Making Gunpowder, Need Help Quick!

[Draxus the Tainted]

What would the Alchemy DC be for making gunpowder?

 

[Crothian]

If you have the ingrediants, gunpowder is not that hard to make. I'd say DC 20, which is probably high but considering the power of the stuff it should be higher then you'd think.

 

[Tonguez]

I'd say that would be up to the DM

basic Gunpowder is 'easy' to make (generally speaking) - sulphur, charcoal, saltpetre - grind together don't allow it to get wet add a spark and boom.

However does the DM want gunpowder in the campaign? Does chemistry etc work the same way in your world as it does on Earth?

 

[Shin Okada]

The rule book is not saying a character can make true chemical stuffs with this skill. It is alchemy and not chemistry. So it is totally up to DM. It may not be made at all. May have almost impossible DC (say 40). Or may be very easy.

 

[Chun-tzu]

In the Forgotten Realms, making smokepowder has an Alchemy DC of 25 (see FRCS, page 97). Smokepowder is not exactly equivalent to gunpowder, so it may require special ingredients (that will, of course, cost less than the going price to buy smokepowder).

You'd still need someone to teach you how to mix smokepowder, though, and it would still cost you a pretty penny. The going price for a full powderkeg (20 lb.) is 400 gp (I don't know how much it would cost to make 20 lb. of it, though), and it would only be available in certain regions, like Lantan Island. The rest of the Realms aren't really interested in the stuff.

 

[Mangrum]

It really depends on how common you want gunpowder in the setting. In Ravenloft, it's an Alchemy check with a DC of 15.

 

[kreynolds]

What would the Alchemy DC be for making gunpowder?

DC 150.

What can I say? I'm on an ELH kick right now.

 

[Fade]

sulphur, charcoal, saltpetre - grind together don't allow it to get wet add a spark and boom.

Don't you mean *make sure* it gets wet? You shouldn't be grinding the stuff dry.

Extracting/recrystallising saltpeter from dung could take a bit of work, although it isn't too difficult. Elemental sulfur would have to be obtained from somewhere. And you need to get the proportions right, or it just burns.

 

[RingXero]

actually you can mill it dry without a problem, not till later on did people realize that milling it wet and then drying it resulted in a much more powerful mixture.



RX