Dark Sun Weapon Materials

[Phaezen]

Rich Baker has put up an interesting essay on the thoughts behind the design and effect of weapon materials for Dark Sun 4e on his blog.

Seems they have decided that inferior weapons (Wood in particular) are the baseline weapons for 4e Dark Sun with Obsidion, Bone and metal weapons being "masterwork" similar to the masterwork armours in the PHB. This can actually reinforce the metal scarcity of Dark Sun as depending on the minimum enhancement levels of steel arms and armour it is feasible that a character won't get metal equipment till mid Paragon. Inferior material weapons will also be enchantable with mention made of a +3 bone longsword and a +2 stone hammer.

As for weapon breakage, several variants will be published with the intention that each group will decide which is right for their campaign.

 

[Negflar2099]

This answers almost all the questions that I had about how they were going to handle Dark Sun in 4e. Personally I like the ideas they've came up with. I was never one for applying penalties to weapons, as he points out in the blog those penalties can get "forgotten" pretty fast and often but there's also something to be said about things like weapon breakage and what it can add to a game. The caveat to this is that the players have to be informed just what sort of game they are getting into. As long as they know that weapon breakage is a possibility, and that's what they have signed up for, it should be less of a problem.

The only questions about Dark Sun 4e that I have left are how are half-giants going to be handled (are they just reskinned Goliaths or do they become a separate race (which is what I'm hoping for)), just how exactly will wild talents work, and that's it. Just those two questions. I can't wait for the previews.

 

[the Jester]

Looks cool. I like that they are offering different systems for the dm to choose from- the 4e default is usually a little too nice about nothing bad happening to your gear imho. (Rust monster residuum supply, I'm looking at you...)

 

[Obryn]

That's how I'd do it.

Good to know I'm not alone. There's no reason the rarest weapons should be the baseline, and everything else worse. Much more sensible to make the most common weapons the baseline, and go from there.

-O

 

[Wik]

Yeah, we'll see how it works in play. I have my own 4e weapon material/breakage system in place, and I may just turn to it if the DS approach doesn't work for me.

But I'm all for weapon breakage. It's one of the awesome parts of Athas.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Sounds like a very nice way of doing it yeah.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Positive options, not negative restrictions.

When it comes to weapon breakage, the only variant I'm willing to use as a DM is something along the lines of "weapon breaks if you roll a natural 1 to hit". None of this "break on [max] damage" nonsense.

 

[Wik]

My weapon breakage goes like this - natural 1 it may break... if it fails a saving throw (different materials would possibly have a bonus to this save).

if it's a non-magic item, the weapon is broken and a complete waste. If it was magical, it is broken until you can take an extended rest to fix it.

 

[Dragonhelm]

This answers almost all the questions that I had about how they were going to handle Dark Sun in 4e. Personally I like the ideas they've came up with. I was never one for applying penalties to weapons, as he points out in the blog those penalties can get "forgotten" pretty fast and often but there's also something to be said about things like weapon breakage and what it can add to a game. The caveat to this is that the players have to be informed just what sort of game they are getting into. As long as they know that weapon breakage is a possibility, and that's what they have signed up for, it should be less of a problem.

Yeah, I never liked the idea that some weapons may be a +1, but the inherent negatives of the materials would drop that to be as effective as any old weapon from the PHB.

I am so hoping to see some of the cool Athasian weapons again. I'm a big fan of the tortoise blades from Dragon.

There was also a cool skill in 2e called weapon improvisation, where a character could pick up just about anything and make a weapon out of it.

The only questions about Dark Sun 4e that I have left are how are half-giants going to be handled (are they just reskinned Goliaths or do they become a separate race (which is what I'm hoping for)), just how exactly will wild talents work, and that's it. Just those two questions. I can't wait for the previews.

I'm betting that half-giants will be goliaths. While a new race would be nice, I wouldn't count on it.

Wild talents? Simple enough. That's multiclassing feats. Just take your basic feat and a MC feat at 4th level, and you're a wild talent. Half-elves would naturally make good wild talents.

I'm curious about currency as well. And are they including anything from the Dark Sun 3.5 materials in Dragon and Dungeon?