Look, Catgirls, its not gonna work out between you and me... no, dont cry, please

[Sir Jason]

Ok, so, Dnd has a very fitting incorporation of electricity damage. Not that I have anything against the whole slinging lightning bolts, dont get me wrong, I really love those. But whatever happened to the second half of the equation? The fundamental force of the universe in question here is Electro-MAGNETISM. I mean, it even takes up more of the bloody name! So why is there no reference to magnetism in Dnd? Im not gonna go into nuclear forces here, but we already have a reference to gravity (Reverse Gravity; its a spell, for those who dont know), and ample reference to electricity. So why the bias against magnets?

So, any opinions on how we could incorporate maybe slightly more correct forces of electro-magnetism? And dont trip over the mound of catgirls on your way in please; there should be a path shovelled through it by now.

[....]

Uh....what do you mean? Like EMP pulses?

Or do you want gravity damaged based spells?

[jjpickar]

Well, a spell that made armor really magnetic and made enemy knights stick together. Even better if they are charging on horseback.

[Levi Kornelsen]

So, any opinions on how we could incorporate maybe slightly more correct forces of electro-magnetism? And dont trip over the mound of catgirls on your way in please; there should be a path shovelled through it by now.

It's clear, upon careful observation, that some creatures have magnetic abilitities, typically Exceptional or Supernatural (though rarely spell-like).

The problem is that these abilities are often uncontrollable and subtle.

I mean, take yourself, for example...

See?

Animal Magnetism at work.

Okay, so my whole post was just set-up for that lame joke. Sue me.

[Zincorium]

Magnetism is all around us, generally it only affects people when it causes objects to move or creates an electrical charge. The magnetism itself doesn't have measurable effects.

Electricity, however, when shorted through a resistant medium such as the human body, tends to create a significant amount of heat, in addition to excessively stimulating various muscles (the heart being the big one).

The two are different sides of the same coin, it's just that the human body is much more vulnerable to one of the two.

[Snadgeros]

Magnets can fit in a midieval setting just fine (see Twilight Princess: Goron Mines). If you've proper knowledge of physics and catgirl killing, you should be able to make a simple electromagnet. Run a copper wire coiled around a bar of iron, throw some current in there and voila! The bigger it is, the stronger the magnet, so start planning that massive super-magnet!

If you're talking about spells, I suppose you could homebrew a spell that's like mage hand but only works on metal objects. Just throw a limit like that on it and crank up the strength a bit to compensate. Presto! You've now got a Magneto-like mage!

[Sir Jason]

No, what I mean is that in actual world physics (*catgirl falls screaming from the sky*) when electrons flow (*another catgirl*) a magnetic field is produced. So, for example, when I cast lighting bolt on the figther, his steel equipment should get affected as in a magnetic field. Or, if I cast lightning bolt on a handy coil-shaped conductor (....it could happen) you get an electro-magnetic.

Or, at the very least, could we come up with some magnetic-based spells?

I was just using the gravity thing as a reference that we already incorporate 1.5 of the 4 universal forces (they are gravity, electro-magnetism, and weak and strong nuclear).

[kamikasei]

No, what I mean is that in actual world physics (*catgirl falls screaming from the sky*) when electrons flow (*another catgirl*) a magnetic field is produced. So, for example, when I cast lighting bolt on the figther, his steel equipment should get affected as in a magnetic field. Or, if I cast lightning bolt on a handy coil-shaped conductor (....it could happen) you get an electro-magnetic.

By real-world physics, a lightning bolt or for that matter a fireball should probably stand some chance of starting a fire, too. Let it go, man.

[Mike_Lemmer]

Because D&D wizards don't need another weapon against melee fighters? There's no reason wizards shouldn't have a spell that rips everything metal off their opponents, but making a specific anti-warrior spell like that strikes me as a bit... overkill.

You could argue Armor Lock is a magnetic spell.

[Solo]

Its not like there's gonna be a significant magnetic field from the lightening bolt.

A knight won't be pulled off his feet by the powers of Lightening Bolt magnetism.

