D&D 3.x [semi-OT] [semi-3.5] What is "Cold Iron?"

Coredump · Mar 12, 2003

So to answer the original question...

We don't really know. There are too many possiblities, and WOTC hasn't not let it be known which 'version' they are using.

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Hypersmurf · Mar 12, 2003

Cold Iron.

-Hyp.

DanMcS · Mar 13, 2003

'Cold iron' is just iron. It hasn't been worked, heated, cooled, tempered, quenched, etc, into steel. It will probably be the same price as regular weapons, but you'd have to specially commission it, because who would want an iron sword when there are plenty of people making steel?

It might need constant care to keep its edge. It probably won't shatter, because iron is going to be softer- the high-carbon edges of swords are much more likely to chip. But it can get blunt.

I think the trick is, the 300 gp of extra work put into a weapon to make it mastercraft involve repeated heating, cooling, and working it, and carefully monitoring the amount of carbon in it. All metal mastercraft weapons must be steel. Thus, to be enchantable, a metal weapons must be steel, so you'll never find a 'cold iron longsword +1', because it can't exist. You can cast MW or GMW on it, but Craft Magic Arms and Armor has no effect.

Ryan Koppenhaver · Mar 13, 2003

Caliber said:
I can't think of what fantasy novel I got it from, but I have this impression to. Vaguely I remember someone wielding a "cold-iron" sword that had been made from the very material of the heavens (ie, a meteor)

The Silmarillion, maybe? The elven smith Eöl forged the swords Anguirel and Anglachel out of meteoric iron.

Darklone · Mar 13, 2003

Just a few things about Roman pili: They probably didn't bend.

Field experiments with a huge array of different alloys and steels showed that the spear broke or stayed straight.

Another thing about cold iron (that has never felt heat): How do you get iron then? hop on ore till the dirt is gone

?

nameless · Mar 13, 2003

I also feel the need to chime in on using unrefined iron ore in smithing. Unrefined iron ore is mostly oxidized, which means it's basically rust. If you hit a big chunk of rust with a hammer, it doesn't bend into a sword, it crumbles into dust. Whole pieces of metallic iron are simply not found in nature. You need to refine the iron ore to turn it from a mineral to a metal.

green slime · Mar 13, 2003

I can't believe the number of people questioning the existence of non-heated iron in a DnD game.

Seriously, in a game with Dragons flying by, breathing fire on Mind-blasting, scheming Illithids, who attempt to take over castles that float in the air, those castles that are ruled by half-Demonic beings from another plane, and who are served by animated objects, wrought from mithral and adamantine...

And it can't possibly be, cold iron, iron that has never been heated, iron that was mined from the ice sheets on Mount Gatheriel, treasured by King Mangyd of the Dwarves, before being wrought into a Great Axe for his bethrothal to the Dwarf maiden Glebdred?

As to the commonality, that is surely something to be decided by the DM, to decide when, where and how common such weapons technology is.

Just because it is called "cold iron" in no way implies that it is the substance we know as Iron, (Fe) on our periodic table, in any game.

Brown Jenkin · Mar 13, 2003

green slime said:
Just because it is called "cold iron" in no way implies that it is the substance we know as Iron, (Fe) on our periodic table, in any game.

No it doesn't but by using the word "Iron" you are asking us to make assumptions about it. If you want it to be something unique, unusual and unrelated to Iron it would be better to give it a different name. By using "Iron" in the name it implies that it is directly related to Iron (Fe) in nature.

green slime · Mar 13, 2003

Brown Jenkin stated

No it doesn't but by using the word "Iron" you are asking us to make assumptions about it. If you want it to be something unique, unusual and unrelated to Iron it would be better to give it a different name. By using "Iron" in the name it implies that it is directly related to Iron (Fe) in nature.

No, I disagree. Tto me it implies that it is of a similar weight and colour.

Fool's Gold is not Gold.

I haven't seen any treatise on where many fantastical metals are supposed to fit on the periodic table. In fact there is little to suggest that ”metals” lend themselves to be organised in such a fashion in a world of fantasy and magic. Skip reality for a while and immerse yourself in the fantastic. Perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t. Who cares? Is the game fun and immersive? There are far more things to get hung up on about the physics of DnD than the presence of ”Cold Iron”. Falling damage, and pressure damage while submerged and breathing water, both spring to mind.