Juunro
2007-08-23, 02:58 PM
The following was produced by me for the Planescape game I run; the PC's liked it enough that they suggested I post it here for anyone to peruse, use or make additions to. This is Looooooong, be forwarned. :smallwink:
Of Magic Armor and Weapons; an Alternate system.
This is a method to create magical arms and armor without actually being able to cast spells yourself.
Feat: Alchemical Forging
Prerequisite: 8 ranks of Blacksmithing, Skill Focus: Blacksmithing.
Benefit: Allows the creation to magically enhanced masterwork arms and armor through a combination of alchemy and using materials that are rare and powerful; effectively the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat except you need no spell casting ability.
Rules:
Items are created by combining a Base Material and a Temper material. Multiple temper materials may be used.
Base Materials:
Damascus Steel
Meteoric Iron
Ironwood
Green Iron
Elysium Steel
Fierium Brass
Astral Silver
Carcerium
Adamantium
Etherium
Kobalt-Copper
Mican-Crystal
Luminite
Pandemialite
Shadalium
Kharach
Trollbone
Aerite-Aluminide
Chriolite
Damascus Steel:
-300g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 22
-Difficulty: 20
-Description: A well refined type of steel with a very specific mix of Tin, Zinc, and Mithril. Does not occur in nature; must be obtained from the very few master metallurgists that know of its creation. Appears as a fine steel that shines and glitters even without polish.
Meteoric Iron:
-600g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 26
-Difficulty: 25
-Special: Heavy
-Description: Iron from the core of meteorites that strike prime worlds occasionally; some unknown process in the void outside of the crystal spheres crystallizes the iron into a super-hard material that courses with the low thrum of magic. Dark gray metal that weighs a lot more then it should.
Ironwood:
-250g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 30
-Difficulty: 24
-Special: Immunity to Rust
-Description: Wood from the core of an Ironwood Tree, rare trees only found in the fey domains of Arborea and the Celedrine, and in some ancient and fey locations on the prime material plane; impossible to remove from the tree intact with conventional means; only a druids Woodshaping spells can get an intact piece requires for forging from the tree; that's assuming its fey guardians don't stop you first. Appears as a black metal with the striations of polished wood.
Green Iron
-250g/pound
-Allows: +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 18
-Difficulty: 30/20
-Special: Easier to work in a Hellforge on Baator
-Description: A strange form of iron from the hellish plane of Baator, common enough on Avernus provided you can set up a mining operation long enough to dig the materials out without an army of fiends showing up to gack you. The fiends are known to sell it in the trading burg of Malbolge, though getting there provides its own dangers. Appears as steel with a slight greenish tint to the metal.
Elysium Steel:
-500g/pound
-Allows +4 enhancement
-Rarity: 26
-Difficulty: 27
-Special: Electrical Damage
-Description: A bluish metal formed when Elysium's Tears strike exposed iron veins in the upper mountain tops of that plane; when forged takes on a fine blue hue and when pressed to the ear echo's distant thunder.
Fierium Brass:
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Fire Damage
-A form of bronze that occurs when a pocket of the quasi-plane of Minerals enters into the Plane of Fire, the bronze is melted out by the eternal flames of that plane and crystallizes into this form of brass; which when forged appears like regular brass except with a very slight reddish glow. It emits a very quiet echo of the fires that forged it.
Astral Silver
-250g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 30
-Difficulty: 25
-Special: Increased Resilience to Mind Affecting spells/powers
-A strange metal that is liquid in form on the Astral plane; it is made of crystallized thoughts. When it is processed and solidified, it forms a dull silver colored metal that seems to shift under the eyes very slightly; as if it were liquid just underneath the surface of the metal.
Carcerium
-400g/pound
-Allows +4 enhancement
-Rarity: 26
-Difficulty: 30
-Special: Increase DC of inherent effects
-A mineral formed on Carceri; originally Iron or Steel, it is forged into any one of the prisons on that plane (say, as prison bars, spikes, locks, etc) and after aeons of exposure to the energies of that plane, it goes through a metamorphosis and begins to thrum with power. It appears as a yellowish tinted form of steel; if placed against your ear you can hear the moans of the damned and the imprisoned from the plane of its creation.
Adamantium
-200g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity 20
-Difficulty: 23
-A naturally occurring mineral that creates a dull gray/light purple metal that is super-hard. Common on the elemental plane of earth and in the lowest reaches of some prime worlds.
Etherium
-10000g/pound
-Allows +6 enhancement
-Rarity: 35
-Difficulty: 32
-Special: Ethereal strike/defense
-A pure-white metal found in the deep ethereal; the way in which it is created is unknown, but it is found near demiplanes. Exceedingly rare.
Kobalt-Copper
-400g/pound
-Allows: +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Cold Damage
-Formed when a pocket of Earth or Mineral ends up on the paraelemental plane of water, appears as a blue-green metal that shifts colors when you look at it from different angles between various shades of deep blue and light green.
Mican-Crystal
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Acid Damage
-A type of super-hard salt that can be melted and reforged like a metal, it is only found deep in the para-elemental plane of Salt. Appears as a light brown metal.
Pandemialite
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Sonic Damage
-A metal that randomly changes colors native to the plane of Pandemonium. When you listen closely to it you can hear screaming winds.
