Sun-Forged Iron [New Material]

[KingGolem]

This is just an idea I had while I was watching the History Channel.

Sunforged Iron
This strange metal has a sheen that looks like a delicate swirling pattern of red, orange, and yellow, and it is made when iron is smelted using magical lenses and an array of mirrors, which imbue it with some of the magical properties of the sun. Sunforged iron weighs 25% less than normal iron, and is very flexible and holds an edge well.

Whenever sunforged iron comes into contact with an undead creature, an ooze, or any creature that is somehow vulnerable to sunlight comes into contact with sunforged iron, that creature’s flesh begins to sizzle and burn, dealing 1d3 points of fire damage. This damage occurs with the slightest touch, and it is added to any attacks made with a sunforged iron weapon. If an undead creature, an ooze, or any creature that is vulnerable to sunlight is kept in contact with sunforged iron, then they take an additional 1d3 points of fire damage for each round of exposure.

All undead, oozes, and creatures that are vulnerable to light in some way are extremely uncomfortable around large ammounts of sunforged iron. If somebody is wearing armor made of sunforged iron, or is otherwise carrying more then 10 pounds of it on their person, then any creature that is vulnerable to the sunforged iron (as described above) must succeed on a DC 12 Will Save to enter the square adjacent to the creature wearing or carrying the sunforged iron. Any creature that succeeds on this save is immune to this effect for the remainder of the encounter.

If any undead creature that has the ability to bestow negative levels attempts to do so to any creature wearing sunforged iron armor, then that undead must succeed on a DC 14 Fortitude save or take 1d6 points of fire damage and fail to bestow the negative level.

Sunforged iron has a hardness of 10 and 30 hit points per inch of thickness.

Ammuntion: +10gp
Light weapon: +150gp
One Hand Weapon: +225gp
One Head of a Double Weapon: +225gp
Two Handed Weapon: +300gp
Light Armor: +375gp
Medium Armor: +400gp
Heavy Armor: +450gp
Shield: +325gp

Background
The gnomish inventor and wizard Holdur Zingreegal once experimented with a way to more efficiently and cleanly forge metal, a method that could be used without using wood or coal. Though countless experiments led no results, he eventually though of the idea of using the magnified and reflected suns rays to forge the iron ore. He began to design experiments to test the possibility of this new way of smelting iron, but he soon encountered a problem. It would be extremely inconvenient and expensive to reflect enough sunlight to the iron ore to cause it to melt. However, he quickly came up with the solution. By placing a slight fire-based enchantment on a few large lenses and arranging these around the mass of the sunforged iron, he wouldn’t have to reflect as much light onto the iron ore mass. After about a month of gathering materials, he hired a dwarven construction team to build his “solar forge,” and it was quickly completed. When the iron ore was bundled together and hoisted to the top of the tower where all of the mirrors were aimed at, the fire-enchanted lenses did their job, and the iron quickly began to melt. The molten iron flowed down the apparatus and into several ingot-molds. However, when the iron had cooled, it was certainly not what Zingreegal had expected. The metal that was in the molds was of a reddish-yellow metallic sheen, and when they were lifted out of their molds, they were significantly lighter than what they should have been. Intrigued, Zingreegal had one of them forged into a sword. This sword, which he named “Sunfang,” was a weapon of exceptional quality. It was lightweight, flexible, and it held its edge very well. Furthermore, Zingreegal purchased a zombie from a necromancer to test his weapon on, and it seemed to burn the creature’s undead flesh. Zingreegal named this new metal “sunforged iron,” for which he won a sizeable research grant from both the mage’s guild he belonged to and the gnomish government.


So what do you think? I'm not sure about the pricing. Perhaps later I'll stat the solar forge. And by the way, I'm sorry about the poor formatting. This is the first time I've tried to post something like this on these forums.

[Icewalker]

I don't really know, so don't take my word on this, but the price seems a bit high, as the material doesn't do much.

Interesting idea though, and I like the background.

[Admiral Squish]

Huh. Seems like it would be most useful in ammunition form. You hit the guy over and over, and each bolt adds another 1 damage/turn. Maybe a grappler build with sunforged armor?

Still, I think you should probably give it extra effects. Maybe a full round of contact makes things take extra damage? Maybe it makes light-sensitive baddies stay away from it? Makes you immune to level-drain from undead touches? Or makes them take XdX damage when they do drain a level? Maybe it damages all undead instead of just sun-sensitive ones? I'm just throwing ideas out. Feel free to ignore me.

