WTF is "cold iron", and why's it so special?

[Brother MacLaren]

I'd guess that the point of Kipling using the phrase "Cold Iron" was to contrast it with the hot lead bullets. And I'd further guess that he meant "iron" to refer to steel, because that's what soldiers used in his day.

Giving things DR 10/iron has some interesting effects. Sure, PCs can usually hurt them directly, but the druid's damage output takes a hit (both the summons and the wildshape). Not necessarily a bad thing.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

GOLD is for the mistress—silver for the maid—
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.”
“Good!” said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
“But Iron—Cold Iron—is master of them all.”

So he made rebellion ’gainst the King his liege,
Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege.
“Nay!” said the cannoneer on the castle wall,
“But Iron—Cold Iron—shall be master of you all!”

Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong,
When the cruel cannon-balls laid ’em all along;
He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall,
And Iron—Cold Iron—was master of it all!

Yet his King spake kindly (ah, how kind a Lord!)
“What if I release thee now and give thee back thy sword?”
“Nay!” said the Baron, “mock not at my fall,
For Iron—Cold Iron—is master of men all.”

“Tears are for the craven, prayers are for the clown—
Halters for the silly neck that cannot keep a crown.”
“As my loss is grievous, so my hope is small,
For Iron—Cold Iron—must be master of men all!”

Yet his King made answer (few such Kings there be!)
“Here is Bread and here is Wine—sit and sup with me.
Eat and drink in Mary’s Name, the whiles I do recall
How Iron—Cold Iron—can be master of men all!”

He took the Wine and blessed it. He blessed and brake the Bread,
With His own Hands He served Them, and presently He Said:
“See! These Hands they pierced with nails, outside My city wall,
Show Iron—Cold Iron—to be master of men all:

“Wounds are for the desperate, blows are for the strong.
Balm and oil for weary hearts all cut and bruised with wrong.
I forgive thy treason—I redeem thy fall—
For Iron—Cold Iron—must be master of men all!”

“Crowns are for the valiant—sceptres for the bold!
Thrones and powers for mighty men who dare to take and hold.”
“Nay!” said the Baron, kneeling in his hall,
“But Iron—Cold Iron—is master of men all!
Iron out of Calvary is master of men all!”

The Auld Grump, who has used this poem in a Victorian Changeling: the Dreaming game

*EDIT* Forgot to mention - the poem is Cold Iron, by Rudyard Kipling.

 

[glass]

It's important on this subject to differentiate between "real life" and "D&D."

True.

Not sure where that comes from - that is how medieval smelting techniques prouce steel, but it certainly doesn't preclude the production of iron. The way it happens is that the longer you work the iron, the more carbon gets introduced until you get steel.

Not only is this wrong, but it not what the nice link you supplied actually says:

Here is a great link on the subject.

At more than 2% carbon, iron alloys change in a completely unexpected way: they melt at lower temperatures than pure iron. So the first iron alloy to be used for pouring out into molds was a high-carbon alloy. It became known as cast iron or pig iron (from the traditional shape of the molds). Cast iron is very strong, but brittle. This traditional terminology is confusing ("cast iron" has more carbon than "steel"), and the products are not now (and never were) manufactured in sequence of increasing or decreasing carbon. I shall return to cast iron later in the chapter.

glass.

 

[S'mon]

Giving things DR 10/iron has some interesting effects. Sure, PCs can usually hurt them directly, but the druid's damage output takes a hit (both the summons and the wildshape). Not necessarily a bad thing.

Yeah, druids aren't exactly underpowered in 3e. I like this approach, for one thing it goes against WoTC Environmentalist orthodoxy, which can't be bad.

 

[glass]

The way I play it, cold iron is pretty much plain iron and not steel (negligible carbon content and no other explicit alloying other than remnant impurities).

Unless someone in your campaign (the dwarves maybe) has invented the blast furnace, that description applies to steel just as much as iron.


glass.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Thanks Glass, I didn't personally feel able to get into that. I stand by my first statement: Metallurgy in D&D is borked, and therefore needs to be treated with enormous caution if you have any players with a clue about the subject.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I always make my cold iron fall from the sky. It gives it that special zesty flavour that fiends detest.

 

[Stone Dog]

To add some information to the fire, Castle Falkenstein has a fun take on this.

Faeries are basically energy beings in the end. Iron disrupts their energy patterns. They don't like ANY of it, not steel or any other form, but what they REALLY hate is Star Iron. Meteoric Iron. Yes, the Iron from Space. It is, swear to god, just like kryptonite. You get any amount within a yard or so of them and they get a splitting headache. About half a pound of it and it starts actually damaging them from about the same distance. Usually faeries that are slain come back after a while when they have had the chance to reform, but if they are slain by Star Iron they are dead forever.

Thought it might be fun to consider.

 

[glass]

The way I play it, cold iron is pretty much plain iron and not steel (negligible carbon content and no other explicit alloying other than remnant impurities).

Unless someone in your campaign (the dwarves maybe) has invented the blast furnace, that description applies to steel just as much as iron.

Actually, thinking about it, maybe someone has invented the blast furnace. Certainly, D&D steel seems to be very good (swords don't break even when striking strength 40 blows againts iron golems).

Thus steel in the campaign would be (more or less) modern steel, and 'iron' could include the whole gamut of lower tech irons & steels.

Interesting thought.


glass.

 

[glass]

To add some information to the fire, Castle Falkenstein has a fun take on this.

Faeries are basically energy beings in the end. Iron disrupts their energy patterns. They don't like ANY of it, not steel or any other form, but what they REALLY hate is Star Iron. Meteoric Iron. Yes, the Iron from Space. It is, swear to god, just like kryptonite. You get any amount within a yard or so of them and they get a splitting headache. About half a pound of it and it starts actually damaging them from about the same distance. Usually faeries that are slain come back after a while when they have had the chance to reform, but if they are slain by Star Iron they are dead forever.

In considering regigging DR and materials, one of the ideas I had was making fey sensitive to or poisoned by iron, rather than having it simply penetrate DR.


glass.