Socketing Items! DnD homebrew concept

[nakedonmyfoldin]

If anyone has played a Diablo game, they know all about socketing. I think it would be a great concept to add to D&D games. At a cost, certain craftsmen could theoretically create sockets in your gear that you could insert gems into, bestowing magical properties to the items. I'm not worried about balance, this I can do. There will be a great cost for socketing items, and only a fraction of gems will have magical properties. I want to come up with some magical properties that can be earned from these gems. I'll start with the obvious ones (from Diablo):

Ruby - Fire Damage
Sapphire - Cold Damage
Emerald - Acid/Poison
Topaz - Electric Damage

What are some other gems and corresponding effects that could be used? There could be small attribute boosts for things like Onyx, Diamonds, Pearls, Amethysts, etc. Lets have some fun, variety is the spice of life!

[ranagrande]

I'd recommend looking up the socketing system in World of Warcraft and adapting that. They have like 700 different gems or something.

[karinrin55]

If you look in the DND 3.5 Magic Item Compendium you'll find examples of something called crystals which you can put on your weapon armor and shield. Maybe you would get some ideas there, or look over the weapon special abilities also found in that book. Hope this is helpful :)

[Scorponok]

Ruby - Fire Damage
Sapphire - Cold Damage
Emerald - Acid/Poison
Topaz - Electric Damage

From my own campaign:

Ruby - Fire damage
Polarcrystal (also called Aquamarine) - Cold damage
Emerald - Sonic damage
Topaz - Poison damage
Amethyst - Electric damage
Sapphire - Acid damage
Opal - Vile damage
Diamond - Radiant damage

[Guunthar]

I think it would be a great concept to add to D&D games. At a cost, certain craftsmen could theoretically create sockets in your gear that you could insert gems into, bestowing magical properties to the items!

Unearthed Arcana Wilderness survival for 5e has a great take on this, please have a look. We have started implementing aspects and it has worked great thus far. I attempted to post a link but do not have the privilege to do so. Investigate and you should be able to find it.

Harvesting of raw materials, crafting, socketing, etc. I have made a personal twist to work in our campaign that someone must train and have lapidary skills to cut the raw gemstones into gems that can be socketed and the jeweler must have a jewelers kit and skills to set them properly. Crafting takes place during the two hours of watch while taking a long rest. They roll Dex skills for gem cutting and socketing, interruptions by random wandering encounters creates distractions that may cause major failures.

We have a Dwarf Artisan that is proficient in Smithing and has utilized a forge in town, trading labor to repair items that the townsfolk have requested to be repaired for time to utilize the forge. All raw materials must be collected or purchased and depending on the difficulty of the item to be enhanced with sockieting it may take several visits to the forge to complete the process.

At any rate I think if someone looks here for information regarding the subject... this might be helpful even without the link.

Thank you,
Guunthar


Thank you,
Guunthar

[Falontani]

A few things.
1. There is a homebrew section for ideas like these.
2. Forge of War has Dragonshard Pommel stones, these should be exclusive (a weapon can only take advantage of one at a time)
3. Since gems have prices in the dmg and mic, the damage dice could scale based on what value the gem has (from 1 damage up to maybe 1d12)
4. Black Onyx should do negative damage, diamonds could do positive damage.

[Mike Miller]

Although already mentioned, the armor and weapons crystals from the magic item compendium would definitely be worth looking at.

[Buufreak]

And then the market finds a coveted item more valuable and rare than any before: a Zod.

[CactusAir]

http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/gourmend#toc36

It's a slightly silly "killing things with candycane weapons socketed with chocolate truffles" theme, but it does use sockets!