[Sir Jason]

Thx guys. However, I did try this sort of thing once before. Anyone familiar with railgun theory? Well, lets just say a warforged, holding some magnets improvised from a blacksmith's smithy, while a psion funnels electricitry through his arms and shoves large amounts of metallic debris in the mechanism...

The end result was a somewhat unbalanced weapon that shot lots of debris fast. I think the trouble here is that its unclear as to how much energy the spells/powers actually translate into...

So, any guidelines on making it balanced?

[Reinboom]

I really do think the catgirl death to physics discussion rate is much slower than people presume. I am still alive after - and I've even had such discussions.

Aside, most electrical magic is evocation anyways, and from my understanding of evocation, they are just pulling magical elements that only exist long enough to alter something - but not withstain it. That is, the electricity generated would enter the arm, cause brief magnetism, then disappear back into the weave or water magical source you tapped into. Conjuration electricity however, should cause some sort of magnetism.

[Solo]

Thx guys. However, I did try this sort of thing once before. Anyone familiar with railgun theory? Well, lets just say a warforged, holding some magnets improvised from a blacksmith's smithy, while a psion funnels electricitry through his arms and shoves large amounts of metallic debris in the mechanism...

The end result was a somewhat unbalanced weapon that shot lots of debris fast. I think the trouble here is that its unclear as to how much energy the spells/powers actually translate into...

So, any guidelines on making it balanced?

Have it deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage/caster level of the psion?

[Mike_Lemmer]

Thx guys. However, I did try this sort of thing once before. Anyone familiar with railgun theory? Well, lets just say a warforged, holding some magnets improvised from a blacksmith's smithy, while a psion funnels electricitry through his arms and shoves large amounts of metallic debris in the mechanism...

The end result was a somewhat unbalanced weapon that shot lots of debris fast. I think the trouble here is that its unclear as to how much energy the spells/powers actually translate into...

So, any guidelines on making it balanced?

I'd treat it as a very poorly-accurate telekinesis effect. Improvising a railgun with medieval technology (& magic) should be about as successful as improvising a gun with scrap parts: low accuracy, low damage, high chance of malfunction.

[Chronos]

The rules do already include a reference to magnetism (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disintegrate.htm).

[Shatteredtower]

First of all, my apologies for not dealing in real electromagnetism. Physicists may be horrified by the abuses and ignorance displayed by the suggestions that follow. Now, with that out of the way... magic.

A very simple version of a magnetic spell would be one that only affected ferrous metals, acting as telekinesis, but without the grappling option that spell confers. You'd probably be looking at a 4th level spell.

Magnetic attraction and repulsion are hard to adjudicate, because you'd find people tweaking them for all they're worth. A spell that can't move objects weighing more than half a pound each is capable of hurling a lot of darts, for example, or shuriken (or even caltrops), if you're limited to ounces. There are other ideas, however:

First, imagine a spell that magnetizes a suit of metallic armor or shield (save negates -- Fortitude or Will?) in such a way that any metallic weapon attacking the bearer suffers a -2 penalty on the attack roll, but gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls. That would be adequate for a 1st level spell with a 1 round/level duration, or maybe even a cantrip that lasted for only one round. Make the penalty/bonus scale to 1 point by 2 levels (to a maximum of 10), and it might merit a 2nd level slot. If you wished, silver or adamantine might reduced the penalty (and bonus) by half. If you wished, you could have the effect dispelled by any spell with the [electricity] descriptor, even if the spell causes no damage to you. (How this would interact with evasion might also be worth discussing. The simplest thing would be to ignore it: evasion negated the damage from lightning bolt, but lightning bolt still dispelled this).

Another option is a spell that grants you damage reduction 5/nonmetal. Since it probably doesn't cost anywhere near as much to cast as stoneskin and is effective against adamantine, it might be considered worth a 4th level spell slot, though one might want to double the damage reduction value.

Those who don't care for the damage reduction idea might prefer to have the spell force an attacker to make a Strength check when attempting to attacking with a metal weapon (or even while wearing gauntlets), setting the DC of the check to 10 + caster level (maximum +10). That's worth at least a 4th level spell slot, and it should certainly be dispelled by spells with the [electricity] descriptor or any other effect that does electricity damage. A 3rd, perhaps even 2nd, level version of the spell would allow the attack to hit, but the attacker must make the Strength check to avoid being disarmed.

