Hey guys so I have a question I have a Beorning player with a Leather Corslet currently if he makes it into Noble Armor when he ranks up in Valor,does that count as one of his three qualities for the item meaning he can only add two more qualities or can he make it Noble Armor then add three qualities when ranks up valor some more?

I don't know why I think this, it may just be a personal preferance thing, but I'm pretty sure you cannot give special qualities to cultural rewards

ya my struggle comes from trying to decide if the cultural reward armor is one quality or if isn't one and then whether you could add qualities to it at all.

You picked the one thing that is a little vague really...

From the way it's phrased I personally would assume it's a new piece of armor, not a quality added onto per-existing armor. But that is entirely up to how it's presented to the character.

Though I would say it's very much NOT a quality since, even though it could be upgraded armor already owned it is A reward in and of itself and not listed under the quality section.

As to whether it can be given qualities... "Cultural Rewards may be combined with Qualities, where appropriate." I take that to mean "Yes, if it makes sense". If I can't make my Spear of King Bladorthin Grievous and Keen, I'd much rather have a regular spear that I can do that too... It essentially would make Rewards LESS cool to not be able to.

I certainly think that qualities can be added to rewards beyond its initial starting characteristics and that those initial bonus characteristics do not add to the maximum allowed number of such additional qualities.

I would also allow a player to transfer qualities purchased from one item and add them to another in most instances. Perhaps such items would need to be comparable (eg, both were melee weapons, or bows, or armour, etc) or maybe not. As such items imbued with such qualities already receive a degree of script immunity as referred to in the RAW I don't see a problem with a player pooling such resources into one item due to the development path his character has followed/changed. Allowing such adaptation means you aren't penalising players and its easy to remove the 'older' item, allow the replacement to be forged with further enhancements, etc if you require such explanations to maintain verisimilitude. Me, I could just as easily say that the older item no longer has those qualities as it is no longer narratively important to the story of the character in question.

From a thematic and personal preference, not a rules-oriented one, I have always resented being obliged to acquire new sets of weapons and armor to get more bonuses. If I'm given a set of mail by my father on his death bed, and that set of armor is important to me, I would never replace it for some additional +1s here and there. If the rules are vague on the point, I would prefer to allow qualities to be added to rewards - having hauberk and blade be reforged and improved by the smiths of my people - so that my single items of import remain important.