New D&D Metal Alloys

[LyleDraconis]

My DM is training me to DM and has me creating my own world (starting with just a region for now) and I need help on a couple of small details.

1. The main resource on this island continent is an ore we created called Lumium. It is basically wild magic absorbed into some naturally occurring mineral. It's based off a concept my DM came up with involving solidified arcane magic, tangible enough to forge into weapons and armor which bend to the users will (and maximizes, magnifies, etc. any spell deliberately cast through the material). This ore is used, among a vast amount of other things, to forge weapons and armor as well, giving the metals it's alloyed with amazing new properties. When alloyed with adamantine, it is changed into a substance know as adamantium (largely based of the metal off the same name in the Marvel universe), which is infinitely stronger (able to cut through anything but itself a la Marvel), and lighter. It also has an ashen-gray color to it. When alloyed with cold iron, it creates ironium, a gaseous metal which, other than it's gassiness, retains all of it's properties, including magnetic ones, which is how it's manipulated using an electro magnet of sorts which is activated with the spell Shocking Grasp, or gloves with Shocking Grasp charges, which gives it amazing utility (e.g. the ability to shift into other weapons or tools). The only thing I can't think of is what to do with mithril (which would be called "Mithirium"). Liquid would be the obvious form, but how would it be used? What kind of weapon(s) would it make?

2. We have a sort of end mini boss thought up for the campaign already. We figured an Iron Golum that protects the main reserve of liquid Lumium which was abandoned when the society destroyed itself in a civil war for want of increasingly rare Lumium. The golum stood inactive for so long in this lost society, that the exposure to the Lumium radiation eventually turned it into a Lumium Golum. Should we go with this, or would it make more sense for it to be an Ironium Golum?

tl;dr: Help =)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First, welcome to the boards!

Its an interesting concept...

1) Liquid Mithril...perhaps its used to create temporary "pour on" armors or potions that improve AC?

Or perhaps its kind of like Starmetal (see the Green Star Adept in Complete Arcane).

Or perhaps its associated with lunar magics, and you could- among other things- use it to replace silver as the anti-lycanthropic metal.

For more ideas, you might want to take a look at DC Comics' Metal Men or examine Magic of Faerun's entries on special materials.

2) Ironium.

 

[Kerrick]

Seconded, on both answers. Mithril gaining silver's properties is a common house rule. As for the golem, keep it ironium, but give it special abilities gained from its long-term exposure.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Liquid Mithril?
Maybe weapons made from it function like the Mercurial weapons, but without the Exotic requirement? Nah, that seems silly and unbalanced.
Making it a liquid really limits your options with it. Liquid metals get used for all sorts of things, but it's extremely rare they are used for weapons or armors.
I'd emphasize it as a magical component for spells, rituals, potions, and oils. Make it count as such-and-such component, it adds such-and-such effect to any potions, it counts as gohst-touch-silversheen when applied to weapons and armors (for 1 hour), etc.

Good luck.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

It just occurred to me that it would be kind of cool to have a liquid mithril whip.

 

[LyleDraconis]

First, welcome to the boards!

Its an interesting concept...

1) Liquid Mithril...perhaps its used to create temporary "pour on" armors or potions that improve AC?

Or perhaps its kind of like Starmetal (see the Green Star Adept in Complete Arcane).

Or perhaps its associated with lunar magics, and you could- among other things- use it to replace silver as the anti-lycanthropic metal.

For more ideas, you might want to take a look at DC Comics' Metal Men or examine Magic of Faerun's entries on special materials.

2) Ironium.

Thanks! I checked out your sources and they gave me some nice ideas. The special race we created are heavily based on the magical Illumian race (Page 54 of Races of Destiny). What makes them different from the original Illumians is that they evolved from a race of dwarves who first discovered the ore many years ago (still trying to figure out exactly how long; in the thousands so far). Due to prolonged exposure to the radiating wild magic from the ore, the dwarves evolved into a contextually tailored version of the Illumians, eventually being driven mad by the wild magic's chaotic nature. Though, before they were driven mad, their inherent dwarven knowledge allowed them to forge these weapons.

Blah, blah, blah.

The point is, I think I can make use of the fact that they descended from dwarves, and have some weird bind with the wild magic (allowing them to use it much like Arcane magic, though with yet to be decided differences) so they can combine the knowledge to enable them to create such weapons. Now, after reading that article bout the Metal Men (interesting read, no doubt) and seeing a video on ferrofluids, I've decided the mithirium will be used as a kind of liquid armor, controlled by magic as opposed to magnetism.

Seconded, on both answers. Mithril gaining silver's properties is a common house rule. As for the golem, keep it ironium, but give it special abilities gained from its long-term exposure.

We don't plan on having much more than grotesque (and harmless) psudeonatural creatures ( found in Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations, page 161 and Complete Arcane, page 160).

As for the golem, I have to talk it over some more with my DM whom, unfortunately, I have no means of contact with.

Liquid Mithril?
Maybe weapons made from it function like the Mercurial weapons, but without the Exotic requirement? Nah, that seems silly and unbalanced.
Making it a liquid really limits your options with it. Liquid metals get used for all sorts of things, but it's extremely rare they are used for weapons or armors.
I'd emphasize it as a magical component for spells, rituals, potions, and oils. Make it count as such-and-such component, it adds such-and-such effect to any potions, it counts as gohst-touch-silversheen when applied to weapons and armors (for 1 hour), etc.

Good luck.

Maybe I can just do that to the mithirium armor =)

It just occurred to me that it would be kind of cool to have a liquid mithril whip.

YES!