A low-grade armor and weapon material for a Fantasy setting

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Varyon

A shaft made of normal wood that can stand up to the rigors of combat would be better suited to making a tier 1 polearm, quarterstaff, spear, etc. In GURPS terms, a sub-par shaft of normal wood would be Cheap in materials and/or balance, but tier 0 is actually below even that - my current thoughts are that tier 0 weapons tend to cause reduced injury compared to normal tier 1 ones (tier 2+ generally just get a little bonus damage against mundane foes and make armor less effective, but many foes have traits that let them divide injury by some value, and tier 2+ weapons can downgrade or outright bypass this protection).

I mean, you've considered two materials and one is too good and the other isn't good enough? I'd go with just braiding the serfwood/goodweed into a pole and letting it be crappy, if crappy is what you want.

Its worth noting that a proper pole requires proper drying and some other steps. you could skip those for tier 0 poles instead.