Bone Rapiers, Stone swords, and Golden Maces

[Dave Blewer]

In my Sundered Sky campaign Iron and steel are rare and as such most weapons and armours are made out of different materials such as stone, bone and even magically treated wood.

Now, the DMG states on page 162 that such weapons have a -2 on attack and damage. I find this unsatisfactory for my needs.

OK, here are my ideas

- Weapons not constructed from steel suffer a permanent -1 to damage after they critically hit. This penalty is ignored if the weapon is magical and the weapon can be repaired for 1/10th of cost for every -1 damage suffered.

- Stone weapons are heavy and count as one size class up for the purposes of wielding it. To offset this they do get a +1 weight bonus to damage.

- Gold (which is very common in Sundered Sky) Weapons also gains a +1 weight bonus and size penalty. I also think that the minus to damage from a crit should be -2 (Gold is soft)

- Bone piercing weapons could maybe gain a +1 splinter bonus to damage, but the -1 from scoring a crit cannot be repaired. Bone slashing and bludgeoning weapons gain no plusses to damage.

Thats it so far. Does anybody else have any ideas. I am also after ideas for non metal armours. I have a couple of ideas, but they are currently rather vague.

Thanks.

 

[Fenes 2]

I would go the other way, and treat all weapons as the PHB standard, but give steel weapons a bonus (like for adamantium, f.e.). If steel is really that rare it is much less work.

 

[Technik4]

I would try to create a power curve. For instance, just because its common doesnt make it easy to work with (gold). Bone seems the worst, and should have some flat negatives to attack and damage, but perhaps crits are more spectacular as the weapon shatters? Stone should be your medium, your equivalent to steel or iron.

Gold- harder DCs to craft. If you have Magic of Faerun, it has some good rules for tempered gold (the item, weapon or armor becomes heavier, and therefore the damage die increases, the ac increases, but the weight causes it to be 1 size larger (weapons) or extremely unwiedly (armor, huge armor check negs). Gold should be considered masterwork.

Stone- Equivalent to steel.. Not very durable, needs to be repaired often or negatives acrue. Masterwork only needs to be repaired after a crit.

Bone- Always has -1 to hit and damage, but increases the crit multiplier for the first crit by 1. Must be repaired like stone. Masterwork should always have the crit multiplier increase, but still have a negative attack and damage. Price should be cheaper than stone by 10-20%.

Just my thoughts.

Technik

 

[Tonguez]

Getting hit by 20 pounds of stone is the same as 20 pounds of steel. And a splinter of bone is as sharp as a stick when I poke it in your eye.

ergo treat all materials the same as far as hitting and damage are concerned however

Critical Failure (breaks/not usable)
Bone/Shell roll 1 -6
Stone 1 -2
Obsidian 1 - 3
Gold 1 - 2

 

[Dave Blewer]

Thanks!

You have all given me something to ponder! I'll give it some thought

 

[Hawkeye]

I would suggest you look at the Dark Sun setting. They have a similar situation. I know someone has adapted it to 3e, I just haven't looked at it lately. I remember when we tried it under 2ed and our 1/2 Giant fighter insisted on calling his wooden weapon a mace, taking a -2 penalty on to hit and damage. That is, until I explained to him that if he called it a club, he wouldn't take a penalty.

Hawkeye

 

[Dave Blewer]

Do you have an URL?

 

[Marius Delphus]

www.athas.org

 

[nameless]

I agree with Fenes. If everything is based upon a stone/wood/bone scenario, then steel really would be above and beyond in terms of reliability and damage. Replacing adamantite with steel and giving it a non-magic +2 enhancement, plus enhanced hardness/hp seems just right.

Besides that, for an internally consistent world, weapons would probably be created that didn't rely on the same sharp edge principles. I'd expect a lot of blunt wooden weapons, possibly with stone or other heavy weights to increase damage. For bladed weapons, I'd expect mostly axes, spears, and arrows. Anyone proficient would probably know how to scavenge rocks to chip off new heads. If you want to create new rules to represent wear and tear on less durable weapons, just remember the extra bookkeeping involved. You might just want to say that on a natural 1 a weapon breaks and will be unusable until repaired (perhaps taking an hour), at no cost other than the simple rocks used, and perhaps some leather straps.

-nameless

 

[Maximillian]

In the region in which my campaign started, Iron was rare (one mine for a region with 6,000 people), and steel was almost unheard of (the single iron mine had a secret vein of steel). I made iron weapons rare (i.e. swords and axes cost more) and stone weapons (obsidian tipped spears and arrows) more common. Steel weapons were automatically masterwork, because who would forge a normal sword when the material is so precious?