Alchemical Cold Mithradamantine: Ever Use Special Material Alloys?

[Art]

Mad alchemist's labs should definitely be full of all sorts of crazy alloys, including failed experiments galore.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

That was your contribution?! Cool! I loved that section myself. Especially Dragonsteel. That was awesome. Expensive but awesome.

Actually I wrote the whole book, though other people contributed a few bits here and there. And I'm very glad you like dragonsteel, which I have found to be both useful in terms of building desireable items in game, and a nice plot hook if I run out of other ideas.

 

[Kaodi]

( I just realized that my hit point estimates for above materials were way off what I meant them to be. I had misremembered hit points for iron, mithral and adamantine as the same as their hardness, per inch. )

Mmenticite - An alloy made by adding deep crystal to lead, and infused with a tiny amount of incarnum. Mmenticite is little harder than steel, with a hardness of 11, but has only 25 hp per inch of thickness. Also, mmenticite tends to break rather than deform under stress. Any weapon imbued with new intelligence (not merely being an imprisoned intelligence) gains a +2 bonus to its intelligence, wisdom and charisma.

 

[Nightfall]

Actually I wrote the whole book, though other people contributed a few bits here and there. And I'm very glad you like dragonsteel, which I have found to be both useful in terms of building desireable items in game, and a nice plot hook if I run out of other ideas.

*looks at the author* Doh! But yeah while I didn't go for all the sovereign materials, Dragonsteel by far was the best and the thing I would consistently use in my games. I might change the origins, but otherwise everything about it is certainly one of the best aspects of having players with said material.

 

[Choranzanus]

As someone who has some background in physical chemistry, I must say that making alloys is nowhere near as easy as you make it out to be. You cannot simply mix two metals as liquid and cool them, because one will crystallize earlier and the metals separate. Only in certain ratio you can do this. This is of course simplified and not true for all metals (silver and gold for example).

So, if you ruled that it is impossible to make alloys its not unreasonable. At least you don't have to make up any new mechanics.

 

[Kaodi]

Even if that is the case, however, we are dealing with a system in which magic can be used to alter things in physically impossible ways. More specific to this case though, Time Stop is a transmutation spell, and theoretically you could make a time-based spell that would be able to overcome the difficulty of differing rates of crystalization, which you seem to indicate is the main barrier to be overcome. Thus, it might certainly be impossible to create new alloys without being the help of a skilled spellcaster, but not " impossible " in general.

 

[Nightfall]

*will just settle for the sovereign materials, especially dragonsteel, that prove you don't need five swords just to hit a fiend* or a lich!

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Nice to see all of the responses (and approaches to this concept).

The more I think about it, and after reading some of the responses in this thread, the more I'm inclined to have many of the special material metals be alloys, rather than items purely made of the metal. Alchemical silver items already are an alloy (specially made of silver and steel), while cold iron would be the only exception, made entirely of iron through the special forging method. I'm seeing metals such as adamantine and mithral be so potent and so valuable that a little goes a long way.

I'm also considering having "raw" adamantine, or adamant, possessing different properties than the alloyed version (or adamantine). For example, I'm thinking that adamant will naturally be found as crystals (whether opaque or transparent is another question); I'm also considering it to be naturally magnetic (which is why adamant would be used in an alloy than used in a pure form--an item made entirely of adamant would have a strong magnetic pull, making it "difficult" for use as a weapon, to say the least).

OTOH, I'm more inclined to have non-metallic special materials (like dragonbone and darkwood) be used entirely to make items, & avoid having composites or laminates of such materials. I may have some exceptions of this rule (for example, I may have a mighty composite longbow that uses a mix of dragon parts, darkwood, and bronzewood), but otherwise, non-metallic items will be made entirely of the source material.

Because of this, I'm considering having a few additional categories of special materials, as well as redefining some of the existing categories. For example:

• Adamantine: A special alloy typically consisting of a high-quality steel which had crushed adamant dust added during the smelting process. Resistant to normal corrosion/oxidation (though not the advanced corrosion of acids, a rusting grasp spell or a rust monster), and edged weapons retain their edge much longer than normal, rarely needing sharpening. Otherwise, same as the material described in the DMG.
• Mithral: Pure mithral is a unique and highly prized metal (worth ten times its weight in platinum). However, items bearing even a small amount of mithral possess unique properties. A typical mithral item is an alloy of mithral with another material (usually high-quality steel). Also resistant to normal corrosion/oxidation (though not the advanced corrosion of acids, a rusting grasp spell or a rust monster). Otherwise, same as the material described in the DMG.
• Alchemical Silver: An alchemically-made alloy of silver and high-quality steel. Same as the material described in the DMG.
• Cold Iron: A specially-crafted iron weapon, as per the DMG. Closer to pure iron or a low-grade steel rather than "normal" steel--slightly more susceptible to oxidation/corrosion.

With the way I have mithral & adamantine, I intend it to be possible to have metals other than iron/steel alloyed with them, but still produce the same/similar results. For example, a bronze sword could have adamant powder added to the mix, and create an adamantine weapon (though it looks like it's crafted from bronze). However, it would be apparent that it's not normal bronze--it wouldn't tarnish, has the strength of a steel-adamantine weapon, & it's subject to magnetism (due to the magnetic properties of the adamant).

I'm considering this, though I'm also considering other options: for example, I'm considering allowing mithral to bypass DRs that need a silver weapon, while allowing adamantine to bypass DRs that need a cold iron weapon.

 

[Nightfall]

Or you could just have you PCs find a nice load of raw dragonsteel.

 

[Choranzanus]

Even if that is the case, however, we are dealing with a system in which magic can be used to alter things in physically impossible ways. More specific to this case though, Time Stop is a transmutation spell, and theoretically you could make a time-based spell that would be able to overcome the difficulty of differing rates of crystalization, which you seem to indicate is the main barrier to be overcome. Thus, it might certainly be impossible to create new alloys without being the help of a skilled spellcaster, but not " impossible " in general.

Of course i realize we are dealing with magic substances not real world metals (metals?). But my points are:

1. it is more difficult to make alloys

2. even if you can do that, the result might have completely different properties, it is not just "something between", like electrum.