwork quality armor check penalty reduction. Just as the masterwork cost is subsumed by the cost of the special material, so too is the masterwork armor check penalty adjustment.
Normal Half-Plate has a -7 armor check penalty.
Masterwork Half-Plate has a -6 armor check penalty.
Adamantine Half-Plate has a -6 armor check penalty.
Mithral Half-Plate has a -4 armor check penalty.
NOTE: I compared the entries for Mithral Shirt to a Chain Shirt made of mithral, as well as the Mithral Full-Plate of Speed to a suit of full-plate made with mithral. The maths jive. Also built some mithral armor in HeroLab...and got the same results.
The fact that they are considered masterwork is more for enchantment purposes. If they did not add that line, you would have to pay for the material have a separate number for the material and then add in the adjustment for the masterwork when it was added on.
It is more math, as well as another calculation to mess up on. The way they did it was inclusive, all math adjustments (material and masterwork) are stated in the material description so there is only one "adjustment" and the masterwork statement means you can enhance the item with magic.