Suggestions for Adamantine equipment

[PotatoGolem]

Hey guys,

I gave my players adamantine equipment last time we played as a reward for finishing a major quest arc. I run a super low-magic world (they have no permanent magic items at level 7 and have never seen a scroll), but I wanted to give them cool and thematic goodies as a reward. The monk got a short sword made by his order's greatest weaponsmiths, and the bladelock got a shield that was uncovered in an ancient ruined temple of warlocks devoted to his patron back when there was more than one of them. The players seem super amped with their new toys, and I'm very happy with my fluff and descriptions in-game, but I have a slight problem: I have no idea what the crunch should be. So I figured I'd ask the collective genius of the Playground to help me out. Here's the rough guidelines I have in mind:

1) I use Sunder rules, so adamantine equipment all has the special property of being un-sunderable except with an adamantine weapon. Non-adamantine is vulnerable to damage from an adamantine weapon. This is nice and thematic, but not really enough for their big reward.

2) I want it to be useful and powerful, but not overtly magical (so no fire damage or anything).

3) Would be nice if it played into the characters' strengths or gave them more options (players are an Open Hand monk with one level of cleric and a bladelock with Shield Master).

Any and all suggestions appreciated!

[Safety Sword]

Hey guys,

I gave my players adamantine equipment last time we played as a reward for finishing a major quest arc. I run a super low-magic world (they have no permanent magic items at level 7 and have never seen a scroll), but I wanted to give them cool and thematic goodies as a reward. The monk got a short sword made by his order's greatest weaponsmiths, and the bladelock got a shield that was uncovered in an ancient ruined temple of warlocks devoted to his patron back when there was more than one of them. The players seem super amped with their new toys, and I'm very happy with my fluff and descriptions in-game, but I have a slight problem: I have no idea what the crunch should be. So I figured I'd ask the collective genius of the Playground to help me out. Here's the rough guidelines I have in mind:

1) I use Sunder rules, so adamantine equipment all has the special property of being un-sunderable except with an adamantine weapon. Non-adamantine is vulnerable to damage from an adamantine weapon. This is nice and thematic, but not really enough for their big reward.

2) I want it to be useful and powerful, but not overtly magical (so no fire damage or anything).

3) Would be nice if it played into the characters' strengths or gave them more options (players are an Open Hand monk with one level of cleric and a bladelock with Shield Master).

Any and all suggestions appreciated!

Do you want suggestions on what adamantine should do, or what these specific weapons & shields should do?

[PotatoGolem]

Either would be appreciated, but those items in particular would be extra helpful

[bid]

Pick magic items that can be refluffed into exceptional craftsmanship.

- weapon/armor can be +1
- armor can be stealthy
- boots could be water/acid proof
- bracers of parry (increase AC on reaction)

Since you are the DM, you will adjust encounters to compensate for those nice toys. Anything that brings fun to combat is good.

[Safety Sword]

Here are some things I have off the top of my head:

Adamantine swords can be made so thin and sharp that they can apply a bleed effect to certain targets (perhaps just humanoids and beasts). The bleed inflicts 1 hit point of damage every round until the target receives magical healing (this would make it powerful in a low magic setting).

Adamantine needs to be forged in the hottest forges because it is resistant to fire. This could grant some reduction in fire damage taken by those who hold the shield. You could make this a fixed number (5 points etc.), or actual resistance, that's up to you. This property might activate on a successful DEX save (simulating ducking behind the shield).

Adamantine weapons might ignore slashing resistance but confer no other magical property.

[Kane0]

Don't forget, adamantine is tougher than most substances so that shortsword should be able to cut through a lot of stuff thats not normally cuttable. Could even use it to scale a wall or something.

The shield could be great at absorbing necrotic or radiant attacks, or be dense and hard enough to momentarily stun someone smacked in the face with it.

[Coidzor]

Hmm. The shield does Proficiency bonus+Str bludgeoning damage on a successful Shove and does half damage on a failed shove. Or something like 1d4 or 1d6+Str bludgeoning damage and then when they resist the shove it's just Str damage or half damage it would do on a successful shove. Or just Proficiency bonus in damage. Or lets them make a follow-up attack with the shield using their reaction or just for free after they successfully shove someone.

