Mithral and the Armored Kilt

[hector212121]

How exactly do these interact when it comes to light armor?

If I combine a Mithral Chain Shirt with a ordinary Kilt, does it count as light armor? (Chain shirt:Light, Kilt:Medium, Mithral:Light again) Or does it count as medium armor?(Mithral chain shirt:Light, Kilt:Medium)?

Similarly, In the latter case, what about slapping together a mithril shirt and a mithril kilt?

[Zanos]

It's medium armor in both cases. Mithral can't reduce the category below light, and then the armored kilt raises it by one, regardless of whether or not it's mithral.

[hector212121]

But isn't there a argument to be made that once the armor category is raised to medium, that latent -1 category drops it back to light again?

[Extra Anchovies]

In this particular case, you don't get to choose the order in which the category adjustments apply. The mithril armor exists without the armored kilt, and its armor category is [one lighter than normal]. When you put on the mithril armor, and then put on the armored kilt as well, the armored kilt increases the armor category by one, back to the armor's normal category. A good way to think of it is that mithril is an inherited template for your armor while the armored kilt is an acquired template for your character.

Edit: this does mean that yes, RAW the mithril chain shirt + kilt is medium armor. Armored kilts aren't all that useful except when you're on a very limited budget or otherwise unable to purchase the exact armor you want (e.g. scale mail + kilt is cheaper than chainmail with virtually identical stats).

[Deophaun]

The kilt is light armor on its own. Making it out of mithral cannot make it less than light. If the kilt is worn with light armor, the set raises to medium. What the kilt is made of has no impact on that.

But, here's Word of God on the matter:

First... armored kilts are, in my opinion, silly and goofy. The game isn't built around a piecemeal armor system, so the addition of something like an armored kilt is kinda bad design. Since it causes weird confusing situations like this one. Which is why I didn't include them in the Inner Sea World Guide.

That said, if you still use them in your game... making an armored kilt mithral doesn't affect the fact that you're still wearing more armor than you normally would. A mithral breastplate is light encumbrance, but that plus a mithral armored kilt is medium encumbrance.

RAI is clear that the set still counts as medium.

[exelsisxax]

I'm just going to mention that mithril decreases the encumbrance of the armor, not the real armor category. A mithril breastplate requires medium armour proficiency or you incur attack penalties. A mithril breastplate and a kilt, mithril or not, requires heavy armour proficiency or you incur attack penalties. Mithril just gets you full speed in medium, and lets some other class features that refer to armour encumbrance function at one higher category of armour. Rogues can use evasion in medium, barbs keep fast movement in heavy, etc. But NOT things like bard and magus light armour casting, which explicitly refer to the category of armour and proficiency with it.

[Necroticplague]

The rules state adding an armored kilt to any armor increases the 'weight' by one. Mithral armor is always at least light. Mithral has no effect on the kilt's weight increase if the kilt is itself mithral (as neither the Kilt nor Mithral say there is an effect), so it always increases the weight by one. Thus, Mithral+Armored Kilt is always at least medium (at least light+1=at least medium), regardless of the armor or the kilt's status as mithral.