D&D 5E Darksun Bow alternative materia

Jefe Bergenstein · Apr 16, 2015

I see no reason to punish non-casters with needless penalties to hit and damage. It was slightly more acceptable when you were dealing with a 22 strength half giant in 2nd edition, it's not needed in 5th edition.

Fluff the weaker materials as the baseline. Better gear (iron, copper) is a non-magical +1 to +2. Similarly, armor is relative as well. A mekilot breastplate is the equivalent of plate and grants +8 armor. Light cloth is +1. Reinforced leather is +3. Kank hide is +5 (chainmail), etc.

4E had a good take on weapon breakage. You could re-roll a miss, but the weapon broke. Metal I think only broke on a re-roll of a 1. Put the decision in the hands of the players.

Jefe Bergenstein · Apr 16, 2015

Henrix said:
And what do you use as fuel?

Dung.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_animal_dung_fuel

FormerlyHemlock · Apr 17, 2015

ehren37 said:
I see no reason to punish non-casters with needless penalties to hit and damage. It was slightly more acceptable when you were dealing with a 22 strength half giant in 2nd edition, it's not needed in 5th edition.

Wait, who said the DM wouldn't let you play a STR 26 half-giant (with double HP) in 5E? If I ran Dark Sun, I absolutely would. And I would give every PC a psionic wild talent.

And I would give penalties for nonmetal weapons, and be amazingly stingy with magic items, and persecute wizards, and make a big deal out of dehydration rules. Dark Sun is all about Nietzsche supermen living in abject poverty.

Saeviomagy · Apr 17, 2015

I always found that counter-mime was a good materia combo, at least if you're fighting anything big.

Herobizkit · Apr 17, 2015

Dark Sun was originally designed to be D&D's "hard mode". Crappy living conditions, crappy materials for weapons/armor and high lethality were expected as part of the setting. Characters were granted extra stat boosts above and beyond the usual and players were encouraged to have a "character tree" of at least three characters who share and gain experience together to be ready to replace a fallen warrior.

In 5e, players are generally coddled and given 'fair' challenges as part of the base design. If your game is to have challenges well above the ken of standard characters, you really don't need to lessen the gear. The monster math is calculated with zero magic items assumed - so give 'em max hp and let the cannibal halflings sort the PC's out. :3

aramis erak · Apr 17, 2015

Henrix said:
Good luck with that.

I challenge you to go out into a random desert and make yourself enough large bits of high quality glass to make weapons.
And what do you use as fuel?

Can I take some kerosene?

Actually, all I really need is to make (1) charcoal, (2) a forced draught furnace, and (3) a crucible.

Crucible steel needs about 1510°C, and can be done with medieval tech. Uses charcoal and a billows, in a clay furnace. Silica melts at about 1600°C.

Given some wood (available on Dark Sun), and a damp spot (hard to find but still doable), I can make charcoal. Charcoal can be burned to generate up to 2700°C.

So, yeah, the raw materials are present. Doping it for effect is harder, but doable.

And that's without magic. With magic, just summon an elemental for the fire.

Henrix · Apr 17, 2015

aramis erak said:
Actually, all I really need is to make (1) charcoal, (2) a forced draught furnace, and (3) a crucible.

There's a difference between making something, and making a lot of it. I was not denying the technology (this time), but the practicality.

We weren't talking about making a few glass beads, but to make enough good glass in large enough chunks so you can chip it down to use as weapons.
And for that to be economical to make it common.

Yes, you can make charcoal. But you need to make a lot of it. Quite a blasted lot of it, actually.

And transport it to the desert. Or take the desert to it.

Somehow damp forests have a tendency to not grow comfortably close to the sandy deserts*. Odd, I know.

And that is just the charcoal.

You need a big organisation, infrastructure, and a good reason, to get something like that working.
A working economy.
The industrial revolution wasn't just about technology.
Many of the words in this paragraph are things that are notably lacking in the Dark Sun campaign.

* And we still do not know whether the sand is good for making glass. Not all sand is very good for that.
Perhaps we should have checked before we burnt the coal. By the way, did you ask if anybody was interested in all that potential glassware - perhaps they'll stick to them bone arrows, instead of one use expensive glass arrow heads?