Luminite
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 35
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Positive Energy Damage
-An iron-like metal formed in areas with great excesses of positive energy; ancient cathedrals, deep jungles, vast kelp seas, and most commonly on the Positive Energy Plane.
Shadalium
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity 35
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Negative Energy Damage
-An iron-like metal formed in areas with great excesses of negative energy; beneath cities destroyed by a plague, huge swamps, in the crypt of an ancient vampire, it is also relatively common on the negative energy plane.
Kharach
-2000g/pound
-Allows up to a +6 enhancement
-Rarity 36
-Difficulty: 35
-Special: Personal Enhancement
-An olive metal from the plane of limbo, it resonates with the souls of those who hold it.
Trollbone
-400g/pound
-Allows up to a +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 24
-Difficulty: 30
-Special: Self-repair
-The bones from ancient and powerful trolls; only the mightiest of trollkin on the planes have the inherent resonance and toughness for their bones to keep these properties when forged.
Aerite-Aluminide
-600g/pound
-Allows up to a +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 24
-Special: Enhanced Range (ammo and throwing weapons only)
-A very light blue tinted metal that is formed when clouds on the plane of air reach a big enough size to condense the material in the middle into an ultralight metal.
Chriolite
-1000g/pound
-Allows up to a +4 enhancement
-Rarity: 32
-Difficulty: 30
-Special: Time-bending
-Formed in areas where there have been major alterations done to a timeline, or large amounts of chronomancy have gone off. It is a metal with no color the human brain can understand; you can look right at it and find yourself unable describe it.
Notes:
For each +1 the forger dedicates to the base metal itself, you gain 1 point of the special bonuses built in, by the following table:
-Meteoric Iron: -1 to DR's.
-Elysium Steel: 1 electrical damage
-Fierium Brass: 1 fire damage
-Astral Silver: +1 to Will.
-Carcerium: +1 to DC's
-Pandemialite: 1 sonic damage
-Luminite: 1 positive energy damage
-Shadalium: 1 negative energy damage
-Mican Crystal: 1 acid damage
-Kobalt-Copper: 1 cold damage
-Kharach: +1 to all stats per total of +3 enhancement used
-Trollbone: Weapons and Armor made with trollbone self-repair over time (1 hit point per hour) unless destroyed fully.
-Aerite-Aluminide: +50% range to arrows/knives/bullets
-Chriolite: +1 initiative (only ever +1)
Armors made with the material that have an elemental property protect the wearer from that much damage of that type. For instance; Chainmail +2 made of Shadalium will protect you from 2 points of negative energy damage in addition to its +2 armor property. Weapons work differently: For example, an Elysium Steel weapon that is forged solely from Elysium up to a +2 will do +2 Electrical Damage, while a Meteoric Iron Sword up to +2 will ignore 2 points of all DR's.
Stats:
Cost = Obvious. It takes 1 pound of the material per pound of the armor, or per 2 pounds of the weapon (weapons must be refined to a greater extent)
-Enhancement Allowance: This is the maximum magic bonus attainable using this particular material, the total possible bonus is +2 higher.
(So an Adamantium Sword can be +4 total enchantment, +2 untempered)
-Rarity: This is the Gather Information DC required to find a place to purchase this material in an average city (Sigil), this DC may be changed based on where you happen to be*
-Difficulty: This is the Craft DC required to work with this particular material.
-Special: This tells you want the basic properties of this material are.
*It is recommended that DM's make these metals unpurchasable in any but the largest trading cities, and then should be super rare.
Forging:
It requires a material called Arcanium, which is a crystalline material uncommon on the planes. Arcanium is far too soft to be used as a material itself, but is prized for its ability to draw out magical properties in other things. In its most pure form, it can be used in place of most spell components, which is another reason it is highly sought after by mages and their ilk. Arcanium occurs naturally in places that have seen great magical flux, fortunately, thanks to the Blood War and the very nature of the planes itself, that's not that hard a thing to find. It takes the forms of blue-purple crystals that range in size from a finger to a small coin. When it is ground up and alchemically combined with ingots of certain materials, it draws out their magical properties, allowing them to be forged into magical items.
The cheapest form of forging consists of simply forging the weapon with the base metal and Arcanium; this produces weapons and armor with a +1 basic enhancement, with whatever special property the metal contains. Enhancing weapons or armor to just have the powers of the base metal costs as much as it would if you were using an Alloying Materials except divided by half. So a long sword +4 made of Elysium Steel takes 4600 gold instead of 9200 gold.
Arcanium costs 100g per ounce, due to the inerrant dangers of mining it (high magic zones) and that you usually have to stake a claim and hold it against the natives that want to use it themselves. It requires 1 ounce per pound of material to be smithed.
Alloying:
There are many materials you can use to Alloy magical arms and armor created with this method, to create varying effects. Once a weapon is thus forged, it cannot be farther enhanced or empowered. Multiple effects can be combined until you get to the maximum + allowed by base material.
You may double up on the bonuses of these materials by further forging it with the same material, up to the maximum bonus allowed by the basic material.
