adamantine non-ferrous? [2003 thread]

[Voadam]

Is there any text on whether adamantine weapons are subject to magnetism effects?

My DM surprised me with a ruling saying adamantine is nonferrous and immune to electromagnetic effects after I cast magnetism from OA trying to disarm a dwarf with a nasty adamantine hammer (he was doing +13 to damage before power attack).

Here is the text on Adamantine weapons from the srd:

Adamantine: This ultrahard metal adds to the quality of a weapon or suit of armor. Weapons fashioned from adamantine have a natural ability to bypass hardness when sundering weapons or attacking objects, ignoring hardness less than 20. Armor made from adamantine grants its wearer damage reduction of 1/– if it’s light armor, 2/– if it’s medium armor, and 3/– if it’s heavy armor. Adamantine is so costly that weapons and armor made from it are always of masterwork quality; the masterwork cost is included in the prices given below. Thus, adamantine weapons and ammunition have a +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls, and the armor check penalty of adamantine armor is lessened by 1 compared to ordinary armor of its type. Items without metal parts cannot be made from adamantine. An arrow could be made of adamantine, but a quarterstaff could not.
Only weapons, armor, and shields normally made of metal can be fashioned from adamantine. Weapons, armor and shields normally made of steel that are made of adamantine have one-third more hit points than normal. Adamantine has 40 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 20.

 

[Carnifex]

I think I'd have to agree with him, actually, now I think about it. There's a tendency to think 'magnetism draws metals', but of course it is just iron and ferrous compounds, isn't it? (I think?)

Since Adamantine is an entirely different metal - that is, not a compound but a pure element - and since the sheer bulk of metals are *not* subject to magnetism, I'd have to say that adamantine should not be subject either.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I have ruled that adamantine is not subject to magnetic effects IMC, but I haven't seen anything official.

 

[MarauderX]

I haven't run into a case where it matters, but I would rule that it IS magnetic, but that's only based on the whole X-men, Wolverine thing.

 

[Voadam]

My primary reference is Magneto throwing around Wolverine in the X-men movie and comics.

I know adamantium is not necesearily adamantine, but it is a point of reference.

Also a previous campaign I was in, adamantine was considered "True Iron" and Mithiril was "True Silver" so that keeps tripping me up in the current camapaign.

"What do you mean the mithril arrows bounce off the werewolves?"

I'm working off the 3.5 srd so I was wondering if anybody with the 3.5 DMG saw any flavor references there that did not make it into the srd.

 

[Lamoni]

I think I'd have to agree with him, actually, now I think about it. There's a tendency to think 'magnetism draws metals', but of course it is just iron and ferrous compounds, isn't it? (I think?)

Actually magnetism affects Iron (Fe), Cobalt (Co), and Nickel (Ni). Along with alloys containing those elements. I don't remember exactly, but I am pretty sure that Iron makes the best magnets by far. Cobalt and Nickel only make average magnets, plus they are more expensive. Anyway, a fun thing to do is to take very old nickels and pick them up with a magnet. I don't remember when they stopped using nickel to make nickels, but my dad has an old one that still works.

Any way you look at it though, Adamantine would still not be affected unless you wanted to argue that it was some alloy that contained large amounts of Iron, Cobalt, or Nickel. Making it its own element would mean that magnets have zero effect. (Except that a changing magnetic field would still induce a current). If you could control your magnetic field perfectly, you could induce small currents in the adamantine, and current produces a magnetic field that would react to other magnets you had in the area. Therefore you could have a small effect, but only if you have magneto's powers. Otherwise you have to just settle with affecting weapons with iron.

 

[Deset Gled]

I think I'd have to agree with him, actually, now I think about it. There's a tendency to think 'magnetism draws metals', but of course it is just iron and ferrous compounds, isn't it? (I think?)

I would probably rule that magnetism affects all metals in the D+D universe, as a result of this tendency. Generally, physical things like this are grosssly generalized for the purpose of playability. "Acid damage", for example, encompasses all forms of chemical stress, despite the fact that the actual damage is just as likely to be from a strong base (the exact opposite of an acid), or even just a volatile compound. If you start arguing about what metals are affected by magnetism and what aren't, things are going to get very tedious very quickly.

 

[Voadam]

So IRL magnetism affects some metals and not others.

Adamantine is a new metal you can mine straight out of the ground.

So it is an arbitrary decision whether it is affected by magnetic effects or not.

Truth be told I was expecting the magnetism spell to affect all metal items in the game but not wooden, bone, or stone ones.

I can deal with it either way, it was just a bad surprise in the middle of combat to have built up the strategy as my biggest tactic and waste a round of unthreatened spell casting to have it be no effect.

 

[Plane Sailing]

If it was non-ferrous would you also render it immune to rust monsters, or is the assumption that they have a means of corroding any metal? The MM says that they like to eat gold and silver, and perhaps suggests that they are expected to be able to corrode anything?

Cheers

 

[kreynolds]

I like to keep things relatively simple, so unless otherwise stated, magnetism affects all "fantasy" metals in my games.