questions about pyramid 3-68 natural magic

[lord buss]

i have two questions about this issue. i think i will even need kromm (or someone who wrote the articles) explanation.
1) ars metallica. the metal enhancing is very interesting idea which i will certainly use, but the discription is less then third of page, and the exact rules are not clear. how long it takes? which tools or lab you need? what happens if you fale? do you need to roll for every pound? item? full armor suit?
2) the obsidian serpent. it is excellent creature, both background and mecanicly, as huge and powerful creature, that you can't just kill, but there are still plenty of ways defeating it. the problem is, why it has so little traits? i will not write which traits it has, because copyright, but i will write which traits it doesn't have(i hope its fine.). its fine that it doesn't have immunity to metabolic hazards. i understand why you decided it doesn't have "Doesn’t Eat or Drink", "Doesn’t Sleep", and "Doesn’t Breathe". i understand why it doesn't have sharp teeth. but it doesn't have even a vermiform! why?! did the writer didnt have enough time to write all the traits?
i really like this articles, thats why i have a problem with them not being logical. answer me please.
thank you in advance.

[Imion]

1) As it is a variant of Alchemy it follows it's rules where not otherwise mentioned. See GURPS Magic, p. 210ff. for those.

2) A monster's write-up only includes traits that are needed for combat. It isn't a full racial template.

[lord buss]

1) i'm talking about metal enhancing. the rules about the lab maybe. critical failure too. but there is anything writed about the time the enhancment takes, or how much it costs, can you roll once for whole armor suit, and i dont think (logicly) that regular failure will destroy the item.
and without price or time, this abilty immediately becomes free(nearly), unlimited armor upgraiding. of course you will need skill around 17, but this is much cheaper then enchantment. and there are the bonuses for workshop and maybe assistants, if all the regular alchemy rules apply.
2) even in the dungeon fantasy monster books, mentioned traits like:cannot learn, duty, fanaticism, loner, bad smell (for a monster which exists only for fighting), callous, gluttony, reduced consumption, shyness (for a creature with 6 IQ), wild animal (which i forgot to mantion in the first post but is also very important), and plenty more. even the serpent itself, has one trait of three (i will not say which) that i don't think is needed for combat. besides, vermiform is absolutely a combat trait - no manipulators is very important thing, and no legs to. and there are lot more traits that are very important in combat, like:terrain adaptation, combat reflexes, dark vision, and more that i dont remember. there are also traits like vacuum support, pressure support, and temperature tolerance, (which i don't consider as combat important, but nearly every monster in the monster book have) that are really suitable for the serpent. you know, the more i think of it, the more it seems that the writer really was short on time.

[Imion]

1) You are right, time and cost are not given, but see http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...2&postcount=13. Or simply put some numbers on it that seem appropriate to you.

I do think that the roll would be for the whole armor enhanced that way. If you orient yourself on the pointers in the linked post then cost and time would scale with the initial cost of the (piece of) armor.

2)

Cannot Learn - No ability to learn fom an encounter and plan accordingly for the next.
Duty - Is bound to do something, like defend a doorway.
Fanaticism - Will attack a specific race on sight or be very uncooperative towards it.
Bad Smell - Can possibly be detected by smell before it can be seen.
Callous - Will show no mercy.
Gluttony - May be persuaded to do something in exchange for food.
Reduced Consumption - Will not leave its post for food as often as anticipated.
Shyness - Will rather hide than confront the group.
Wild Animal - Includes Bestial which will quite definitely influence the monster's behaviour.
Vacuum Support, Pressure Support, Temperature Tolerance - Monster may be encountered in a number of non-standard, non-temperate environments.

As you see, all of these traits are relevant for combat, or, if we step back a bit, for an encounter.

If Vermiform is not mentioned in the traits list then it probably means that the monster does have limbs. Even if it is called a serpent. If Combat Reflexes, Terrain Adaptation, or Dark Vision are not found within the traits then that means that the monster does not have these. You could always add these if you want to, but the author apparently did not.

[lord buss]

1) okay, thank you. interesting idea. although it still a problem if the article itself is not sufficient, so you need to design your own rules, or calculate them based on another similar rules.
2) this is exactly what i said! these traits are not completely combat intended, but theyre still important. the obsidiant serpent doesn't have them!
it doesn't have even wild animal. almost all other creatures on the same two pages have this. temperature tolerance is more appropriate for the obsidian serpent then any other creature in this article. so does vacuum support and pressure support. the serpent doesn't have them!

Originally Posted by Imion

You could always add these if you want to, but the author apparently did not.

this is exactly the problem.
its doesn't seem logical that the serpent can be poisend. its doesn't seem logical that the serpent need to eat, and even if it is, it doesn't logical that it will eat organic matter, because it is what said in the description.
it is not logical that the serpent is not wild animal. maybe the serpent have limbs, but nothing is said about it, so it doesn't seem logical that it is not vermiform.
i can add this traits. i can play the serpent without this traits. but i posted this in the forum because i hope that the author or someone else involved will explain why the serpent doesn't have this traits. because, as i said, it seems like they just forgot or didn't have time to write them.

p.s. what you mentioned as fanaticism is actually intolerence