Costs:
+1: 800g
+2: 2400g
+3: 4800g
+4: 9200g
+5: 19200g
+6: 28400g
+7: 36000g
+8: 45000g
+9: 61000g
+10: 80000g
The above are the theoretical costs of all the tempers except Arcanium required to craft a weapon or piece of armor with that particular level of enhancement. All of this is added up, so two +1 effects = 2400g, for instance. The costs go up as they do due to the increased amount of the materials required to alloy the additional properties together.
This of course assumes you can actually FIND any of these for sale.
Dust materials must be compressed into the coals of the forge prior to forging, while liquids must be what the blade or armor is quenched in.
Alloy Materials:
Dragon Blood
-4 gallons Blood from any dragon Adult age or greater.
Daemon Blood
-4 gallons Blood from a Tanar'ri of 16 HD or more.
Devil Blood
-4 gallons Blood from a Baatezu of 16 HD or more.
Beastlord Blood
-4 gallons Blood from an animal from the Beastlands of maximum HD for its type.
Aaisimar Blood-4 gallons Blood from an Aaisimar (angel) of 16 HD of more.
Yugoloth Blood
-4 gallons Blood from a Yugoloth of 16 or more HD.
Dragon Scales
-25 pounds of Scales from an Adult or greater dragon.
Diamond
5 pounds of Diamond (does not need to be gem quality)
Sapphire
5 pounds of Sapphire (does not need to be gem quality)
Smokey Quartz
-5 pounds of Smokey Quartz (does not need to be gem quality)
Emerald
-5 pounds of Emerald (does not need to be gem quality)
Opal
-5 pounds of Opal (does not need to be gem quality, needs to be the same color)
Ruby
-5 pounds of Ruby (does not need to be gem quality)
Flame Agate
-5 pounds of Flame Agate (does not need to be gem quality)
Obsidian
-5 pounds of Obsidian (does not need to be gem quality)
Netherium
-1 pound of the silvery metal must be smelted into the material evenly
Mercury
-1 pound of the liquid metal must be mixed with the metal while it is being smelted.
Naga Venom
-The item must be quenched in 5 gallons of the viscous liquid.
Crystalline Acid
-1 pound of the crystals must be crushed and smelted into the metal during the forging process.
Limbus Gas
-The item must be forged in a room where there is more of the gas then air, the gas is collected from the deep Limbo and contains the stuff of chaos.
Liquid Color
-This material must be collected from the color pools on the astral and smelted into the metal during the forging process.
Vampire Dust
-40 pounds of the dust must be treated with chemicals and mixed into the base metal (requires 4 dead vampires for sufficient dust)
Lich Dust
-16 pounds of powdered lich skull must be treated with chemicals and mixed into the base metal (requires 4 dead liches)
Wraith Dust
-20 pounds of powdered wraith dust must be treated with chemicals and mixed into the base metal (requires 4 dead wraiths)
Golem Shards
-5 pounds of material from the core of a golem must be crushed and smelted into the base metal
Essence of the Juggernaut
-5 pounds of material from the core of a juggernaut must be crushed and smelted into the base metal
Gray Dust
-10 pounds of purest gray dust from the Gray Wastes must be chemically treated and mixed into the base metal
Quicksilver
-20 ounces of liquid mirror, from either a Quicksilver Golem or a Quicksilver dragon, must be mixed into base material.
Void Sphere
-A void sphere must be hammered into the metal during smithing evenly; Void Sphere's are what's left are you hit a Sphere of Annihilation with a Disintegration spell or a Disjunction.
Fiend Tears
-The honestly shed tears of any evil outsider (1 vial must be mixed into the base metal)
Arcanist Imbuement
-A Sensorium Stone that contains the memories of a mage that was capable of casting 9th level spells, powdered and mixed into the base metal.
Rune of Torment
-A platinum icon forged in Sigil and quenched in the still living entrails of a tortured man.
Gears of Mechanus
-Tiny proto-gears that float independently in the voids between the gears of mechanus; must be set into the item during forging
Shadow Water
-Water from the demiplane of Shadow; appears like liquid blackness. 5 gallons required to quench item in.
Essence of Dread
-Captured fog from the Demiplane of Dread; weapon must be forged in a room filled with the fog.
Elder Brain Brine
-Brine from the pool that an Illithid Elder-brain resides within. Requires 5 gallons to quence the item in.
Caged Radiance
-Light from the plane of Radiance trapped within an enchanted box with multiple mirrors inside. Must be big enough to fully contain item, which will be left to cool within it.
Dragon Blood:
Weapon: Elemental Burst by type.
Armor: Fortification: Light
Daemon Blood:
Weapon: +1 vs Law
Armor: Protection from Law +1
Devil Blood:
Weapon: +1 vs Chaos
Armor: Protection from Chaos +1
Beastlord Blood:
Weapon: Bane*
Armor: Wild
*must be further tempered with the blood of the creature it is enhanced against
Aasimar Blood:
Weapon: +1 vs Evil
Armor: Protection from Evil +1
Yugoloth Blood
Weapon: +1 vs Good
Armor: Protection from Good
Dragon Scales
Weapon: Spell Storing
Armor: Spell Resistance (13)
Diamond:
Weapon: Enhanced Elemental Damage (+1 electrical becomes +1d6 electrical)
Armor: Enhanced Elemental Protection (+1-2 becomes 10, +3 or above becomes 20)
Sapphire:
Weapon: +1d6 Cold Damage
Armor: +5 frost resist
Emerald:
Weapon: +1d6 Acid Damage
Armor: +5 acid Resist
Opal:
Weapon: +1d6 Sonic Damage
Armor: +5 sonic resist
Ruby:
Weapon: +1d6 fire damage
Armor: +5 fire resist
Smokey Quartz:
Weapon: +1d6 electricity damage
Armor: +5 electricity resist
Flame Agate:
Weapon: +1d6 Positive Energy Damage
Armor: +5 Positive Energy Resist
Obsidian:
Weapon: +1d6 Negative Energy Damage
Armor: +5 negative energy resist.