[Raging_Pacifist]

Prices:
Ammuntion: 6gp a piece
Light weapon: +125gp
One Hand Wep: +175gp
One Head of a Double Weapon: +175gp
Two Handed Weapon +200gp
Light Armor: +250gp
M Armor: +325gp
H Armor: +375gp
Shield: +250gp

Damage: 1d2 per round against against negative energy creatures

[KingGolem]

Huh. Seems like it would be most useful in ammunition form. You hit the guy over and over, and each bolt adds another 1 damage/turn. Maybe a grappler build with sunforged armor?

Well remember, that quality only works on undead and creatures that are vulnerable to light. And if I recall correctly, most undead have an Intelligence score of some degree, and with that they would probably know to pull the sunforged iron arrows out of them, since they would continue to burn them.
Oh, and by the way, it affects ALL undead, AND all creatures that have some kind of vulnerability to light. Sorry if my choice of words was confusing.

However, both of you are right; it needs more effects. Perhaps it should guard against negative levels, or something like that. Or, maybe undead would have to make a Will save to come too close to someone wearing sunforged iron armor. I'll sleep on it, and try to decide something tomorrow.

EDIT: Oh, and thanks for those prices Raging Pacifist, but I may need to adjust them soon, since I'll be adding new abilities.

[Raging_Pacifist]

Only some undead have good INT. Most, like zombies have 1 INT.

Add that undead non-wep. and touch attacks take the damage. Also, maybe 1/day you unleash the power of the power of the sun in a brilliant flash of light dealing 3d6 damage to adjacent undead and blinding others for 1d2 rounds (Ref 14 for half) . But you have to charge the sun iron in the sun for one hour.

[jagadaishio]

I think that as the price stands now, the point of fire damage should apply against all creatures and all undead/sun sensitive creatures should instead take 1d3 fire damage. That would balance it a bit more.

[KingGolem]

Ok, I've made a few changes to the sunforged iron. How does it look now? I'm pretty sure that the price is still too high, but I don't know how I should price it.

Only some undead have good INT. Most, like zombies have 1 INT.

An undead wouldn't need a good Intelligence score to realize that it would need to pull the sunforged iron arrow out of it's flesh, since it would burn like hell. I mean, even animal Intelligence would suffice, but since zombies and skeletons are mindless, they wouldn't realize that the arrow that was stuck in them was hurting them.

EDIT: Ok, and now I've modified the price.

[jagadaishio]

Those prices are more appropriate for what the metal has to offer. I assume that the armour causes the fire damage to undead who are grappling the armored character?

[Apoc360]

What would be the effects if a vampire, or something simlar, were to wear armor or use a weapon made of this?

[BisectedBrioche]

Ok, I've made a few changes to the sunforged iron. How does it look now? I'm pretty sure that the price is still too high, but I don't know how I should price it.



An undead wouldn't need a good Intelligence score to realize that it would need to pull the sunforged iron arrow out of it's flesh, since it would burn like hell. I mean, even animal Intelligence would suffice, but since zombies and skeletons are mindless, they wouldn't realize that the arrow that was stuck in them was hurting them.

EDIT: Ok, and now I've modified the price.

There's plenty of mindless undead which won't know any better.

[jagadaishio]

What would be the effects if a vampire, or something simlar, were to wear armor or use a weapon made of this?

It would probably take one point of damage every round until it burnt to death.

[KingGolem]

I assume that the armour causes the fire damage to undead who are grappling the armored character?

Of course, it would have to touch the armored character to grapple them.

What would be the effects if a vampire, or something simlar, were to wear armor or use a weapon made of this?

Well, if the wielded a weapon made out of sunforged iron, then nothing bad would happen to them mechanically as long as they didn't touch to parts made out of sunforged iron. They would hate to use that weapon, since the magic inside of it would make them feel uncomfortable. They would also need to keep a human slave nearby to clean it off for them. Armor, on the other hand, would be out of the question, since that would have to touch them and deal the 1d3 points of fire damage every round. In either case, any sunforged iron they were carrying would have to weigh less than 10pounds, or it would force a Will save every time they wanted to get within five feet of it.

Oh, and by the way, I just checked the back of the Monster Manual, and it says that damage reduction doesn't protect against energy damage, non-magical or otherwise.

There's plenty of mindless undead which won't know any better.

Well of course there are, but I was just using zombies and skeletons as an example, since they are the first that I think of when referring to "mindless undead."

[Raging_Pacifist]

Those prices look better now.