The last two spells appear to fit into the abjuration school -- the first might also work within that school, but transmutation seems as likely. A more clear case of transmutation would be a spell that made it's target easier to hit with metal objects: a +2 bonus for 1 round as a cantrip, a +2 bonus for 1 round/level as a 1st level spell, with the 2nd level version increasing the bonus by +1 per 5 levels to a maximum of +5 at 18th level. A 3rd level version of the spell could go one place further, effectively empowering any spell with the [electricity] descriptor used against the target, but this would also end to the magnetic spell.

Transmutation or necromancy would fit for a magnetism spell that drew a creature's blood to the surface. The most basic version enhances a targetted slashing (perhaps also a piercing) weapon to cause 1d6 extra hp of damage to creatures with some equivalent of blood. (Does that include oozes?) Another version, a short range 2nd level spell, would cause 1d6 hp of damage per caster level to a single target, to a maximum of 10d6 (Fort save negates). A 3rd level version of the spell could be made to affect 1 target per caster level within short range. (You may wish to ignore the usual limit of them having to be within 30 ft of each other for this spell.) Increasing the aforementioned spells to 4th and 5th level, the target(s) could instead sustain 2d4 points of Constitution damage. Tack on another 3 levels, and you could have the spell cause 10d6 hp of electricity damage in the 1st round, followed by the magnetic effect in the 2nd. (Creatures without blood would still be affected by the electricity damage, while those immune to electricity damage might still suffer the blood-stealing effect.

Since we're dealing in magic, rather than science, we're free to dabble in effects that don't receive official scientific reasoning. For example, you might decide that any of the above spells can be dispelled by a spell with the [healing] descriptor, and the dispelling magic would also be empowered. Or you might decide that [healing] doesn't get dispelled by such magic, but does get empowered. You could reject both ideas, and instead go with a 6th level electromagnetic field that empowers spells with the [electricity] and [healing] descriptors within a certain radius of the caster. You could go with a 5th level field that converts electricity damage into healing (or temporary hit points) -- either a full conversion or a fractioned one (1 hp per 10 that would normally be taken in damage, for example). Another 5th level field might grant a +2 circumstance bonus to a specific skill check performed within the area: Craft and Heal seem most likely, but the option could be expanded to include other checks as well -- or the option might exist for the field to cause specific penalties (Listen and perhaps even Diplomacy might be the strong cases here, but it's possible to be more flexible, what with it being magic and all). Increasing penalties are an option, but should probably cap at +5 if the spell can be used for any skill, or +10 for only a few skills. (If it affects all skills -- or at least 10 of them -- simultaneously, consider increasing the spell level to 7th.)

One more field idea: one that enhances a targetted construct (or perhaps even undead [corporeal only?]), giving it a +10 enhancement bonus to speed and +2 enhancement bonus to Strength and Dexterity for a 1 minute/level duration. That's probably a 2nd level spell, or 5th level if it affects multiple targets.

Divination? Electromagnetic senses could grant a similar benefit to blindsense within short range, possibly even blindsight within 5-10 ft, and might grant a circumstance bonus to the saving throw against figments and glamers. Another such spell could offer a competence bonus to initiative checks.

Enchantment? Well, there's nothing realistic about this one at all, but the fantastic does allow one to take concepts like mesmerism seriously. In the 4th level category, a medium range mind-affecting spell that leaves any of its targets (1 per level, all of which must be within 30 ft of one another) taking electricity damage dazed or sickened. In the 6th level category, a spell with similar range and number of targets that makes all of them susceptible to any 4th or lower level enchantment spell that would normally target only one creature if cast within 1 round/level (a 9th level version would work in combination with spell of up to 7th or 8th level, as you prefer). If you want to create the ultimate capstone of electromagnetic enchantment magic, however, consider a spell that renders one (or more) creatures that would otherwise be immune to mind-affecting spells vulnerable to the next such enchantment spell you cast. If you don't limit that effect to enchantments, the spell should be increased by a level or two. It should probably be limited to affecting only one target with only one spell (or spell-like ability) in any case, and the second spell (or ability) should probably have to be delivered by the end of the next round (or within 1 round/level, but that calls for a higher level spell), and it's still going to be such an invaluable spell to enchanters that you ought to set it at no less than 6th level (9th seems perfectly reasonable). A successfully Will save negates each of these, naturally.