Netherium:
Weapon: Keen
Armor: Invulnerability
Mercury:
Weapon: Ki-focus
Armor: Spell Resistance 15
Naga Venom:
Weapon: Wounding
Armor: Poison Resistance
Crystalline Acid:
Weapon: Sundering (ignore materials hardness)
Armor: Fortification, Moderate
Limbus Gas
Weapon: Returning
Armor: Glamered
Liquid Color
Weapon: Vertigen (Spin the weapon to give anyone nearby vertigo; DC 14 or unable to take action)
Armor: Blinding
Vampire Dust:
Weapon: Vampiric
Armor: Immunity to Level Drain
Lich Dust:
Weapon: Spellbreaker (weapon can be used to 'attack' perminent enchantments; effectively a dispel magic attempt 1/day per plus)
Armor: Undead Controlling
Wraith Dust:
Weapon: Vicious
Armor: Ghost Touch
Golem Shards:
Weapon: Disruption
Armor: Fortification; Heavy
Essence of the Juggernaut
Weapon: Mighty Cleaving
Armor: Spiked
Gray Dust:
Weapon: Exsanquinous (critical hits cause bleeding wounds; 1d4 bleeding damage per round till magical healing applied)
Armor: Shadow
Quicksilver:
Weapon: Speed
Armor: Reflecting
Void Sphere:
Weapon: Vorpal
Armor: Ghost Touch
Fiend Tears:
Weapon: +1d6 Unholy Damage
Armor: Unhallowed (10 foot Unhallow effect around the wearer)
Arcanist Imbuement:
Weapon: Arcane Puissance (+1 attack bonus per 2 caster levels of wielder)
Armor: Comfort (5% spell failure)
Rune of Torment:
Weapon: Pain (Symbol of Pain effect: DC 13 (+1 per + of the weapon)
Armor: Pain Flashback (Symbol of Pain effect as above only when struck with a weapon (attack must connect, one save per target per round)
Gears of Mechanus
Weapon: Logical Conundrum (Confusion effect, DC13 (+1 per + of weapon) on strike)
Armor: Modron's Initiative (roll initiative once per encounter, instead of every round)
Shadow Water:
Weapon: Shadowed
Armor: Shadowed
Essence of Dread:
Weapon: Fear (DC13 (+1 per + of the weapon) effect on strike.
Armor: Dread Visage (DC13 (+1 per + of the armor) effect when struck)
Elder Brain Brine
Weapon: Psionically Attunable
Armor: Psionic Resistance
Caged Lightning
Weapon: Brilliant Energy Weapon
Armor: Energy Resistance 10
The total + of the weapon and armor enchants from tempering is equal to their equivilent bonus in the DMG.
Example Weapon made using this System:
Chromatic Long Sword+1 (+1d6 cold damage, +1d6 fire damage)
Base Weapon: Long Sword; 4 pounds.
8 Pounds of Fierium Brass (3200 gold)
4 ounces Arcanium: 400 gold
Forged with Sapphire, Arcanium and Diamond, effectively becoming a +3 weapon (sapphire for +1d6 cold damage, Diamond for enhancing the inherant +1 fire damage to +1d6 fire damage, Arcanium for the base +1) (2400g (+2 worth of alloy effects)
Total Final Cost: 6000g
Xp: 240
Total final Value: 9000g (its a +3 weapon)
Forging Time: 9 days (1 day per 1000g in value)
Craft DC was 26
Gather Information 28 to find materials on the market.
Elysium Steel Masterwork Dagger +4 (1d4 + 4 electrical damage)
2 pounds of Elysium Steel (1000g)
1 ounce of Arcanium (100g)
Refined Elysium Steel (4600g)
Total Cost: 5700g
Xp: 228
Total Final Value: 16000g
Forging Time: 16 days
Craft DC 26
Gather Information: 27 to find materials on the market.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Pure-metal weapons and armors don't do their Damage +bonus +elemental, the base +bonus is always done in elemental damage. Eg a weapon, as shown above with a +4 made of Elysium Steel will do its +4 bonus damage as electrical damage, while a Adamantium weapon with +2 will do its regular +2 weapons damage.
Advantages and Disadvantages:
The best magical weapons and armor cannot be created using this method; only ancient and powerful sorceries can create truly powerful artifacts and the like. The advantage with these weapons and armors is one of both cost and use; These magical devices draw their power from their own elements, not the plane on which they were created. As such, they suffer no negatives for being on any particular plane. A major disadvantage with these on the other hand is that they are not as tough as magically enhanced items, and do not gain their total magic bonus as a + vs being damaged or destroyed.
