Malapterus
2018-10-30, 12:25 AM
The Gnoll part of this is part of my own little world and so if anyone wants to use it they can call it just 'Blacksilver', or, alternatively, come up with a good name on it.
In the last days of the global war against the Gnolls, the Gnoll metallurgists created a special ally to turn the tide of the battle - and it nearly did. Despite the name, Gnoll Blacksilver contains no silver; it is a slightly alchemical alloy of cold iron & lead. A little soft and a lot heavy, this metal would be useless next to steel were it not for its relationship with magic. The alloy gets its name from its matte black finish swirled with faint impurities of insufficiently mixed lead.
Gnoll Blacksilver does not conduct magic. A Blacksilver shield will stop a ray or touch spell, and Blacksilver weapons, crafted properly, can shatter magical effects.
Price:
Ammunition +40 gp
Light armor +1,000 gp
Medium armor +4,000 gp
Heavy armor +9,000 gp
Shield +1,000 gp
Light Weapon + 1,000 gp
One-or-two handed weapon - +2,000 gp
Other items +500 gp/lb
Any metal or wooden weapon or armor can be crafted from Blackslilver. Wooden parts of items, such as the haft of a hammer, are replaced with pure cold item, while striking surfaces are Blacksilver. An item made of Blacksilver weighs twice as much as a normal item.
Sheilds and armor made of Blacksilver add their armor bonus to their user's Touch AC versus touch and ranged touch magical attacks. The added weight does not change the weight class of the armor, but it does make it more difficult to maneuver. Blacksilver armor has its Max Dex Bonus decreased by 1, and Blacksilver armor and shield find their Armor Check Penalty increased by 2 and their arcane spell failure doubled. Armor is not usually made of Blacksilver due to its excessive weight and these added penalties.
A bludgeoning weapon made of Blacksilver gains a special property. Whenever it strikes an Abjuration or Force effect, or a creature with such an effect on it, it threatens to dispel that effect. The effect rolls a Caster level Check based on the level of the mage who cast it and gets a bonus equal to its spell level. The DC of the check is equal to 10 + the attack bonus on the roll plus any enhancement on the weapon. A one-handed weapon increases the save DC by 2 and a two-handed weapon increases the save DC by 4. If the caster level check fails, the spell is dispelled. If the effect would trigger against more than one spell, each spell rolls individually.
Note: A shield bash does not count as a bludgeoning weapon for this purpose.
Note: permanent effects and item enhancements are not subject to this dispelling, only effects with a set duration.
Non-bludgeoning weapons get little benefit from being made of Blacksilver, however, if the user gets a Shield or other defensive bonus from their off-hand weapon, such as with Two-Weapon Defense, that bonus applies to touch and ranged touch spells like a Blacksilver shield would.
Blacksilver has Hardness 7 and 20 HP per inch.
Enhancing Blacksilver items: Blacksilver items are not made entirely of the special alloy and have a light framework of a sturdier metal supporting them. This framework, if Masterwork, can be enhanced as any item of the type it is meant to be crafted into. Once complete, however, further enhancements cannot be made to the item. Further enhancement would require the item to be deconstructed, which has a 50% chance of destroying it outright, and then rebuilt as a new item.
Magebreaker: The iconic Gnoll Blacksilver weapon is a large metal club, resembling a primitive war club, with an iron haft housing large knots of Blacksilver at the end. Mechanically, treat it as a Blacksilver Warhammer, but the DC against its dispelling effect is +2. Price: 3012 GP, or3312 GP for Masterwork.
During the war, Gnolls would often charge in unarmored, wielding Magebreakers and heavy Gnoll Blacksilver shields. The blitz attacks would let them outmaneuver armored combatants to get to the spellcasters, destroy their magical defenses, and open the mundane fighters up to attack without magical support. Entirely new tactics of war had to be devised to cement the extinction of the Gnolls and the image of a Spotted Gnoll charging with black shield & club is iconic generations after the race was wiped out.
---
Example: Snarl Greenfang has a Gnoll Blacksilver Flail. He has a BaB of 10 and an Strength of 18.
He is in combat with Beatrice Nogglebottom, an 11th level Gnome Wizard who has cast Mage Armor on herself.
He swings at her with his first attack, rolling with a bonus of 14, but misses. His second attack, with a bonus of 9, hits her. The Mage Armor makes a Caster Level check to avoid being dispelled. The check is rolled at 1d20+12; 11 for her caster level and 1 more since Mage Armor is a level 1 spell for her.
The DC of the check is 21; 10, plus the +5 from Snarl's second attack, plus 4 from Snarl's strength bonus to the attack, plus 2 more because a Flail is a one-handed weapon.
Beatrice needs only to roll a 9 or better, but she only rolls a 4. Her Mage Armor is dispelled and Snarl finishes her off easily on the next turn.
