So. In a just recently started campaign, I am playing a magus with an engineering background. He will soon be piloting an airship in an homebrew game that isn't Eberron but strongly influenced by it (so the DM can use their adventures).
Part of his progression will be building, maintaining, and upgrading his weapon, a gunblade. Originally, I had planned on him eventually inventing his own metal, an alloy of adamantine and mithril, which he'd use to forge a stronger, more durable blade. It would function as normal steel for the most part, but would inherit the DR penetration of both original metals.
Then I discovered what Pathfinder's done with DR. Turns out that my magus will be able to penetrate DR fairly quickly due to his arcane pool enhancement.
Which leaves me still wanting to invent my own metal alloy, because I think that's cool, but not having an idea for what property or properties it may have.
At the moment the best I've got is to give it a "virtual" +1 enhancement bonus when figuring DR penetration, which would fit with the original bonus of the metal (improved DR) and work with the new system, but I'm not entirely happy with that.
Any ideas come to mind? I'm not looking for something OP, but definitely not something useless either. In-line in power with the original benefit, ideally.
I imagine that developing this metal may take a while, so I may be 8-10th level by the time I've perfected the process. No idea how much it may wind up costing me to develop it either, though I doubt it will be entirely free.
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I made a few for my homebrew game. Sit back and be dazzled! (not really)
Carmintium: a naturally poisonous heavy metal, doing 1 dex damage on a failed save, fort DC 13. Masterwork adds +2 DC, as does each point of enhancement bonus (to a max DC of 25).
Ignicite: looks like gold, is always burning, adds +1 fire damage to weapons (armor attributes omitted), reduces cost of flaming and flaming burst by 25%
Fulmenite: looks like tarnished copper (green), is always charged with static electricity, adds +1 electricity damage to weapons (armor attributes omitted), reduces cost of shocking and shocking burst by 25%
Frigicite: looks like lead, is always cold, adds +1 cold damage to weapons (armor attributes omitted), reduces cost of frost and icy burst by 25%
Necrolite: infused with necromantic energy, heals 1 HP naturally every hour so long as all of its pieces are together, and causes 1 bleed damage on a hit (non-stacking)
Had more but can't remember them all right now. Happy crafting!
Here's one that I fully made up that I really like; it's a little powerful, but is nice to have...
Bloodstone: This stone is harvested from mines deep within the earth, where the steam of volcanos and the stifling heat protrudes the dark cavernous paths. Legends say that this stone has the look of dried blood drained from the insides of a hideous insect-like beast, but has yet to be proven true. This stone is favored with savages and barbarians due to their nature, and protected by repulsive monsters as it is used for their decorative nests.
Weapons and Ammunition crafted with Bloodstone have a savage look upon them and an increased murderous intent; their piercing capabilities are increased, improving the percent chance of striking a critical hit by 5% (increasing the critical strike chance on the fashioned weapon by 1 on a D20 roll). This is a natural benefit of the Bloodstone, and stacks with magical properties or feats increasing the wielder's critical strike chance; however, Bloodstone ammunition does not stack with Bloodstone ranged weapons, and the bonus granted is not multiplied from feats or magical properties.
Armor and Shields crafted with Bloodstone too have a savage look upon them, but has unique protective capabilities as well, reducing any attack's critical strike chance upon the user by 5% (reducing the critical strike chance of all attacks made against the user by 1 on a D20 roll). This does not remove the capabilities of being critically hit if the attack can only become a critical threat upon a 20 with a D20 roll, and Bloodstone Armor does not stack with Bloodstone Shields.
All items crafted with Bloodstone have all of their hardness and durability cut in half from the items they are normally created out of, and have a variable cost to craft for weapons, armor, and a stack of ammunition:
Item Type Cost
20 Ammunition 50g/pound
Weapons 500g/pound
Armor/Shield 250g/pound
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Then I discovered what Pathfinder's done with DR. Turns out that my magus will be able to penetrate DR fairly quickly due to his arcane pool enhancement.
The moment I found those rules regarding enhancement bonuses providing special material effects, I removed them from my home setting.
All the effort I'd put into determining regional location of veins (old Dungeoneer's Survival Guide is awesome), availability, and so on flushed with one blurb of text. Suddenly, my players would have no real reason to give a crap about special materials. It had to go.
I made a few for my homebrew game. Sit back and be dazzled! (not really)
Necrolite: infused with necromantic energy, heals 1 HP naturally every hour so long as all of its pieces are together, and causes 1 bleed damage on a hit (non-stacking)
I have one similar to that called Aurorum (extremely rare) - Sidhe (fey) alchemical process that grants the metal (if at least a magical enhancement bonus of +1) fast healing 1, the fragile quality, and deals damage as cold iron. Broken off pieces disintegrate after 1d4 rounds.
Works really well with Splintering Weapon.
Think Prince Nuada's polearm from Hellboy II.
I had an idea a while back for a metal that didn't weigh you down in water, and could actually hold in water, and keep the wearer from dehydrating (useful for playing aquatic races, and to help alleviate some issues in desert settings as well).