Of Magic Armor and Weapons; an Alternate system.
This is a method to create magical arms and armor without actually being able to cast spells yourself.
Feat: Alchemical Forging
Prerequisite: 8 ranks of Blacksmithing, Skill Focus: Blacksmithing.
Benefit: Allows the creation to magically enhanced masterwork arms and armor through a combination of alchemy and using materials that are rare and powerful; effectively the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat except you need no spell casting ability.
Rules:
Items are created by combining a Base Material and a Temper material. Multiple temper materials may be used.
Base Materials:
Damascus Steel
Meteoric Iron
Ironwood
Green Iron
Elysium Steel
Fierium Brass
Astral Silver
Carcerium
Adamantium
Etherium
Kobalt-Copper
Mican-Crystal
Luminite
Pandemialite
Shadalium
Kharach
Trollbone
Aerite-Aluminide
Chriolite
Damascus Steel:
-300g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 22
-Difficulty: 20
-Description: A well refined type of steel with a very specific mix of Tin, Zinc, and Mithril. Does not occur in nature; must be obtained from the very few master metallurgists that know of its creation. Appears as a fine steel that shines and glitters even without polish.
Meteoric Iron:
-600g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 26
-Difficulty: 25
-Special: Heavy
-Description: Iron from the core of meteorites that strike prime worlds occasionally; some unknown process in the void outside of the crystal spheres crystallizes the iron into a super-hard material that courses with the low thrum of magic. Dark gray metal that weighs a lot more then it should.
Ironwood:
-250g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 30
-Difficulty: 24
-Special: Immunity to Rust
-Description: Wood from the core of an Ironwood Tree, rare trees only found in the fey domains of Arborea and the Celedrine, and in some ancient and fey locations on the prime material plane; impossible to remove from the tree intact with conventional means; only a druids Woodshaping spells can get an intact piece requires for forging from the tree; that's assuming its fey guardians don't stop you first. Appears as a black metal with the striations of polished wood.
Green Iron
-250g/pound
-Allows: +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 18
-Difficulty: 30/20
-Special: Easier to work in a Hellforge on Baator
-Description: A strange form of iron from the hellish plane of Baator, common enough on Avernus provided you can set up a mining operation long enough to dig the materials out without an army of fiends showing up to gack you. The fiends are known to sell it in the trading burg of Malbolge, though getting there provides its own dangers. Appears as steel with a slight greenish tint to the metal.
Elysium Steel:
-500g/pound
-Allows +4 enhancement
-Rarity: 26
-Difficulty: 27
-Special: Electrical Damage
-Description: A bluish metal formed when Elysium's Tears strike exposed iron veins in the upper mountain tops of that plane; when forged takes on a fine blue hue and when pressed to the ear echo's distant thunder.
Fierium Brass:
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Fire Damage
-A form of bronze that occurs when a pocket of the quasi-plane of Minerals enters into the Plane of Fire, the bronze is melted out by the eternal flames of that plane and crystallizes into this form of brass; which when forged appears like regular brass except with a very slight reddish glow. It emits a very quiet echo of the fires that forged it.
Astral Silver
-250g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity: 30
-Difficulty: 25
-Special: Increased Resilience to Mind Affecting spells/powers
-A strange metal that is liquid in form on the Astral plane; it is made of crystallized thoughts. When it is processed and solidified, it forms a dull silver colored metal that seems to shift under the eyes very slightly; as if it were liquid just underneath the surface of the metal.
Carcerium
-400g/pound
-Allows +4 enhancement
-Rarity: 26
-Difficulty: 30
-Special: Increase DC of inherent effects
-A mineral formed on Carceri; originally Iron or Steel, it is forged into any one of the prisons on that plane (say, as prison bars, spikes, locks, etc) and after aeons of exposure to the energies of that plane, it goes through a metamorphosis and begins to thrum with power. It appears as a yellowish tinted form of steel; if placed against your ear you can hear the moans of the damned and the imprisoned from the plane of its creation.
Adamantium
-200g/pound
-Allows +2 enhancement
-Rarity 20
-Difficulty: 23
-A naturally occurring mineral that creates a dull gray/light purple metal that is super-hard. Common on the elemental plane of earth and in the lowest reaches of some prime worlds.
Etherium
-10000g/pound
-Allows +6 enhancement
-Rarity: 35
-Difficulty: 32
-Special: Ethereal strike/defense
-A pure-white metal found in the deep ethereal; the way in which it is created is unknown, but it is found near demiplanes. Exceedingly rare.
Kobalt-Copper
-400g/pound
-Allows: +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Cold Damage
-Formed when a pocket of Earth or Mineral ends up on the paraelemental plane of water, appears as a blue-green metal that shifts colors when you look at it from different angles between various shades of deep blue and light green.
Mican-Crystal
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Acid Damage
-A type of super-hard salt that can be melted and reforged like a metal, it is only found deep in the para-elemental plane of Salt. Appears as a light brown metal.
Pandemialite
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Sonic Damage
-A metal that randomly changes colors native to the plane of Pandemonium. When you listen closely to it you can hear screaming winds.
Luminite
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 35
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Positive Energy Damage
-An iron-like metal formed in areas with great excesses of positive energy; ancient cathedrals, deep jungles, vast kelp seas, and most commonly on the Positive Energy Plane.
