Metal balls!(the crafting kind)

[finaldooms]

So i posted a bit ago that im making a dwarf hulking hurler/ war titan. ( yay) my current issue is before i go war titan i need/want to craft balls of metal to get enchanted with returning. How would i figure out the price for that? ( obviously i want them as heavy as possible)

[DrMotives]

How heavy are we talking? 3.0's Sword & Fist (I've seen no 3.5 update to this weapon, so it's valid as is from 3.0) has the Orcish Shotput. It's described as a "grapefruit-sized iron sphere". 10 gp, 2d6 damage, 19-20/x3 crit, 10' range increment bludgeoning thrown weapon. Pricing on a sized up version, and you're looking at cannonballs.

[AvatarVecna]

So i posted a bit ago that im making a dwarf hulking hurler/ war titan. ( yay) my current issue is before i go war titan i need/want to craft balls of metal to get enchanted with returning. How would i figure out the price for that? ( obviously i want them as heavy as possible)

I've run into this problem myself. The biggest obstacle to typical hulking hurler tactics is that you can't enchant a weapon that isn't of masterwork quality, but improvised weapons aren't designed as weapons (hence the name), so it's all but impossible for them to be masterwork weapons and thus viable targets for enchanting. There is, however, a solution: special materials. Any weapon made out of adamantine counts as masterwork (which is both RAW and RAI - any weapon made of such a valuable and heavy material was obviously made by a master craftsman), but adamantine can be made into items that aren't intended to be weapons, such as the classic example of accidental loot (the adamantine door). Adamantine can only be used to make an item that's normally made of metal, so have your local master smith make you a giant bowling ball made of adamantine allow; this will cost 3000 gp (the adamantine weapon upgrade price) plus whatever the normal value for such a weapon would be if made of solid metal (whatever metal that is, and how much that would cost, is between you and your DM).

From there, you have an adamantine alloy ball that can be enchanted as a weapon, since it's a weapon made out of adamantine (and all weapons made out of adamantine are masterwork).

[finaldooms]

Thanks! I forgot it had to be masterwork for enchanting( goal is returning) and currently im trying for at least 700lbs ( my light is 932) i saw somewhere that iron is 1sp/lb so 700 would be 70gp i think? Starting off at lvl 5 so i have my enlarge done and bought some gear leaving me with 5k ish left

[finaldooms]

How heavy are we talking? 3.0's Sword & Fist (I've seen no 3.5 update to this weapon, so it's valid as is from 3.0) has the Orcish Shotput. It's described as a "grapefruit-sized iron sphere". 10 gp, 2d6 damage, 19-20/x3 crit, 10' range increment bludgeoning thrown weapon. Pricing on a sized up version, and you're looking at cannonballs.

Cannonballs would probly work actually. .i dont think the dm is going to like this character after 1fight anyways so im just aiming for a quick "look i squished it" moment before writting up a rogue lol

[AvatarVecna]

Thanks! I forgot it had to be masterwork for enchanting( goal is returning) and currently im trying for at least 700lbs ( my light is 932) i saw somewhere that iron is 1sp/lb so 700 would be 70gp i think? Starting off at lvl 5 so i have my enlarge done and bought some gear leaving me with 5k ish left

Cost looks okay for an iron-adamantine alloy sphere of metal, although the weight is lower than I'm used to. I'm not sure your DM is going to have a huge problem with your character of your level getting one attack to deal 7d6 damage (when a rogue of your level could be dual-wielding and dealing 4d6 on two attacks). Of course, as you gain levels and Strength, those numbers will go up, but for now you're not exactly blowing the rest of the party out of the water.

Also, remember that getting Returning on a weapon costs at least 8000 gp on top of the base weapon cost (+1 enchantment, and then Returning which is a +1 equivalent, plugged into the formula 2000*bonus*bonus).

[finaldooms]

. I'm not sure your DM is going to have a huge problem with your character of your level getting one attack to deal 7d6 damage (when a rogue of your level could be dual-wielding and dealing 4d6 on two attacks). Of course, as you gain levels and Strength, those numbers will go up, but for now you're not exactly blowing the rest of the party out of the water.

Also, remember that getting Returning on a weapon costs at least 8000 gp on top of the base weapon cost (+1 enchantment, and then Returning which is a +1 equivalent, plugged into the formula 2000*bonus*bonus).