And if you're going to consider the possibility of electromagnetic enchantments, why not illusions? A 5th level mind-affecting spell that works only against a single target within medium range to override the true seeing spell or ability has very specific use, so you might want to bump it to 6th level and have it affect multiple targets. Again, a successful Will save negates. Alternatively, you could make the spell affect an area to protect all illusions normally revealed by true seeing, but they would automatically count as interacted with by the beneficiaries of true seeing effects (effectively granting them an automatic saving throw against any such illusions).

Just a few thoughts, none of the mechanics properly tested, all in need of serious tweaking, many based on some extremely speculative.("wishful") opinions of electromagnetic opportunities. Feel free to modify or ignore any or all of them.

[Arbitrarity]

Have it deal 1d6 bludgeoning damage/caster level of the psion?

It did. Less, actually. All of 1d6.

The problem came, when one added many projectiles, like a cone.

Even then, it was somewhat OK.

But then, the warforged artificer (read: me) added Bane (human).

Then it just wasn't pretty. At first level, Bane shotguns make your DM cry. Especially when attempts to hit the wielder are blocked by an AC 21 warforged with DR 2/adamantine.

[Renrik]

Magnets are fun to use in traps for example:

Heros walk into room. It is an armory. All around onthe walls are nice, shiny, iron weapons. In the middle of the room is a big metalic obelisk with more (very nice looking) weapons on it. Touching one of the weapons causes it to move slightly, complete an electrical circuit, activiate a magnetic field, and send all the iron weapons flying through the air towards the obelisk, destroying any characters in the room.

[Starbuck_II]

Ok, so, Dnd has a very fitting incorporation of electricity damage. Not that I have anything against the whole slinging lightning bolts, dont get me wrong, I really love those. But whatever happened to the second half of the equation? The fundamental force of the universe in question here is Electro-MAGNETISM. I mean, it even takes up more of the bloody name! So why is there no reference to magnetism in Dnd? Im not gonna go into nuclear forces here, but we already have a reference to gravity (Reverse Gravity; its a spell, for those who dont know), and ample reference to electricity. So why the bias against magnets?

So, any opinions on how we could incorporate maybe slightly more correct forces of electro-magnetism? And dont trip over the mound of catgirls on your way in please; there should be a path shovelled through it by now.

Magnetism is Wu Jen only (3rd level spell), Asians are cool like that.
It acts like a ranged Disarm/grab ability: you count as Str 30 for any diarm attempt. Range like 50 feet I think.

[Citizen Joe]

While we're throwing catgirls on the pile a horizontal lightning bold just doesn't work in almost any instance. I know it is a neat special effect, but lightning is going to find the easiest route to ground, which is usually a few feet below the caster's arm. Call lightning works fine though. Even a lightning bolt cast by a flying wizard on someone below him works good, but electricity wants to find the easiest path to ground and that is almost never the guy 80 feet away.

[Bender]

While we're throwing catgirls on the pile a horizontal lightning bold just doesn't work in almost any instance. I know it is a neat special effect, but lightning is going to find the easiest route to ground, which is usually a few feet below the caster's arm. Call lightning works fine though. Even a lightning bolt cast by a flying wizard on someone below him works good, but electricity wants to find the easiest path to ground and that is almost never the guy 80 feet away.

obviously, the wizards produces an ionising laser from his finger, resulting in a conductive path between wizard and target.

That aside, electricity and magnetism is exactly the same, there is no difference between an electric field and a magnetic field, except for the speed of the conductive particles.

And a lightning bolt only needs about 1 Ampère for 10 ms, which is enough to kill most humans. That is much less electricity than you put in a lot of household appliances, and you don't see knives flying around in your kitchen (I hope :smallwink:).

as a last note: silver is not magnetic, adamant probably isn't either. In fact stainless steel is not magnetic, and since you don't need to oil your armour and weapons in dnd to prevent rust, you can assume that it's all stainless steel.

