Black Pearl

[Chaos_Kitten]

No I'm not talking about the ship in Pirate's of the Carribean. I am speaking of a special material I want to have in my game world. It's a world that's mostly water and giant black pearls are harvested for trade.

Weapons made of black pearl have their crit range naturally increased by one. Only certain armors can be made from black pearl; chainmail for example cannot be made from black pearl. You take no penalty for swimming if wearing black pearl armor.

I just can't decide how much it should cost to make weapons and armor from these material. What do you smart people here think it should be?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, some possibilities...

The 'pearl' is formed by an armour shaped matrix which the oyster covers with its secretions forming armour actually made entirely from pearl. Both expensive and slow - taking years to create a single suit. Cost, very high indeed... in the thousands for the equivelant of scale mail.

The armour is akin to studded leather, with the studs created from the pearls, this depends upon the rarity and quality of the pearls, but perhaps 2 GP per pearl? And 4 pearls per square inch? Again expensive, pearls are not created quickly.

'Black pearl' is actually mother of pearl, with the shell cut into strips and attached to a flexible backing. The 'pearl' adds luster while the actual protection comes from the shell. This is likely the easiest answer, and the cheapest, providing protection perhaps the same as studded leather, perhaps scale mail, perhaps a bit better. Cost for shells is a lot lower so.. maybe the cost of masterworked scale mail?

The 'pearl' isn't pearl at all but rather a ceramic that has a pearl finish. That becomes a matter of how rare the material is, (frankly pearl is way to frangible for armour). It could still be a creation from the oyster... (umm pearl armour does sound better than 'oyster poop armour'...). hardened in naturally occuring volcanic vents in lew of kilns. Perhaps the same as masterworked armour of the same type.

And of course oysters aren't the only creatures that create pearls, if I recall properly the orange pearls of Vietnam were secreted by a species of snail.

The Auld Grump

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Be aware that some weapons will receive disproportionate benefit from a material that increases crit range by 1. (Axes and scythes, for instance.) That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's something to keep in mind.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'd consider allowing the crit range to be doubled, rather than increased by one. Treat it exactly like a keen weapon. Base price is +2000GP. For enchanting the weapons, you treat them as if the + were 1 higher than it is.

So a +1 black pearl longsword costs 8000. +2 costs 18000. And so on.

In game justification is that it's much harder to enchant than normal metals.


A possibility for armour would be to relate the cost to the armour check penalty... justification being you use more material on heavier suits of armour.

Think the cost would be roughly (2*ACP)^2 * 100. This is based on the cost of getting a magical bonus to the swim skill...

You get the free side benefit that the items are immune to magic killing effects, but I don't think that is a huge deal.