Shadalium
-400g/pound
-Allows +3 enhancement
-Rarity 35
-Difficulty: 26
-Special: Negative Energy Damage
-An iron-like metal formed in areas with great excesses of negative energy; beneath cities destroyed by a plague, huge swamps, in the crypt of an ancient vampire, it is also relatively common on the negative energy plane.
Kharach
-2000g/pound
-Allows up to a +6 enhancement
-Rarity 36
-Difficulty: 35
-Special: Personal Enhancement
-An olive metal from the plane of limbo, it resonates with the souls of those who hold it.
Trollbone
-400g/pound
-Allows up to a +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 24
-Difficulty: 30
-Special: Self-repair
-The bones from ancient and powerful trolls; only the mightiest of trollkin on the planes have the inherent resonance and toughness for their bones to keep these properties when forged.
Aerite-Aluminide
-600g/pound
-Allows up to a +3 enhancement
-Rarity: 28
-Difficulty: 24
-Special: Enhanced Range (ammo and throwing weapons only)
-A very light blue tinted metal that is formed when clouds on the plane of air reach a big enough size to condense the material in the middle into an ultralight metal.
Chriolite
-1000g/pound
-Allows up to a +4 enhancement
-Rarity: 32
-Difficulty: 30
-Special: Time-bending
-Formed in areas where there have been major alterations done to a timeline, or large amounts of chronomancy have gone off. It is a metal with no color the human brain can understand; you can look right at it and find yourself unable describe it.
Notes:
For each +1 the forger dedicates to the base metal itself, you gain 1 point of the special bonuses built in, by the following table:
-Meteoric Iron: -1 to DR's.
-Elysium Steel: 1 electrical damage
-Fierium Brass: 1 fire damage
-Astral Silver: +1 to Will.
-Carcerium: +1 to DC's
-Pandemialite: 1 sonic damage
-Luminite: 1 positive energy damage
-Shadalium: 1 negative energy damage
-Mican Crystal: 1 acid damage
-Kobalt-Copper: 1 cold damage
-Kharach: +1 to all stats per total of +3 enhancement used
-Trollbone: Weapons and Armor made with trollbone self-repair over time (1 hit point per hour) unless destroyed fully.
-Aerite-Aluminide: +50% range to arrows/knives/bullets
-Chriolite: +1 initiative (only ever +1)
Armors made with the material that have an elemental property protect the wearer from that much damage of that type. For instance; Chainmail +2 made of Shadalium will protect you from 2 points of negative energy damage in addition to its +2 armor property. Weapons work differently: For example, an Elysium Steel weapon that is forged solely from Elysium up to a +2 will do +2 Electrical Damage, while a Meteoric Iron Sword up to +2 will ignore 2 points of all DR's.
Stats:
Cost = Obvious. It takes 1 pound of the material per pound of the armor, or per 2 pounds of the weapon (weapons must be refined to a greater extent)
-Enhancement Allowance: This is the maximum magic bonus attainable using this particular material, the total possible bonus is +2 higher.
(So an Adamantium Sword can be +4 total enchantment, +2 untempered)
-Rarity: This is the Gather Information DC required to find a place to purchase this material in an average city (Sigil), this DC may be changed based on where you happen to be*
-Difficulty: This is the Craft DC required to work with this particular material.
-Special: This tells you want the basic properties of this material are.
*It is recommended that DM's make these metals unpurchasable in any but the largest trading cities, and then should be super rare.
Forging:
It requires a material called Arcanium, which is a crystalline material uncommon on the planes. Arcanium is far too soft to be used as a material itself, but is prized for its ability to draw out magical properties in other things. In its most pure form, it can be used in place of most spell components, which is another reason it is highly sought after by mages and their ilk. Arcanium occurs naturally in places that have seen great magical flux, fortunately, thanks to the Blood War and the very nature of the planes itself, that's not that hard a thing to find. It takes the forms of blue-purple crystals that range in size from a finger to a small coin. When it is ground up and alchemically combined with ingots of certain materials, it draws out their magical properties, allowing them to be forged into magical items.
The cheapest form of forging consists of simply forging the weapon with the base metal and Arcanium; this produces weapons and armor with a +1 basic enhancement, with whatever special property the metal contains. Enhancing weapons or armor to just have the powers of the base metal costs as much as it would if you were using an Alloying Materials except divided by half. So a long sword +4 made of Elysium Steel takes 4600 gold instead of 9200 gold.
Arcanium costs 100g per ounce, due to the inerrant dangers of mining it (high magic zones) and that you usually have to stake a claim and hold it against the natives that want to use it themselves. It requires 1 ounce per pound of material to be smithed.
Alloying:
There are many materials you can use to Alloy magical arms and armor created with this method, to create varying effects. Once a weapon is thus forged, it cannot be farther enhanced or empowered. Multiple effects can be combined until you get to the maximum + allowed by base material.
You may double up on the bonuses of these materials by further forging it with the same material, up to the maximum bonus allowed by the basic material.