[Citizen Joe]

obviously, the wizards produces an ionising laser from his finger, resulting in a conductive path between wizard and target.

If lightning bolt was a ray attack, with one target, I would agree, but it is an area effect.

[psiryu]

The wizard most probably acts like a capacitor, building up a charge within his body as the spell is being cast. Once the spell is complete he realises it threw his finger and the electricity follows the initial path set but the wizard pointing.

Of course the wizard would have to be wearing rubber boots or else the charge will be absorbed into the ground, and he would most probably be killed when he discharges the electricity out of he fingers...

I hope I killed a cat girl or two.

[Bender]

about the lightning bolt:

The wizard produces a tube of intangible isolations, at one end there is a negative charge, at the other a positive. When the voltage is sufficiently high, it discharges through anything in between the two ends of the tube, but the electricity can't leave the tube, due to the isolation around.

[raygungothic]

I don't think the lack of magnetism-based effects is a real problem. In the real world, magnetic effects strong enough to pose a serious problem to a D&D character (lifting armour or whatever) aren't all that common and tend to involve huge power consumption. I am pretty happy for the same to be true in my campaign. Magnetic cannon are extraordinarily difficult to make practical even in a world where magnetism is well understood, materials science is quite advanced and giant nuclear reactors produce megawatts of power to drive them with; if it's going to be any easier in a D&D world the DM had better have a pretty good reason as to why.

In addition, I think the world the D&D rules are attempting to describe is one with little understanding of magnetism and hence little familiarity with it. Lightning probably isn't all that well understood either, but at least most people have seen it - so wizards who develop "lightning bolt" spells and the like are going "how can I make something a bit like that", maybe needing substantial understanding of magic to make it behave differently from the natural phenomenon (eg going sideways not down to earth!) but not necessarily applying a deep understanding of physics. Magic is magic, after all - it should be not just another branch of physics but a different way of looking at the world, and it can work with subjective and tenuous qualities as well as hard physical forces.

If players want magnet based effects, and there's no good gameworld reason why not, their ideas can be given fair consideration just like any other proposed new spell or power - and given rules based on close comparison with existing effects. There are plenty of spells that could be used for comparison. If the DM wants a heavy emphasis on magic for a special scenario (some weird patch of the Plane of Earth or QEP of mineral, perhaps?) he can do whatever he jolly well likes, though it would be advisable to try to rule it in ways that his current PCs have a chance of dealing with... again, small adaptations of existing material should suffice.

Or wait for the inevitable splatbook on the ExtraElemental Plane of Magnetism, with exciting new prestige classes to make your characters absurdly powerful magnet-users and hundreds of new magnetic spells which can trample most existing encounters and foes. Remember, kids - that demonlord doesn't have resistances to magnetism damage... it wasn't written when he was published!

No catgirls were harmed in the making of this post.

[Yuki Akuma]

A lightning bolt won't create a magnetic field. Well, it will, but it will only exist for a fraction of a second and won't be particularly powerful.

You need a constant flow of electrons to create a magnetic field. Lightning bolts are instantaneous.

I suppose you could create a magnet spell with the [Electricity] descriptor if you wanted... But a lightning bolt? That's going to melt metal, not magnetise it.

[jameswilliamogle]

uhm... yeah...

But, speaking of traps, you could do the following:

Room at a slant (say, 20 degrees). At the bottom of the room, there's a pit. Underneath the pit, there's a huge deposit of lodestone. In the pit are some rust monsters (which don't try to go anywhere b/c of the lodestone deposit). On the slanted area is a basic Grease trap. Since the slope is 20 degrees, you could say that anyone that anyone that is in it and fails at a balance check moves 10' down the slope, towards the pit (DC 10, in addition to the check needed to leave the Grease at DC 10), but the lodestone deposit increases the difficulty for anyone in ferrous armor by 5 (DC 15).

Anyways, non-lethal, but definitely a fun trap!



*******
How about the Spell Compendium spell Lightening Ring to get continuous electrical current?

[tainsouvra]

Its not like there's gonna be a significant magnetic field from the lightening bolt.

A knight won't be pulled off his feet by the powers of Lightening Bolt magnetism. This is your answer, and it's a good one.