Ok so ..*edit*.11070 for 1 ball at 700lb ( not to bad actually) and atm my str is a 24 at lvl 5 ( dm doesnt think +1 every 4 lvls is strong enough so he has us roll 1d4 each time)
Add in war hulk (+20 str in the end) and lets say i get 4 every time thats +40 str before items ( total of 60 as large and 18 base)

Thats if i dont dont just make a iron spike lol
.then its 9d6 if i read the chart right at lvl 6 ..and the dm is normally generous with gold so il get another dwarf to craft me a bigger ball ( boo war hulk feature) ...btw i do add my str to thrown damage right?

[AvatarVecna]

Ok so ..*edit*.11070 for 1 ball at 700lb ( not to bad actually) and atm my str is a 24 at lvl 5 ( dm doesnt think +1 every 4 lvls is strong enough so he has us roll 1d4 each time)
Add in war hulk (+20 str in the end) and lets say i get 4 every time thats +40 str before items ( total of 60 as large and 18 base)

Thats if i dont dont just make a iron spike lol
.then its 9d6 if i read the chart right at lvl 6 ..and the dm is normally generous with gold so il get another dwarf to craft me a bigger ball ( boo war hulk feature) ...btw i do add my str to thrown damage right?

If you want the spiky damage, don't be fancy, make it a spike ball (http://oi50.tinypic.com/9ptk40.jpg) with a handle on it for throwing. That would make your 700 lb spike ball the equivalent of 1400 lbs for damage purposes (10d6 damage). Yes, you add your Str to damage with thrown weapons. In addition to Str upgrades, you'll want to increase your size if possible, and upgrade your carrying capacity directly (such as the Natural Heavyweight feat, or the Belt Of The Earth from the Magic Item Compendium). You'll wanna be careful how far you push this, as this damage can get ridiculous fast, particularly if you're using a spiky ball instead of a giant cannon ball: with a +4 to Strength at lvl 8, the Natural Heavyweight feat, and a Belt of the Wide Earth, your Large now-Str 28 Dwarf will be rocking a light load of 3200 lbs (cannon ball 19d6, spiky ball 35d6), or if you took Overburdened Heave at Hulking Hurler 2, a medium load of 6400 lbs (cannon ball 35d6, spiky ball 67d6). This can get particularly ridiculous if you throw Barbarian, War Hulk, Frenzied Berserker, or Bear Warrior+Warshaper into the mix in any combination.

[AvatarVecna]

Long story short: don't worry about your damage. If you put too much effort into optimizing it beyond a Str +6 belt and the +1d4 every 4 levels, your DM will probably not be able to provide a fight that doesn't make some member of the party useless (either the rest of the party, by presenting somebody with so many HP that it's hard for even you to chew through them, or making you useless by presenting an enemy immune to your "throw a big rock" tactics).

[finaldooms]

Im actually doing A fighter/hulking/hulk just cause it looks fun and we already have a barb...i do have natural heavyweight though and im actually thinking of using smaller objects for now untill we have an oh sh** moment lol. .spiked ball sounds fun!! Is that just a ball with armor spikes?

Im not really sure what else i need feat wise either. .i got all the requirements and brutal throw and now im just not sure.

[AvatarVecna]

Im actually doing A fighter/hulking/hulk just cause it looks fun and we already have a barb...i do have natural heavyweight though and im actually thinking of using smaller objects for now untill we have an oh sh** moment lol. .spiked ball sounds fun!! Is that just a ball with armor spikes?

Im not really sure what else i need feat wise either. .i got all the requirements and brutal throw and now im just not sure.

If you have at least 4 Fighter levels, pick up Weapon Focus/Specialization, so you can get Ranged Weapon Mastery as appropriate to your spiky ball; the +2 to attack and damage is almost meaningless compared to the +20ft range increment. Make sure to pick up the Far Shot feat, get the Distance weapon enchantment on your ball, and pick up a pair of Gauntlets of extended range. The +20 ft from RWM will be applied before multipliers regardless of when you acquire these things, so once you have all of them you'll have a 240ft range increment (since distance is a real-world measurement, all of those doublings multiply the way they normally would, rather than via D&D's weird damage multiplication mechanic that's actually additive rather than multiplicative).

EDIT: You don't even really need all of these things, but sticking with the original 10ft range increment limits your ability to toss your rock to targets within 50 ft; if you use all of these things, you could hurl your boulder as far as 1200 ft, which takes away one of the main ways to limit your ability to deal damage in combat (namely, kiting tactics).