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    Halfling in the Playground
     
    Gorbad Ironclaw's Avatar

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    Default Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    I'm not entirely sure if this has been done before, and I don't know if this is the right spot for it, but I have an idea for stat changes to weapons and Armor based on material. There are magic items made of other materials listed, but they arent expansive enough in my opinion. This list will assume steel is the normal material.

    Iron; Double hardness, half the hitpoints of equivalent steel item, slightly cheaper (not sure how much cheaper), can't be repaired if broken due to brittleness.

    Lead; +2 damage bonus for bludgeoning weapons, doubled weight. Only maces and hammers can be made from lead.

    Titanium; half as light as equivalent weapon or armour piece made of steel. Extra attack with titanium dagger, rapier, or shortsword, -1 damage if bludgeoning weapon is made from titanium. (Should be significantly more expensive, not sure how much)

    Bronze; half as expensive as equivalent weapon or armour piece, -1 to hardness, damage, and ac bonus.

    Note; some of this is simplified, particularly the weight of titanium and lead.
    Last edited by Gorbad Ironclaw; 2013-08-27 at 12:29 PM.
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    Ashtagon's Avatar

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    Default Re: Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    Quote Originally Posted by Gorbad Ironclaw View Post
    Iron; Double hardness and hit points, slightly cheaper (not sure how much cheaper), can't be repaired if broken due to brittleness.
    Why would iron have any characteristics superior to steel? Historically, weaponsmiths and armourers switched to steel asap.

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    Gorbad Ironclaw's Avatar

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    Default Re: Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    I'm pretty sure Iron is harder than steel, but not stronger. It's also brittle, and cracks more easily than steel. I should probably change it slightly.
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    Default Re: Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    Quote Originally Posted by Gorbad Ironclaw View Post
    I'm pretty sure Iron is harder than steel, but not stronger. It's also brittle, and cracks more easily than steel. I should probably change it slightly.
    Well, no, not in any way.

    It's exactly the other way actually.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron

    Generally, more carbon you dissolve in iron - the harder it becomes. Actually somehow 'structured' dissolutions are being called 'steel'.
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    Default Re: Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    Quote Originally Posted by Gorbad Ironclaw View Post
    Titanium; half as light as equivalent weapon or armour piece made of steel. Extra attack with titanium dagger, rapier, or shortsword, -1 damage if bludgeoning weapon is made from titanium. (Should be significantly more expensive, not sure how much)
    Titanium is really not that great of a weapon material. Steel has much better characteristics when it comes to capability to flex, and at a given volume steel is significantly stronger than titanium.

    Also, regarding materials - bronze is actually quite good for maces, and it might be worth tossing in alloys. Tungsten steel, for example, is harder, heavier, and more heat resistant than most alloys.
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    Gorbad Ironclaw's Avatar

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    Default Re: Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    Obviously I know nothing about metallurgy. So how could this be translated into 3.5 rules?
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    Default Re: Weapon material and corresponding bonuses

    Quote Originally Posted by Gorbad Ironclaw View Post
    Iron; Double hardness, half the hitpoints of equivalent steel item, slightly cheaper (not sure how much cheaper), can't be repaired if broken due to brittleness.

    Lead; +2 damage bonus for bludgeoning weapons, doubled weight. Only maces and hammers can be made from lead.

    Titanium; half as light as equivalent weapon or armour piece made of steel. Extra attack with titanium dagger, rapier, or shortsword, -1 damage if bludgeoning weapon is made from titanium. (Should be significantly more expensive, not sure how much)

    Bronze; half as expensive as equivalent weapon or armour piece, -1 to hardness, damage, and ac bonus.
    As a metallurgist, here's my advice.

    Cast iron (not pure iron, which gets confusing) is a poor choice for edged weapons. It would work ok for bludgeons as long as you didn't hit anything too hard. I almost want to just use rules for stone weapons, which I would suspect are in Frostburn or something like that. Make them bad and cheap.

    Lead: Probably balanced. If you want more realism you could make it deform over time but that's kind of a hassle.

    Titanium: see mithral. Maybe not accurate, but it's the go-to light and fancy material.

    Bronze: I honestly don't have much experience with bronze. Figure out what mechanical space it fills: make it better or worse in damage, durability, cost, weight. I'd guess you could put durability and cost both worse than steel.

    Alloy steel: There are a lot of minor differences here. Rather than worry about the details, I would allow the players to buy more hardness or hp for the item and call it good. Maybe each extra hp is 50 gold, with a max of +10 or something, and each extra hardness is 200 gold with a max of +5. Or you could go nonlinear and make it so going from +4 to +5 hp costs more than going from +0 to +1.

    I'm worried that you are trying to get more distinction for the materials than 3.5 really supports. Adamantine is mythical and great, mithral is mythically light, bone is terrible, and mundane metals are kind of in between. Yes, steel is probably better than other mundane options but how much effort is this worth?

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