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So I was curious about the mithral heavy shield. Here is what it says in Ultimate Equipment:
Mithral Heavy Shield
Aura no aura (non-magical); CL —; Weight 5 lbs.; Price 1,020 gp
DESCRIPTION
This heavy shield is made of mithral and is thus much lighter than a standard steel shield. It has a 5% arcane spell failure chance and no armor check penalty.
It says that the shield becomes lighter but I was wondering about how the shield would be classified. What I mean is, does it still count a a heavy shield? I am fairly sure it does, but my question comes from the description of Mithral itself;
When worked like steel, it becomes a wonderful material from which to create armor, and is occasionally used for other items as well. Most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations. Heavy armors are treated as medium, and medium armors are treated as light, but light armors are still treated as light.
Now it says that armor is counted as one category lighter. So, does this mean that a heavy shield made of Mithral would be counted as a light shield because that is the category below it since there is no medium shield? If it does count as a light shield this way then I should be able to use Weapon Finesse with it then. But that is a big and unlikely "if" in my opinion.
Anyway, I am basically 99.99% sure that it would still count as a heavy shield, but there is like that .01% chance I am wrong. Anyway, thanks for any information y'all can give me, and thank you. Hope everyone has a great day and happy gaming to you.
Shields don't change category. If it helps look at them in a boat similar to weapons. They become lighter but don't change handedness or anything of the sort.
Shields are under the Armor category umbrella, but aren't armor, they are shields. Barring explicit wording they don't change.