Dungeon Fantasy Elven Melee Weapons

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Kromm

They're customarily remarkably thin, light, and beautiful, yet incredibly tough for all that. So for yet another take . . .

Elven Blade: Halve baseline weapon weight for actual carry weight, but double it when assessing breakage (e.g., a saber weighs 2 lbs., so an elven saber weighs 1 lb. but breaks as if 4 lbs.). The blade is automatically balanced (+1 to skill), but can have a second level of balanced for +15 CF. It also has a level of ornate (+1 to reactions) and can have up to three more levels at the usual CFs, for as high as +4 to reactions! Any fencing weapon, sword, or knife: +9 CF.

Elven weapons will regularly exercise both limit-breakers, stacking balanced (+15 CF), elven blade (+9 CF), and ornate (+9 CF) to get a sword that costs 34 times as much, weighs half as much, breaks as if it had four times its carry weight, gives +2 to skill, and garners +4 to reactions. Legendary ones will often add fine or very fine to get a damage bonus and further suppress the odds of breakage.

What about Elven War Staffs for those of us who still have fondness in our hearts for the Sylvan War Lore!

[Wavefunction]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

What about Elven War Staffs for those of us who still have fondness in our hearts for the Sylvan War Lore!

Just use exactly the same modifier but generalize it to Elven rather than Elven Blade, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to allow elven staffs to be Balanced.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Wavefunction

Just use exactly the same modifier but generalize it to Elven rather than Elven Blade, it seems perfectly reasonable to me to allow elven staffs to be Balanced.

I agree, but I suspect the CF might change (increase) for crushing weapons...

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I agree, but I suspect the CF might change (increase) for crushing weapons...

Indeed. Elven crushing weapons are probably made of a special, high-quality wood, which is going to boost cost. It might be appropriate to simply require Elven weapons be either blade-class or Fine sticks of some sort. While an Elven staff or similar should still get the +1 to skill for Elven, I wouldn't allow them to have Balanced as well.

[RyanW]

The simplest solution is usually the best.

Originally Posted by Varyon

If your GM opts to bring in Rust Monsters, your glass dagger is safe.

Bronze doesn't rust.

Originally Posted by Varyon

If a dungeon has some sort of quasi-magnetic charged wall, ceiling, or floor, it won't attract the glass dagger, leaving you free to use it.

Bronze isn't magnetic.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

I agree, but I suspect the CF might change (increase) for crushing weapons...

I would increase it significantly for "stick" type weapons. A baton or quarterstaff's base cost is so low that I would want to increase the CF to something like +14 CF to make sure that it doesn't become something everyone and their dog takes, even if Struggling or Poor.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Bronze doesn't rust.

It does against Rust Monsters. All metal does against Rust Monsters. Back when I played D&D, we would often throw copper coins to distract them so we could get away while they ate. Rust Monsters are really more Metal-Destroying and Eating Monsters.

Originally Posted by RyanW

Bronze isn't magnetic.

I said "quasi-magnetic" for a reason - Magneto can certainly manipulate bronze as easily as any other metal.

In a setting like DF, "rust" will often be a catch-all for "corrodes metal," while "magnetic" would be a catch-all for "attracts metal."

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by RyanW

Bronze doesn't rust.

It most certainly does rust (well, it forms oxide compounds under attack from atmospheric oxygen anyways). The fact that the oxides form a thin coating that protects the rest of the bronze under normal conditions doesn't mean squat when dealing with a rust monster, which typically touches things and magically reduces the entire object to oxide in an instant.

It also doesn't normally produce the expected amount of heat for oxidizing the item abruptly, and quite a few versions of rust monsters can even perform this trick on platinum and gold, which must make alchemists dang curious. The beasties are noted for liking oxides of "noble" metals more than other types and mugging adventurers for them.

TLDR; trying to argue with the GM that the treasure-eating monster doesn't eat treasure because it's physically impossible will probably make the GM say "Oh, dear, all that heat that should have been generated seems to have been stored up in the rust monster. It has heat-ray vision!"

[Anders]

I always assumed they lived off of the energy freed when they corroded stuff. So a metal that's difficult to corrode, like gold or platinum, would be roughage whereas something like pure sodium would be Rust Monster cheesecake.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Bruno

It also doesn't normally produce the expected amount of heat for oxidizing the item abruptly

Heh. Nor does it consume the amount of oxygen. Ordinary rust (Fe2O3) requires 0.43 kg of oxygen per kg of iron; air at STP contains 0.26 kg of oxygen per cubic meter (7.3 kg in a 10x10x10 dungeon mapping cube), so causing a 10 kg breastplate to disintegrate in a shower of rust should bring oxygen levels below breathable in that area.

Of course, what this mostly tells us is that D&D chemistry is not real world chemistry. It's probably consuming the essence of the iron and rust is the corruption that is left behind when the essence is gone.