Costs:
+1: 800g
+2: 2400g
+3: 4800g
+4: 9200g
+5: 19200g
+6: 28400g
+7: 36000g
+8: 45000g
+9: 61000g
+10: 80000g
The above are the theoretical costs of all the tempers except Arcanium required to craft a weapon or piece of armor with that particular level of enhancement. All of this is added up, so two +1 effects = 2400g, for instance. The costs go up as they do due to the increased amount of the materials required to alloy the additional properties together.
This of course assumes you can actually FIND any of these for sale.
Dust materials must be compressed into the coals of the forge prior to forging, while liquids must be what the blade or armor is quenched in.
Alloy Materials:
Dragon Blood
-4 gallons Blood from any dragon Adult age or greater.
Daemon Blood
-4 gallons Blood from a Tanar'ri of 16 HD or more.
Devil Blood
-4 gallons Blood from a Baatezu of 16 HD or more.
Beastlord Blood
-4 gallons Blood from an animal from the Beastlands of maximum HD for its type.
Aaisimar Blood-4 gallons Blood from an Aaisimar (angel) of 16 HD of more.
Yugoloth Blood
-4 gallons Blood from a Yugoloth of 16 or more HD.
Dragon Scales
-25 pounds of Scales from an Adult or greater dragon.
Diamond
5 pounds of Diamond (does not need to be gem quality)
Sapphire
5 pounds of Sapphire (does not need to be gem quality)
Smokey Quartz
-5 pounds of Smokey Quartz (does not need to be gem quality)
Emerald
-5 pounds of Emerald (does not need to be gem quality)
Opal
-5 pounds of Opal (does not need to be gem quality, needs to be the same color)
Ruby
-5 pounds of Ruby (does not need to be gem quality)
Flame Agate
-5 pounds of Flame Agate (does not need to be gem quality)
Obsidian
-5 pounds of Obsidian (does not need to be gem quality)
Netherium
-1 pound of the silvery metal must be smelted into the material evenly
Mercury
-1 pound of the liquid metal must be mixed with the metal while it is being smelted.
Naga Venom
-The item must be quenched in 5 gallons of the viscous liquid.
Crystalline Acid
-1 pound of the crystals must be crushed and smelted into the metal during the forging process.
Limbus Gas
-The item must be forged in a room where there is more of the gas then air, the gas is collected from the deep Limbo and contains the stuff of chaos.
Liquid Color
-This material must be collected from the color pools on the astral and smelted into the metal during the forging process.
Vampire Dust
-40 pounds of the dust must be treated with chemicals and mixed into the base metal (requires 4 dead vampires for sufficient dust)
Lich Dust
-16 pounds of powdered lich skull must be treated with chemicals and mixed into the base metal (requires 4 dead liches)
Wraith Dust
-20 pounds of powdered wraith dust must be treated with chemicals and mixed into the base metal (requires 4 dead wraiths)
Golem Shards
-5 pounds of material from the core of a golem must be crushed and smelted into the base metal
Essence of the Juggernaut
-5 pounds of material from the core of a juggernaut must be crushed and smelted into the base metal
Gray Dust
-10 pounds of purest gray dust from the Gray Wastes must be chemically treated and mixed into the base metal
Quicksilver
-20 ounces of liquid mirror, from either a Quicksilver Golem or a Quicksilver dragon, must be mixed into base material.
Void Sphere
-A void sphere must be hammered into the metal during smithing evenly; Void Sphere's are what's left are you hit a Sphere of Annihilation with a Disintegration spell or a Disjunction.
Fiend Tears
-The honestly shed tears of any evil outsider (1 vial must be mixed into the base metal)
Arcanist Imbuement
-A Sensorium Stone that contains the memories of a mage that was capable of casting 9th level spells, powdered and mixed into the base metal.
Rune of Torment
-A platinum icon forged in Sigil and quenched in the still living entrails of a tortured man.
Gears of Mechanus
-Tiny proto-gears that float independently in the voids between the gears of mechanus; must be set into the item during forging
Shadow Water
-Water from the demiplane of Shadow; appears like liquid blackness. 5 gallons required to quench item in.
Essence of Dread
-Captured fog from the Demiplane of Dread; weapon must be forged in a room filled with the fog.
Elder Brain Brine
-Brine from the pool that an Illithid Elder-brain resides within. Requires 5 gallons to quence the item in.
Caged Radiance
-Light from the plane of Radiance trapped within an enchanted box with multiple mirrors inside. Must be big enough to fully contain item, which will be left to cool within it.
Dragon Blood:
Weapon: Elemental Burst by type.
Armor: Fortification: Light
Daemon Blood:
Weapon: +1 vs Law
Armor: Protection from Law +1
Devil Blood:
Weapon: +1 vs Chaos
Armor: Protection from Chaos +1
Beastlord Blood:
Weapon: Bane*
Armor: Wild
*must be further tempered with the blood of the creature it is enhanced against
Aasimar Blood:
Weapon: +1 vs Evil
Armor: Protection from Evil +1
Yugoloth Blood
Weapon: +1 vs Good
Armor: Protection from Good
Dragon Scales
Weapon: Spell Storing
Armor: Spell Resistance (13)
Diamond:
Weapon: Enhanced Elemental Damage (+1 electrical becomes +1d6 electrical)
Armor: Enhanced Elemental Protection (+1-2 becomes 10, +3 or above becomes 20)
Sapphire:
Weapon: +1d6 Cold Damage
Armor: +5 frost resist
Emerald:
Weapon: +1d6 Acid Damage
Armor: +5 acid Resist
Opal:
Weapon: +1d6 Sonic Damage
Armor: +5 sonic resist
Ruby:
Weapon: +1d6 fire damage
Armor: +5 fire resist
Smokey Quartz:
Weapon: +1d6 electricity damage
Armor: +5 electricity resist
Flame Agate:
Weapon: +1d6 Positive Energy Damage
Armor: +5 Positive Energy Resist
Obsidian:
Weapon: +1d6 Negative Energy Damage
Armor: +5 negative energy resist.
