So with metallurgy and the advancements we have today, composite metals are quite common and more often than not beneficial, though that comes into debate pending on your use and what metal in question.
This brings me on to how to handle composite armors, I'd like to say the "piecemeal armor" rules kinda give a good start but there's likely a better way.
Like for Tatami-Do, which is in real life closer to medium or heavy armor, but I digress... you could use Mithral for the chain links and Adamantine for the plates.
For something in this case as an example, I believe maybe a total of 1/3 or 1/4 weight knocked off the usual half for Mithral (IIRC). And for the adamantine treat the DR as 1 grade lower and either combine the armor penalty bonus or take the better/worse of the two. Suppose it depends on the construction in question?
With all the crazy crafting you can do in Pathfinder, it's interesting it's not really touched on.
Is there a rules question buried in this post that I'm missing ?
Perhaps this better fits in General Discussion or Homebrew.
The rules question, was if it's covered and I just happened to miss it. As stated the closest thing I've seen is the piecemeal rules but that's not exactly the same thing.
The rules question is: 'can an armor be made of more then one special material, and if so, what benefits does it confer?'
The answer is "if you make a suit of armor or weapon out of more than one special material, you get the benefit of only the most prevalent material."
Since we're discussing piecemeal armor, I suppose the more accurate quote to use would be this:
"In order for the armor to gain the benefits of a special material, all armor pieces worn must be made of the same special material."
Same outcome, though.
He was trying to find a solution in piecemeal armor, but what he actually wanted was regular armor (Tatami-Do which like half plate has plate portions and chain portions) to be made out of different materials.
Thanks for the input, as stated I assumed I missed it. And apparently I kept skipping over that bit of text for some reason. Okay then...
So if I were to house-rule it, does the above work as a technically balanced option or what does everyone think would be a better way? RAW being the case, it's just a really pricey standard piece of armor at that point.
I mean if you can turn Boots of Elven Kind into "Elven Spider Climb Boots of Springing and Striding" what's wrong with statistically functional composite-material armors? Albeit at a pretty penny.
As stated I see it more for armor use than weapons, you can easily argue the weapons being nothing more than very pretty and expensive masterwork items due to the metal in question not being pure enough; the mix of metals likely being used for ingraving and fittings.
Though if you wanted, you could do separate fittings I suppose. Pommel/Guard bashing is realistically a viable option, not sure what the rules are for damage on that but that's my two cents on that specific subject.
I'm just trying to flesh things out, got curious on the subject and how best to handle it. Though odds are if I don't bring it up at some point, I'm sure another player/gm will.
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Maybe make a Heavy Armor torso piece out of Adamantine for the DR, and the rest out of Mithral for the weight reduction?
You'd be benefitting from the DR of the Adamantine, since it's the most protective piece, and you wouldn't be benefitting from Mithral's ability to lessen the armor category, but you could argue that Mithral still physically weighs less.
If you were to houserule it, I would suggest a new material rather than a generic rule for combining multiple ones. With a generic rule, you would have to figure out how it would work for every material, and be sure their weren't any broken exploits. With a new material it is just one thing.
For example:
Mithrilantium: This alloy of Mithral and Adamantium provides superior protection and reduced weight. Armor made of mithrilantium only ways 75% as much as normal and medium and heavy armor made out of mithrilantium provides DR 1/- etc.
If you were to houserule it, I would suggest a new material rather than a generic rule for combining multiple ones. With a generic rule, you would have to figure out how it would work for every material, and be sure their weren't any broken exploits. With a new material it is just one thing.
For example:
Mithrilantium: This alloy of Mithral and Adamantium provides superior protection and reduced weight. Armor made of mithrilantium only ways 75% as much as normal and medium and heavy armor made out of mithrilantium provides DR 1/- etc.
This is probably the best idea so far, certainly more simplified to an extent. Thanks Dave. Certainly holds to the criteria I placed.