Alchemical Cold Mithradamantine: Ever Use Special Material Alloys?
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Choranzanus
Explorer
Mechanically I would treat these alloys as new special materials.
As I already said often you can easily work only with some ratio of components.
You can say that to make mithraladamantium you need 1/3 mithral and 2/3 adamantium and it has such and such properties or something like that.
If on the other hand the whole point of this thread is to make a superweapon which bypasses all various DRs, then I say I am not a fan of alloys.
As I already said often you can easily work only with some ratio of components.
You can say that to make mithraladamantium you need 1/3 mithral and 2/3 adamantium and it has such and such properties or something like that.
If on the other hand the whole point of this thread is to make a superweapon which bypasses all various DRs, then I say I am not a fan of alloys.
One of the alloys in the file I mentioned eariler (KBC) is pinchbeck gold. Made up of copper, zinc and nickel, it looks like gold and is used to fool thieves. I am going to give doppelgangers DR 10/pinchbeck because I like the idea of fake defeating fake.
Rose gold, made of gold and copper, is red. Priests of gods of death prefer this metal for alters, statues and such as it reminds them of blood.
Rose gold, made of gold and copper, is red. Priests of gods of death prefer this metal for alters, statues and such as it reminds them of blood.
I've done this a few times to make new special materials. I almost never just combine the properties of existing specials, for the same reasons Choranzanus gave, but occasionally I postulate the existence of a new alloy that has essentially the same properties.
For example, in my game, I use the concept of Nephelium: a rare ore found in certain special places in the Underdark can be forged as iron, and when finished the steel thus created is transparent. This is a material used in a few offical game books, but I go further. Because Nephelium is created by bathing ordinary iron ore in Far Realm corruption, and the Far Realm in my setting is defined as "that which is outside the multiverse," I gave Nephelium in my setting the ability to behave as a Ghost Touch item- nonmagically. The idea is, the dimensional tear and bleed from the Far Realm makes the material exist on multiple planes at once, which explains both its transparency (the light gets through because it's literally "not all there") and the fact that it can affect objects on multiple planes/levels of existence at the same time.
In light of that concept, for my Epic game I created a new material, supposedly invented by the last full civilization in the world to make a serious study of the Far Realm. What they called it is unknown in the game right now, but for the PCs I dubbed it "Reinforced Nephelium." Essentially, it is to Adamantine what Nephelium is to ordinary steel. It not only has all the desirable properties of Adamantine, like Hardness penetration and the DR granted to armor wearers, but also the "natural Ghost Touch" property of standard Nephelium. Finally, its interdimensional nature gives it one more benefit- the ability to sometimes just ignore damage dealt to it. An object made of the stuff has a 50% miss chance applied to any successful attack against it. Obviously this stuff is monstrously expensive; also, I decided that simply bathing what amounts to adamantine ore in Far Realm corruption isn't enough- there's a secret process involved which was lost with the now-dead civilization that discovered it. But I haven't decided what that process is, yet- anyway it's most likely irrelevant to the game.
For example, in my game, I use the concept of Nephelium: a rare ore found in certain special places in the Underdark can be forged as iron, and when finished the steel thus created is transparent. This is a material used in a few offical game books, but I go further. Because Nephelium is created by bathing ordinary iron ore in Far Realm corruption, and the Far Realm in my setting is defined as "that which is outside the multiverse," I gave Nephelium in my setting the ability to behave as a Ghost Touch item- nonmagically. The idea is, the dimensional tear and bleed from the Far Realm makes the material exist on multiple planes at once, which explains both its transparency (the light gets through because it's literally "not all there") and the fact that it can affect objects on multiple planes/levels of existence at the same time.
In light of that concept, for my Epic game I created a new material, supposedly invented by the last full civilization in the world to make a serious study of the Far Realm. What they called it is unknown in the game right now, but for the PCs I dubbed it "Reinforced Nephelium." Essentially, it is to Adamantine what Nephelium is to ordinary steel. It not only has all the desirable properties of Adamantine, like Hardness penetration and the DR granted to armor wearers, but also the "natural Ghost Touch" property of standard Nephelium. Finally, its interdimensional nature gives it one more benefit- the ability to sometimes just ignore damage dealt to it. An object made of the stuff has a 50% miss chance applied to any successful attack against it. Obviously this stuff is monstrously expensive; also, I decided that simply bathing what amounts to adamantine ore in Far Realm corruption isn't enough- there's a secret process involved which was lost with the now-dead civilization that discovered it. But I haven't decided what that process is, yet- anyway it's most likely irrelevant to the game.
Darklone
Registered User
I do this stuff a lot. My games have a low magic tendency and I don't like the plain old +X magic swords.
The logical solution: Make every magic/non-magic weapon special. E.g. in my sigged shortstory, Aladar wields the non-magical sword of an ancient blademaster. It had a flamelike blade (shape, not magical property) with a damascene-like structure looking like actual flames... red and silvery white metal plus some dark dots. The middle of the blade had fire etchings that were inlayed with gold.
The thing was an alloy I used the SR orichalkum for... essentially piercing most DR/material types. Additionally, depending on the metals, I hand out bonuses to hit or damage.
The logical solution: Make every magic/non-magic weapon special. E.g. in my sigged shortstory, Aladar wields the non-magical sword of an ancient blademaster. It had a flamelike blade (shape, not magical property) with a damascene-like structure looking like actual flames... red and silvery white metal plus some dark dots. The middle of the blade had fire etchings that were inlayed with gold.
The thing was an alloy I used the SR orichalkum for... essentially piercing most DR/material types. Additionally, depending on the metals, I hand out bonuses to hit or damage.
hamishspence
Adventurer
Look for precedent: Legacy, and PGTF
I'm not sure which, but I think in one of these two books there is an example of an item that counts as both cold iron and silver.
Look at all the options before choosing which to utilise. And if it can be applied in retrospect to an item.
Sure Striking (PGTF) covers alignment, Metalline (UD) covers material, Shadow Striking (TOM) covers both, Morphing covers damage type (Pierce, Bludgeon, Slash)
Planar Handbook has Element weapons (Auran, Ignan, Aquan, Terran) which cover ALL DR of creature with opposed subtype.
a Mace from Epic Handbook, the Angelwing Razor sword from Vile Darkness, and the Mountain Hammer maneuvers from Tomb of Battle, appear to cover all damage reduction including DR/- and DR/epic.
I'm not sure which, but I think in one of these two books there is an example of an item that counts as both cold iron and silver.
Look at all the options before choosing which to utilise. And if it can be applied in retrospect to an item.
Sure Striking (PGTF) covers alignment, Metalline (UD) covers material, Shadow Striking (TOM) covers both, Morphing covers damage type (Pierce, Bludgeon, Slash)
Planar Handbook has Element weapons (Auran, Ignan, Aquan, Terran) which cover ALL DR of creature with opposed subtype.
a Mace from Epic Handbook, the Angelwing Razor sword from Vile Darkness, and the Mountain Hammer maneuvers from Tomb of Battle, appear to cover all damage reduction including DR/- and DR/epic.