Netherium:
Weapon: Keen
Armor: Invulnerability
Mercury:
Weapon: Ki-focus
Armor: Spell Resistance 15
Naga Venom:
Weapon: Wounding
Armor: Poison Resistance
Crystalline Acid:
Weapon: Sundering (ignore materials hardness)
Armor: Fortification, Moderate
Limbus Gas
Weapon: Returning
Armor: Glamered
Liquid Color
Weapon: Vertigen (Spin the weapon to give anyone nearby vertigo; DC 14 or unable to take action)
Armor: Blinding
Vampire Dust:
Weapon: Vampiric
Armor: Immunity to Level Drain
Lich Dust:
Weapon: Spellbreaker (weapon can be used to 'attack' perminent enchantments; effectively a dispel magic attempt 1/day per plus)
Armor: Undead Controlling
Wraith Dust:
Weapon: Vicious
Armor: Ghost Touch
Golem Shards:
Weapon: Disruption
Armor: Fortification; Heavy
Essence of the Juggernaut
Weapon: Mighty Cleaving
Armor: Spiked
Gray Dust:
Weapon: Exsanquinous (critical hits cause bleeding wounds; 1d4 bleeding damage per round till magical healing applied)
Armor: Shadow
Quicksilver:
Weapon: Speed
Armor: Reflecting
Void Sphere:
Weapon: Vorpal
Armor: Ghost Touch
Fiend Tears:
Weapon: +1d6 Unholy Damage
Armor: Unhallowed (10 foot Unhallow effect around the wearer)
Arcanist Imbuement:
Weapon: Arcane Puissance (+1 attack bonus per 2 caster levels of wielder)
Armor: Comfort (5% spell failure)
Rune of Torment:
Weapon: Pain (Symbol of Pain effect: DC 13 (+1 per + of the weapon)
Armor: Pain Flashback (Symbol of Pain effect as above only when struck with a weapon (attack must connect, one save per target per round)
Gears of Mechanus
Weapon: Logical Conundrum (Confusion effect, DC13 (+1 per + of weapon) on strike)
Armor: Modron's Initiative (roll initiative once per encounter, instead of every round)
Shadow Water:
Weapon: Shadowed
Armor: Shadowed
Essence of Dread:
Weapon: Fear (DC13 (+1 per + of the weapon) effect on strike.
Armor: Dread Visage (DC13 (+1 per + of the armor) effect when struck)
Elder Brain Brine
Weapon: Psionically Attunable
Armor: Psionic Resistance
Caged Lightning
Weapon: Brilliant Energy Weapon
Armor: Energy Resistance 10
The total + of the weapon and armor enchants from tempering is equal to their equivilent bonus in the DMG.
Example Weapon made using this System:
Chromatic Long Sword+1 (+1d6 cold damage, +1d6 fire damage)
Base Weapon: Long Sword; 4 pounds.
8 Pounds of Fierium Brass (3200 gold)
4 ounces Arcanium: 400 gold
Forged with Sapphire, Arcanium and Diamond, effectively becoming a +3 weapon (sapphire for +1d6 cold damage, Diamond for enhancing the inherant +1 fire damage to +1d6 fire damage, Arcanium for the base +1) (2400g (+2 worth of alloy effects)
Total Final Cost: 6000g
Xp: 240
Total final Value: 9000g (its a +3 weapon)
Forging Time: 9 days (1 day per 1000g in value)
Craft DC was 26
Gather Information 28 to find materials on the market.
Elysium Steel Masterwork Dagger +4 (1d4 + 4 electrical damage)
2 pounds of Elysium Steel (1000g)
1 ounce of Arcanium (100g)
Refined Elysium Steel (4600g)
Total Cost: 5700g
Xp: 228
Total Final Value: 16000g
Forging Time: 16 days
Craft DC 26
Gather Information: 27 to find materials on the market.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Pure-metal weapons and armors don't do their Damage +bonus +elemental, the base +bonus is always done in elemental damage. Eg a weapon, as shown above with a +4 made of Elysium Steel will do its +4 bonus damage as electrical damage, while a Adamantium weapon with +2 will do its regular +2 weapons damage.
Advantages and Disadvantages:
The best magical weapons and armor cannot be created using this method; only ancient and powerful sorceries can create truly powerful artifacts and the like. The advantage with these weapons and armors is one of both cost and use; These magical devices draw their power from their own elements, not the plane on which they were created. As such, they suffer no negatives for being on any particular plane. A major disadvantage with these on the other hand is that they are not as tough as magically enhanced items, and do not gain their total magic bonus as a + vs being damaged or destroyed.