The problem with gamers trying to apply real-world physics is that they generally don't know real-world physics, at least not to the extent necessary to apply them to situations like this one. They know some basic principles, but not exactly how, where, or to what extent they apply to a specific situation.

Which is worse--to intentionally leave out the real-life physics, or to apply them very badly? D&D erred on the side of the former, and I have to say I agree with that decision.

[Roderick_BR]

Well, being hit by a fireball doesn't overheat your metal armor, although it can light others objects on fire (clothes, hair, dwarve's beards).
Then we have a spell called Heat Metal (and it's counter part Chill Metal).
Maybe we could make a electromagnetism spell too. What effects it would do? Make two characters cling at each other's armors? Get weapons stuck to them? Charge a sword to pick those coins that fell in the sewer?

[The Glyphstone]

Don't forget about Repel Metal - that's a pretty obvious magnetic spell...

[jameswilliamogle]

There's the Wu Jen spell Magnetism for that kind of action, I think.

[John Campbell]

as a last note: silver is not magnetic, adamant probably isn't either. In fact stainless steel is not magnetic, and since you don't need to oil your armour and weapons in dnd to prevent rust, you can assume that it's all stainless steel.

Silver is not ferromagnetic, but electromagnetism can be induced in it. This is presumably also the case for adamant. And silver weapons in D&D are just silver-coated, anyway.

My belt knife is stainless steel and very definitely ferromagnetic. I've used it in the past as a mount point to clamp a magnetic-mount flashlight to my hip, in fact.

Stainless steel is a poor material for blades much larger than a knife. It's too brittle. In combat, it will tend to break rather than flexing.

And D&D armor and weapons are not immune to rust. (See: Rust monster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/rustMonster.htm), rusting grasp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/rustingGrasp.htm).) I figure that oiling and otherwise maintaining your gear is one of those things that's just assumed to occur during rest periods, while the casters are prepping spells and the rogue is polishing her gold pieces.

[Yuki Akuma]

Rust monsters aren't a very good indication, really. They can rust gold. Why not stainless steel?

[Sir Jason]

Uhm... tainsouvra, I'm gonna assume that from your comment you yourseld claim to know something about physics. How much power exactly would you say is required to make a 120 ft. spark gap? Just wondering you know, cuz, it might sorta be.. a lot. And yes, that is voltage. But, assuming lightning bold works somewhat like a Tesla Coil, since it can miss or be cast in some random direction and hit nothing but air, it is AC current. So let's then use a simple transformer...

I'm not saying that casting lightning bolt is going to throw a knight of his horse. I'm not saying that its time to take out the physics books and spend half the bloody session with a calculator figuring out how many newtons of pull is applied to the BBEG fillings. I was simply asking if there was a way of incorporating some magnetism. It doesn't have to work out to any sort of real-world equivalent; neither does lightning bolt, or energy missile with the lighting subtype, or reverse gravity, or fly. The question was if there was a way to use magnetism as an inspiration for some new concepts in D&D.

[Belteshazzar]

I always thought it was interesting that druids have so much control over metal while not acknowledging it as bei g a part of the natural world. Heat or chill metal, repel metal, metal to wood ect. After looking at the druid spell list I realized that even insane indestructible superheros like Wolverine would go down in the face of this power. Repel Metal, Metal to Wood, Shape Wood combo for a very embarrassing and yet not necessarily lethal takedown.

[Collin152]

By real-world physics, a lightning bolt or for that matter a fireball should probably stand some chance of starting a fire, too. Let it go, man.

...
Fireballs do start fires. Lightning bolts just might, too.
*splooorges back into his crevice*

[Sir Jason]

As long as that 'his' is a self-reference, fine. My crevices don't need any sploorging thank you very much.

[Collin152]

What? Dosen't everybody have a jagged gap in the wall that they hide in? The huuuuuuudge probably does.

[Snadgeros]

What? Dosen't everybody have a jagged gap in the wall that they hide in? The huuuuuuudge probably does.

No, but the red-steckled elbermung does!

[F.L.]

The main reason lightning bolts don't generate a useful magnetic field is that they aren't spirals. If they curved around, maybe for a very short time. And when somebody made a railgun, was it a proper railgun where the center projectile partially disintegrates under the influence of the voltage/current?

