I've just started a new game with my friends and the first area is a town called silverwood named after the magical trees that the town grows. the entire culture of this town is obsessed with these magical trees and the unique properties they have These include potions from the flowers, magical amber from the sap, deadly poison from the roots, and the main event the wood and leaves which after being "cooked" harden to be as dense and strong as iron or steel while retaining the light weight of wood. I've come up with all sorts of uses for this material as well as a few balancing traits if you will. the first thing is that the time required to grow a seed to adulthood is about 20-30 years and they require special care and conditions to gain the magical properties they have and once something has been made the wood will decay after only 2-5 years (depending on care and exposure to moisture). so these 3 facts of the material I believe help balance it out in the world design stage but as for in game effects I haven't planned that far yet which is why i'm here.
I've been trying to come up with stats for armor and weapons made from this stuff. I don't want it to be too over powered but its rare so I do want it too feel powerful. help in making items out of this stuff would be appreciated.
Sorry. I looked around and wasn't sure where to post this I didn't see an advice homebrew section.
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As a fairly generic example of timber, oak of average density (weight per volume) is about one-tenth as dense as steel. If silverwood is as tough as steel but not as hard, such that armour made of silverwood needs to be about twice as thick as the steel equivalent for equal resistance to chopping and stabbing, it would weigh one-fifth as much. Only certain types of armour make sense to create from silverwood - it can't be forged into rings or studs, but scale, reinforced mail (splint or banded) and any sort of plate should work.
A weapon can't be made too much lighter before it reduces its damage. I might suggest to treat silverwood as mechanically equivalent to mithral - half weight - for this purpose.
What if you took this a different direction? There's a lot of material for use with swords, armor and such. Silverwood however seems to have magic in its veins: potions from the flowers. What if then these trees are revered by mages?
Perhaps the paper made from the pulped material or leaves hold more spells than standard paper; maybe ink made from the sap makes scrolls cheaper to manufacture; maybe whole Silverwood books impart one spell at a CL +1 for prepared casters.
Otherwise I'd say just have the items crafted from the material be lighter (-1 Armor Check penalty, -5% Arcane Spell Failure, or something) and be done w/it.
If Silverwood (the town) is obsessed w/the trees, how do they show their devotion? Is there a special mill in town or do they pride themselves on milling by hand? Is there a mage's guild or a singular organization with their traditions built around studying the weird effects of the plants? What is the affect on local flora and fauna? For example, if deer and goats browse on the lower branches and leaves, do they glow or spit venom or fly or something? Are there plant creatures in the area awakened by the Silverwood trees to protect them? Maybe there's an entire druidic tradition and the dark secret of the wood's power is that, to entice the moon to fuel the "silver" in them, the druids must turn into animals and hunt for sacrifices. Those who fail the rite are cursed with lycanthropy...and their bane is silver.
I hate being the last word in these threads. I hope I didn't kill it.
I hate being the last word in these threads. I hope I didn't kill it.
i'll save you! I would look at both ironwood and mithril and try to find a way to hybrid it, as i imagine silverwood would be tougher having somewhat mnetallic properties, but also lighter due to wood over metal.