Anyone has ideas/solutions for Obsidian and Ironwood weapons/armors?

[HoboKnight]

What the title says. Surely, someone addressed this in the past. I googled, but found ... almost nothing.

Thanks!

[PhoenixPhyre]

What the title says. Surely, someone addressed this in the past. I googled, but found ... almost nothing.

Thanks!

What do you want them to do? Be realistic? Have fantastic powers?

If realism's your goal...obsidian armor should be a Bad Idea (brittle, heavy, not that strong). And Ironwood is likely to be very heavy.

If I were going to do this (and I have)--

Obsidian would be a material that is tied to elemental fire. So a non-magical (but expensive, because working it well is hard) source of some resistance to fire damage (as armor) and adding some fire damage to weapons. I could go with "Heavy Armor Master, but for fire damage" (ie -3 points of fire damage) and "adds 2 fire damage" for weapons.

Or simply used as a component in a magic item formula for creating flametongue weapons and armor of fire resistance.

Ironwood would be iron...except wood. More expensive, but lets your druid wear plate armor (given proficiency). Other than that, not much.

[HoboKnight]

What do you want them to do? Be realistic? Have fantastic powers?

If realism's your goal...obsidian armor should be a Bad Idea (brittle, heavy, not that strong). And Ironwood is likely to be very heavy.

If I were going to do this (and I have)--

Obsidian would be a material that is tied to elemental fire. So a non-magical (but expensive, because working it well is hard) source of some resistance to fire damage (as armor) and adding some fire damage to weapons. I could go with "Heavy Armor Master, but for fire damage" (ie -3 points of fire damage) and "adds 2 fire damage" for weapons.

Or simply used as a component in a magic item formula for creating flametongue weapons and armor of fire resistance.

Ironwood would be iron...except wood. More expensive, but lets your druid wear plate armor (given proficiency). Other than that, not much.

Top. Notch. Solutions.

Thing is, my party is in feywild and as I made it, only obsidian and ironwood crafters exist there. No metalworkers.

[LibraryOgre]

As said, Ironwood armor is simply armor of a given type, but made of fantastical wood. Obsidian armor won't be very good, though I can see an argument for leather studded with other rocks (more fragile and heavy than standard studded leather in most cases, but the fragility doesn't matter in D&D)

For obsidian weapons, if you're wanting some realism, have them be fairly equivalent to their metal versions (though they'd look different... a macuahuitl is not a longsword, but the stats work for this purpose), but have them get a minus to strike against metal (and ironwood) armors.... the obsidian can't get through as well, unless you've got some sort of magic on them (like the 2e glasssteel spell).

[GalacticAxekick]

Top. Notch. Solutions.

Thing is, my party is in feywild and as I made it, only obsidian and ironwood crafters exist there. No metalworkers.If obsidian and ironwood are only being used because metal isn't available, it only makes sense that obsidian and ironwood should be inferior materials.

Like others have said, obsidian would make brittle armor, and ironwood would make heavier armor. If you want obsidian and ironwood to feel like upgrades for the players, and not like downgrades to disregard or only use out of desperation, you'll need to give them magical benefits (like giving obsidian fire properties, or making ironwood plate work for druids).

Either that or create enemies that metalwork is ineffective against: enemies that easily penetrate metal armor, but not to obsidian or ironwood. The problem with this angle is that it's the OPPOSITE of what fey mythology says. In myth, fey are vulnerable to iron, and not the other way around.