[Bender]

Silver is not ferromagnetic, but electromagnetism can be induced in it. This is presumably also the case for adamant. And silver weapons in D&D are just silver-coated, anyway.
Silver is conductive and you can probably attract it the same way you can attract aluminium (eddy currents, if I'm correct), but a magnet does not attract it. Things might be different in D&D, if the DM decides magnetic spells affect silver and adamant weapons, it's up to him.

My belt knife is stainless steel and very definitely ferromagnetic. I've used it in the past as a mount point to clamp a magnetic-mount flashlight to my hip, in fact.

Stainless steel is a poor material for blades much larger than a knife. It's too brittle. In combat, it will tend to break rather than flexing.
My mistake, I should have been more accurate.
There is not 'one stainless steel', there are lots of variants, the best of them can resist salt water, and those are austenitic (instead of martensitic) and not magnetic. Anyway, all kinds of steel are a lot less magnetic than iron, but pure iron already rusts when you breath in its general direction, so it's not very useful as gear anyway.
But you are right, D&D armour and weapons can indeed be magnetic and reasonably resistant to rust. (it will still rust if you leave dirt on it though).
Concerning the material of blades: most swords have a ductile iron core and a brittle, hardened steel edge. Modern knives can even have special coatings and surface treatments on the outside.


And D&D armor and weapons are not immune to rust. (See: Rust monster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/rustMonster.htm), rusting grasp (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/rustingGrasp.htm).) I figure that oiling and otherwise maintaining your gear is one of those things that's just assumed to occur during rest periods, while the casters are prepping spells and the rogue is polishing her gold pieces.
Admitted, rules for armour needing oiling would get very complicated.
As pointed out though, the rust monster affects gold, and gold can resist even better than the best stainless steel.

Besides al the RL-physics that don't really have to apply to D&D at all, I vote for magnetism spells not doing damage (although large magnetic fields can cause damage, the actual damage-doer in such a situation is electricity).
All kinds of hold/telekinesis/reverse gravity kind of spells could have a variant affecting only metals (not to complicate things, any metal can be magnetic in D&D). Must be fun walking around a city, attracting all coins from everyone's pockets. :smalltongue:

[The Mormegil]

What about Orb of Electricity? Entagles a creature, meaning probably a Magnetism spell. The 3.0 version in Tome and Blood was even more.

[tainsouvra]

Uhm... tainsouvra, I'm gonna assume that from your comment you yourseld claim to know something about physics. How much power exactly would you say is required to make a 120 ft. spark gap? Just wondering you know, cuz, it might sorta be.. a lot. And yes, that is voltage. Actually, no, it's not voltage. "Voltage" (potential difference) and power are two different things. The power of the bolt would be equal to the product of the voltage and the current--and it's the current that would be most important here in the first place, as that's what is going to be causing damage to your foes. Voltage looks impressive, but current is what kills.

I trust the significance of pointing out that not even the basic terminology is being used accurately is not being lost here. I'm not picking on you personally, but this is indicative of a very common problem. Real world physics are more complex than a few basic principles when you try to apply them to actual situations.
I was simply asking if there was a way of incorporating some magnetism. It doesn't have to work out to any sort of real-world equivalent; neither does lightning bolt, or energy missile with the lighting subtype, or reverse gravity, or fly. The question was if there was a way to use magnetism as an inspiration for some new concepts in D&D. This is a different matter entirely, and I believe the Magnetism spell was mentioned earlier, so for now I'll leave it at that.

[TimeWizard]

While we're throwing catgirls on the pile a horizontal lightning bold just doesn't work in almost any instance. I know it is a neat special effect, but lightning is going to find the easiest route to ground, which is usually a few feet below the caster's arm. Call lightning works fine though. Even a lightning bolt cast by a flying wizard on someone below him works good, but electricity wants to find the easiest path to ground and that is almost never the guy 80 feet away.

You seem to have forgotten that the electricity in question is summoned by magic. It's safe to assume that part of the spell includes a branching path of least resistance to enemies. Or something. It's magic.

I'd say the druid's metal themed spells are just magentism sans name.