Meteoric Metal vs Magic

[dcarson]

Well you can find them by the fact that they don't respond to magic. So they might be good as sling ammo. Enough to build a wall is unlikely.

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Jeminai

Wouldn't all parts of a meteor be "meteoric"?

This is basically a setting question, and DF is a reductionist setting - so I'd least say it was in-keeping to use this assumption.

Originally Posted by Jerander

"Meteoric" doesn't carry any special properties all on its own, as far as I know, in DF. Meteoric iron, though, is specifically called out as being immune to magic.

Well very few things fall out of the heavens really, so it might be that anything that does is considered "meteoric" and is conveniently also immune to magic.

Originally Posted by dcarson

Well you can find them by the fact that they don't respond to magic. So they might be good as sling ammo. Enough to build a wall is unlikely.

This is great reason for allowing this kind of interpretation of the rules, as you now have magically immune, cheap - but weak ammunition for your slings!


However as has been said already - this is basically the GM's call. If the GM wants to smite a magically danger sensing foe without them realising - then they can say that the meteor is 100% iron anyway. If the GM wants oddly vague prophecies about the end of the world due to it being struck by a meteor, then its the entire basis of the plot and "story trumps rules" here imo as without a GM telling a story the rules are kinda pointless.

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Anthony

No. Meteoric gear cannot be affected by magic, but it does not block magic.

While true, this makes most meteoric armor and shields kind of lame in practice. Unless your opponents routinely attack your armor, and not you, it's not doing much for all that cost.

But it might be fun if it does in fact effectively block spells from passing through the armor.

- Maybe you can't cast a mind control spell on a guy wearing a greathelm, because you can't get through his helm. Or cast it on a guy wearing a pothelm if you're behind him, for the same reason - you need to move to where his face is a valid target.

- It might be impossible to send commands via Enslave to someone wearing meteoric armor, because your telepathic connection is blocked.

- You probably can't cast touch spells though the armor, anyway, but it would be interesting if, say, meteoric gauntlets prevented magic traps from firing or blocked spells cast on your hands.

- Pure magical damage should be blocked entirely (mana bolts from DF11), as should any magical delivery system (Curse-Missile), if it must go through a piece of meteoric armor to reach the target.

Otherwise, it's not so helpful as armor. It's even more useless against spells like Teleport Other (hey, NPCs might have it) or Entombment, where you'll leave your armor behind. I wouldn't try treating it as some kind of anti-magic auto-dispel-er, but I kind of like the idea that meteoric armor might give some limited anti-magical effect merely by being between the caster and the victim. If you view magic as curving around obstacles to get there, not as LOS (and I believe this is the RAW), then it's not going to work, and meteoric armor is back to being of marginal use, IMO.

[Anders]

A To Hit penalty to Mind Control spells against people with helmets?

[vierasmarius]

I could see giving casters a penalty to affect someone wearing meteoric armor, probably based on its DR (average of Torso + weakest, as is done for Large Area Injuries, or else have different types of spells "target" different locations - head for mind control, limb for Spasm, etc). Of course, spellcasting while wearing Meteoric armor should also be hampered, by the same penalty plus an additional penalty based on the combined mass of Meteoric gear carried (armor and weapons).

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

While true, this makes most meteoric armor and shields kind of lame in practice. Unless your opponents routinely attack your armor, and not you, it's not doing much for all that cost.

But it might be fun if it does in fact effectively block spells from passing through the armor.

I agree that meteoric armour is a little lack lustre if only it is immune to magic - although I'd say that magical bolts can't pass through it as written.

The rest of the ideas are indeed fun though, but you do have to watch how far you push the idea - and it becomes a slippery slope where meteoric iron slowly just becomes something that produces an anti-magic zone around it, rather than simply being immune to magic itself.

Now this may be what you want, and prefer (as its more interesting) but it is something different in a fairly fundamental way - and at that point you're opening the door to players trying to reason munchkiny gains from the described mechanics (like foil plating regular iron with meteoric iron to give it the same benefits at a fraction of the cost!).

[vierasmarius]

Originally Posted by PseudoFenton

Now this may be what you want, and prefer (as its more interesting) but it is something different in a fairly fundamental way - and at that point you're opening the door to players trying to reason munchkiny gains from the described mechanics (like foil plating regular iron with meteoric iron to give it the same benefits at a fraction of the cost!).

That's why I'd tie the benefits of Meteoric Armor to its DR, or more generically its mass per surface area. If you've got just a tin-foil-thick coating, sure it'll be immune to the spell Remove Enamel, but it won't provide any additional benefit.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

That's why I'd tie the benefits of Meteoric Armor to its DR, or more generically its mass per surface area.

A simple version is just that meteoric iron armor provides magic resistance equal to its DR.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

One would hope the person wearing meteoric armor (which interferes with magic being cast on its' wearer) doesn't need magical healing ...

[Flyndaran]

This issue makes me think of an invisible cloak. The cloak is invisible... That is all.

Juggernaut has a meteoric helm?

I think the statistic is that 90/10 percent of meteors are carbonaceous/iron. But of those that survive to hit earth are 10/90 percent such.

Besides, what would you do with meteoric carbon?
Burn it for a temporary anti-magic smoke screen?
Blacken armor for temporary anti-magic properties?