magic weapon made of stone..

[paulewaug]

To any of my PCs possible spoiler alert! Do not read except at your own risk...now that's out of the way (None of my PCs will probably ever look in here anyhow... but..)

----------------------------------



Ok in my campaign my pcs have found a sort of sword that is made of stone (Jade actually)
Now it Is Magical, for the sake of this let's just say it's "+1 "
(it has some other properties but that shouldn't matter right now)

So it is basically a "Shortsword" that does Slashing damage.

Now I have been kind of thinking that since it is made of stone that under some conditions it May become damaged by improper use, stone not being as strudy for cutting as metal. However it is a Magical item so maybe not so much.
It occures to me that there are a few ways I could go:


1] Magical stone..it is special so keep things simple and just let it be like a regular magic weapon.

2] "It Is a Low-Tech Weapon" so it would have a -2 attack and damage penalty (per DMG page 162).

3*] "It is a lowtech yet master crafted magic item but it is made of stone" so it has a Hardness 8 and 15 Hit Points
*3a] As it gets used against something that is Hard, Armored, etc. it could get blunted so anytime it does damage exceeding its Hardness it takes the remainder in HP damage.
*3b]Upon roling a Crtical miss (Natural 1 followed by a failed Reflex save) roll damage as if for a normal attack, apply this against the Hardness and Hit Points of the sword.

Which of these makes the most sense, seems the most rules worthy, sounds the best?!

comments and suggestions welcome....

 

[Astlin]

How was it intended when it was made?

Was it made for ceremony or use?

If it was made for combat in a magic civilization (common DnD world) then there is no reason it would be weaker than any other +1 weapon. It being made of jade is just ambiance.

If it is a ceremonial weapon then yes, using it may damage it. I would tack on some extra 'object of art' value to it.

A ritual weapon could be either of the above.


If it is just a ceremonial weapon, I would leave off the +1 bonus and treat it as a Woundrous Item.


Astlin

 

[the Jester]

Well, if it has an enhancement bonus of +1 it requires an enhancement bonus of +1 to damage it iirc.

 

[paulewaug]

@Jester,
---yes looking more at the rules in the DMG it does say that magic weapons with a special quality must have at least a +1 enhancement bonus. A +1 bonus would raise its Hardness to 9
and HitPoints to 16 and it would only be damaged by items of +2 or higher.


@Astlin,
---It was buried with a priest in his Sarcophagus
It is a Ghost Touch weapon, part of his "Treasure for the Afterlife." (Egyptian style burial)

The significance of the Jade is that, as far as I know, it has long been held in China(?) that Jade has special properties against ghosts and spirits.

Afte both of your messages I am inclined to keep it simple and just treat is a regular weapon with the Jade for Ambiance and taking on some relical object of art value also. Thanks!

More comments of course would still be appreciated!

 

[Krafen]

Magic of Faerun lists a number of exotic substances with which to make magic weapons and armor. Several of the substances which would otherwise be fairly weak (gold for example) specifiy in their descriptions that the process of enchanting makes them as hard as steel. I would treat jade as an exotic substance that adds special properties to the weapon but is otherwise treated as being as strong as steel when enchanted. If it comes up, the jade would increase the market value of the item by a certain amount depending on what special properties you assign to it. Magic of Faerun has a decent range of pricing examples.

 

[James McMurray]

I believe Oriental Adventures also has rules specifically for Jade wepons, because of that material's power in Rokugan.

 

[paulewaug]

Thanks guys this is the kind of input I was looking for-

@Krafen- I might have to check out MoF, sounds like it might have some other useful stuff in it.
So far that is how I am treating the weapon,
standard rules magic weapon Shortsword +1, w/Ghost Touch with extra vaule added for cultural/archeological and material significance.

@James -
I'll see if I can check out what OA says about Jade, sadly I don't have that book
I thought about getting it for while, but I don't think I would get any use out of it with my group.
But the significance that Asians (the Chinese?..Japanese?) put on Jade and it's properties against spirits and such gave me the inspiration to use that as the swords material.


Thanks all!

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Adamantine weapons are harder to break than normal, so this one should shatter easier, as it is a fragile stone. Since it is enchanted, though, it would still only be damaged by a weapon with an equal or better bonus. It could hit armor all day, just don't get into a fight with another magic weapon.

You could also give it natural modifiers, like Adamantine. Say only a 25% miss vs. incoporeal creatures, or consider it keen against them, even if the blade is non-magical. OT, but still interesting ideas.

 

[Felix]

Nothing to do with weapon properties:

Chinese, definitely Chinese (although that affinity for Jade has seeped into other Asian cultures as well).

Remember: Jade and Chinese are friends. Ceremonial things such as pendants, emperors' seals, ornamental armor ad nauseum were in a large part constructed with jade.

Aside: a large part of the value of the jade is determined by the darkness of the stone. A dark green jade bracelet is worth more than a light green one.

Aside #2: Jade does not conduct heat well at all (if you want to see if it is real jade, press it into your hand for a long time: jade will remain cool while plastic will warm up). I *think* that is partly why jade was considered a defense against spirits; it would not react to the heat of this world therefore it would deflect energy from another world.

Aside #3: Deep dark red jade is really cool. And bugger-all expensive.

 

[Pax]

Perhaps you should check through the "Magial Materials" portionof Magic of Faerun; you could make the JAde be "awakened" or whatnot, so that it provides some benefit on the attack (+1 damage of some sort is the typical rate; for instance, "Fever Iron" gets +1 fire damage that -does- stack with other abilities, i.s. a +1 Flaming Shortsword made of Fever iron would get 1d6+1(normal) + 1d6+1 (fire) total, or, 2d6+2 (half fire). As it's stone, acid damage might be appropriate.

The cost should be roughly 2,000gp for the Jade to be magically treated.

The special materials bonus REPLACES the masterwork bonus, and the weapon is considered Masterwork inherently; in general, their hardness and HP ratings are overall slightly superior to normal steel, but not as good as Mithril (hardness 10, hp 30 per inch, is fairly typical).

So a "Jade Shortsword +1" would cost (2000+2000+10=) 4,010gp, do 1d6+2 damage (one point being, I suggest, acid, based on material).

Another example would be, it's a "Holy Jade Shortsword of Corrosion,+1"; "Holy" is a market-value +2 enchantment; "of Corrosion" is a market value +1 enchantment from Magic of Faerun, we're positign a 2000gp extra cost for a weapon to be made of Magically Treated Jade (which satisfies the Masterwork prerequisite for enchanting), and the shortsword costs 10gp base; the total Enhancement for price purposes is +4, giving us 32,000gp for the magics involved. Thus the net price is 34,010gp, the sword is +1to hit, does 2d6+2 base damage (half of that being acid damage), with a further +2d6 (holy) damage against Evil targets.

So that second example would do 4d6+2 total inherent damage, if the subject was normally vulnerable to acid, and of evil alignment. Not bad for a shortsword that probably -looks- like "mere jewelry" ...