As for the sword... Bonus action disarm or sunder after they successfully hit an enemy using their Attack action might be nice. Maybe counter-sunder or counter-disarm as a reaction when people fail to sunder or disarm their short sword?

[Cool Trash]

If you want to go exotic or unorthodox, I'd give them a length of adamantine chain. Have the chains be impossibly thin and wiry, with edges so sharp that it can be used a whip, and if used to restrain someone, any attempts to escape would cause a large amount of near-unavoidable damage. For it to work, they'd probably also need some form of special gloves and a lot of balls, but in for a penny, in for a pound.

In addition, you could have adamantine weapons be automatically intimidating. Make it so when they're edges are visible, they're almost unnaturally sharp. Unnervingly sharp. Seeing an adamantine sword slice through the air, especially at you, should be terrifying and require either a Wisdom or Charisma save.

Real life arrows, when fired properly, had a tendency to punch through quite a bit of armor(this entire topic is a bit of debate, from what I've seen, but let's not get into that). Adamantine arrows or bolts could completely ignore armor.

How about a mask? An adamantine mask could also be intimidating and give advantage on skill checks, or it could make a player harder to sneak attack/be crit(little chance of getting struck in the eyes). Might also give a monk a bit of extra damage should he go for a headbutt.

[Cespenar]

The shortsword, in addition to the sunder bonuses, could also give a free sunder attempt on the target's armor upon hit.

The shield could reflect cantrips back upon a successful miss, or give double/triple AC/Reflex bonuses against spells.

[Seruvius]

Simulate the incredible hardness/sharpness by giving the shield user some damage reduction (say DR2) and the sword a sort of armour piercing ability. Maybe even touch attack

[Groggen]

I gave the players in my campaign lumps of rare metals as loot, and they then could choose what to make. My campaign is not exactly low-magic, but here's the alternatives I gave them:

Adamantine shield 1: A thinner, but larger than average shield reinforced with adamantine. Unbreakable. This shield gives the bearer resistance to area damage when he succeeds on a Dex save roll.

Adamantine shield 2: A compact shield reinforced with adamantine. Unbreakable. This shield gives the bearer Advantage on Shove checks.

Mithral shield: An exceptionally light, but sturdy shield of white and silvery Mithral. The light weight grants the bearer the shield bonus to Dex saves to avoid damage.

Adamantine weapon: A well-balanced, honey brown weapon of massive heft. Unbreakable.
- On a Critical Hit: Push the target 5 feet.
- Damage Advantage against metal armored opponents. Roll weapon damage die twice and apply the larger result.
(I envisioned this primarily as a bludgeoning weapon)

Keen Mithral weapon: An unusually light weapon with an edge as sharp as they come.
- Has a Critical range of 19-20.
- Damage Advantage against unarmored opponents (This includes magical warding such as Mage Armor and natural armor). Roll weapon damage twice and apply the larger result.

Balanced Mithral weapon: An unusually light weapon with an exceptional balance.
- The balance gives the wielder extraordinary control. Reroll Natural 1’s.
- Damage Advantage against unarmored opponents (This includes magical warding such as Mage Armor and natural armor). Roll weapon damage twice and apply the larger result.

I also threw some silver in the weapons, in order to make them count as silvered.

[1Forge]

Have the shield be large enough that if the warlock curls into a ball he can benefit from total cover (but cant do much else) the fetal position would become the safest position. :P

[stenver]

In my campaign, I gave players adamatine weapons. The benefits are as follows:

* Weapon is considered magical
* Weapon crits on 19
* Weapon goes through some special creatures damage resistance(I have some campaign specific creatures that have immunity/resistance to a lot of stuff, but vulnerability to adamatinum).

On top of that - whenever something should break for any reason, the adamantine weapons most probably will not break.

[Vogonjeltz]

The shield could reduce crit range against you by 1. (Armor turns all crits into hits, so this would be a lesser version of that)
The weapon could add 1 to the range of whatever the user crits on. So 19-20 for everyone but Champions, 17-20 for Champions.

Neither of these benefits would apply vs adamantine (i.e. shield has no effect on adamantine swords and adamantine weapons have no effect on the shields/armor).