I had an idea a while back for a metal that didn't weigh you down in water, and could actually hold in water, and keep the wearer from dehydrating (useful for playing aquatic races, and to help alleviate some issues in desert settings as well).
That's neat! It's also something similar to a part of what I've been thinking of today while taking a long car trip.
First of all, if I am going to be sinking a decent chunk of time and gold into this (and possibly skill points to pick up a knowledge or craft metallurgy expertise), why am I only looking for a small benefit? At this point it's become as costly as magic item creation, even if it isn't quite.
So my thinking now is this:
Black Aranium (the PC's name is Aran :P)--this metal alloy is created from an admixture of adamantite and mithril in a complex magical ritual, using a fusion of alchemy (a fellow party member is an alchemist) and arcane ritual. The formula is extremely complex, and the slightest mistake results in a ruined and worthless alchemical sludge.
However, if the process is successful, a bladed weapon forged of Black Aranium has its threat range doubled, as if its wielder had the Improved Critical feat for the weapon in question. This property does not stack with Improved Critical or Keen Edge.
White Aranium--created using a similar formula to Black Aranium but with a proportionately higher amount of mithril to adamantine, White Aranium once shaped and cooled is extremely light and hard. While it cannot hold an edge like the Black, it is resistant to heat to a remarkable degree. Melting White Aranium after it's been cooled requires a magical fire of no less than a 7th-level spell equivalent source.
I figure this way I can use the Black Aranium to forge my gunblade's new blade, and the White Aranium to upgrade our airship to be more resistant to fireballs. :D
Which leaves me still wanting to invent my own metal alloy, because I think that's cool, but not having an idea for what property or properties it may have.
Weapons and armor made of this alloy have only half the weight of normal items of their kind. When hit by an attack or spell the item's hardness can never be reduced below 50%. So even attacks that normally ignore an object's hardness don't fully do with this metal.
The actual hp and hardness should be somewhere similar to mithral.
Entropic Steel: Said to be forged of Iron torn from the battlefields of Acheron and cooled in the waters of the River Styx, Entropic steel has the power of forgetfulness. On a successful critical hit it temporarily removes one (randomly chosen) feat or spell slot of the target's highest spell level.
this is cool. The water of the styx is supposed to wipe memory, so it seems appropriate.
Unobtanium... found only on a distant planet. It is so rare that no one yet knows what it can do.
How about keenite? It doubles the threat range of slashing weapons forged from it. It also grants a +1 alchemical bonus to attack rolls made to confirm critical hits; this bonus increases by +1 for every +1 enhancement bonus the blade has. It seriously needs a much better name.
Meteorium. It increases the range increment of metal (or mostly metal) ranged weapons and ammunition. +10 feet? +20? +30?
Machyite. It grants a +2 to CMB made with weapons crafted of it.
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You should decide on the qualities of the metal then decide how those qualities affect the items made from it.
Some things to remember about real metals,
Harder holds a better edge but is more brittle then softer metals.
Conductivity of heat and electricity (and magic)
Melting and boiling points.
Is it a metal or a supercooled liquid? Or something else?
Mallibility (how easily shaped it is)
Density is directly related to weight.
Transparency/color
Interaction with other materials (does it explode on contact with water like magnesium in air?)
Etc
Then determine how these traits can help or hinder various uses for it.
Not all are weaponizable:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchaloha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thokcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orichalcum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbaga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_bronze
Not sure this works for a sword, but something with unusual magnetic properties? Like a compass needle that points toward the moon. Or maybe it can magnetically attract gold or some other normally non-magnetic metal (oromagnetic instead of ferromagnetic?).
Something that can cut incorporeal beings, or shadows.
Transparent aluminum! (See Star Trek IV)
Maybe something that releases more than the normal amount of kinetic energy on impact? It might cause more damage on crits, and provide a bonus to bull rush and push maneuvers.
Maybe something that reacts (al)chemically to bone calcium or blood iron or something?
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I saw a show on discovery, don't know how legit it was but it was showing new tech and advances for weapons. One of the things was a seven alloy bullet - can't remember the offical name.
Essentially this bullet and the alloys that made it would actively react to the mass and hardenss of the target it hit. One of the shots shows this bullet piercing a 1/4 inch steel plate - like a drill press. Then when another bullet was shot at a side of beef and shredded it.
The tech dudes claimed that when hitting a hard target (like steel) the alloys in the bullet would react and compress - giving a stronger point / head to the round to puncture the target. When the bullet strikes softer surfaces - like flesh, the alloys would react in reverse and spread out - much like a hollow point.
Not sure how this could be translated into PFS......maybe have the weapon gain a crit multiplier against things without hardness and things with hardness - loose the a crit modifier to scale up the dice in damage?
Wow...that is a pretty neat bit of technology.
I'm not sure my DM will let the material be quite that powerful...at least initially.
Hrm.
I hadn't considered it, but there's no reason for research to end at level 10-12. Perhaps this could be something developed at levels 16-17!
Thanks for the idea!
(I really want to search that Discovery show though, that real-world alloy sounds insane...)