------------
Critiques? Comments? Suggestions?
In the last days of the global war against the Gnolls, the Gnoll metallurgists created a special ally to turn the tide of the battle - and it nearly did. Despite the name, Gnoll Blacksilver contains no silver; it is a slightly alchemical alloy of cold iron & lead. A little soft and a lot heavy, this metal would be useless next to steel were it not for its relationship with magic. The alloy gets its name from its matte black finish swirled with faint impurities of insufficiently mixed lead.
Gnoll Blacksilver does not conduct magic. A Blacksilver shield will stop a ray or touch spell, and Blacksilver weapons, crafted properly, can shatter magical effects.
Price:
Ammunition +40 gp
Light armor +1,000 gp
Medium armor +4,000 gp
Heavy armor +9,000 gp
Shield +1,000 gp
Light Weapon + 1,000 gp
One-or-two handed weapon - +2,000 gp
Other items +500 gp/lb
Any metal or wooden weapon or armor can be crafted from Blackslilver. Wooden parts of items, such as the haft of a hammer, are replaced with pure cold item, while striking surfaces are Blacksilver. An item made of Blacksilver weighs twice as much as a normal item.
Sheilds and armor made of Blacksilver add their armor bonus to their user's Touch AC versus touch and ranged touch magical attacks. The added weight does not change the weight class of the armor, but it does make it more difficult to maneuver. Blacksilver armor has its Max Dex Bonus decreased by 1, and Blacksilver armor and shield find their Armor Check Penalty increased by 2 and their arcane spell failure doubled. Armor is not usually made of Blacksilver due to its excessive weight and these added penalties.
A bludgeoning weapon made of Blacksilver gains a special property. Whenever it strikes an Abjuration or Force effect, or a creature with such an effect on it, it threatens to dispel that effect. The effect rolls a Caster level Check based on the level of the mage who cast it and gets a bonus equal to its spell level. The DC of the check is equal to 10 + the attack bonus on the roll plus any enhancement on the weapon. A one-handed weapon increases the save DC by 2 and a two-handed weapon increases the save DC by 4. If the caster level check fails, the spell is dispelled. If the effect would trigger against more than one spell, each spell rolls individually.
Note: A shield bash does not count as a bludgeoning weapon for this purpose.
Note: permanent effects and item enhancements are not subject to this dispelling, only effects with a set duration.
Non-bludgeoning weapons get little benefit from being made of Blacksilver, however, if the user gets a Shield or other defensive bonus from their off-hand weapon, such as with Two-Weapon Defense, that bonus applies to touch and ranged touch spells like a Blacksilver shield would.
Blacksilver has Hardness 7 and 20 HP per inch.
Enhancing Blacksilver items: Blacksilver items are not made entirely of the special alloy and have a light framework of a sturdier metal supporting them. This framework, if Masterwork, can be enhanced as any item of the type it is meant to be crafted into. Once complete, however, further enhancements cannot be made to the item. Further enhancement would require the item to be deconstructed, which has a 50% chance of destroying it outright, and then rebuilt as a new item.
Magebreaker: The iconic Gnoll Blacksilver weapon is a large metal club, resembling a primitive war club, with an iron haft housing large knots of Blacksilver at the end. Mechanically, treat it as a Blacksilver Warhammer, but the DC against its dispelling effect is +2. Price: 3012 GP, or3312 GP for Masterwork.
During the war, Gnolls would often charge in unarmored, wielding Magebreakers and heavy Gnoll Blacksilver shields. The blitz attacks would let them outmaneuver armored combatants to get to the spellcasters, destroy their magical defenses, and open the mundane fighters up to attack without magical support. Entirely new tactics of war had to be devised to cement the extinction of the Gnolls and the image of a Spotted Gnoll charging with black shield & club is iconic generations after the race was wiped out.
---
Example: Snarl Greenfang has a Gnoll Blacksilver Flail. He has a BaB of 10 and an Strength of 18.
He is in combat with Beatrice Nogglebottom, an 11th level Gnome Wizard who has cast Mage Armor on herself.
He swings at her with his first attack, rolling with a bonus of 14, but misses. His second attack, with a bonus of 9, hits her. The Mage Armor makes a Caster Level check to avoid being dispelled. The check is rolled at 1d20+12; 11 for her caster level and 1 more since Mage Armor is a level 1 spell for her.
The DC of the check is 21; 10, plus the +5 from Snarl's second attack, plus 4 from Snarl's strength bonus to the attack, plus 2 more because a Flail is a one-handed weapon.
Beatrice needs only to roll a 9 or better, but she only rolls a 4. Her Mage Armor is dispelled and Snarl finishes her off easily on the next turn.
------------
Critiques? Comments? Suggestions?