Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 157 - Special Materials in Your World

Episode Date: January 8, 2023

In this episode suggested by a donor over at ko-fi.com/taking20podcast we give some tips to DMs about those rare materials like mithril, cold iron, silver, and...peachwood?  What if you want to make your own special materials?  Are there any downsides to using them?  Tune in and find out. #dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dmtips #pathfinder

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. Mithril is this rare and valuable metal, so when it makes an appearance, people are awestruck by it. Think about how you'd react seeing something very valuable in large quantity, like a solid gold ingot. That's how people would react to these special materials in any sizable quantity. quantity. Hello and welcome to episode 157 of the Taking 20 podcast, this week all about special materials in your world. This podcast is sponsored this week by the book Resigned, How to Know When It's Time to Go, now available both at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Check it out today. I also want to thank our other sponsor, Dentists. No matter what time you actually make your appointment, it's usually after 2.30. Tooth

hurdy. Oh yeah, baby, we're starting off the year with a bang. Do you have a topic idea for the podcast? If so, please DM me on Facebook or Insta or email it to me at feedback at taking20podcast.com. It might just appear here in a future episode. Happy New Year! Welcome to 2023, and I, for one, hope 2022 is resigned to the dustbin of history, and that entire year can eat a bucket of whatever genitalia it finds distasteful. But looking forward with positivity, wherever you're listening, I sincerely hope your 2023 is your best year of gaming yet. A donor to my coffee asked me about

tips for using special materials in my world. I thought it'd make for an interesting topic, so thank you so much for the donation and the topic ideas. And if you'd like to contribute to the life of the podcast, please consider making a one-time or recurring donation over at ko-fi.com slash taking20podcast. If we're going to talk about special materials, then we need to talk about standard materials. And what materials are standard in your world may change depending on a number of factors in that game world. By default, in both Pathfinder 2e and 5e, civilizations are up to the technology level where they can work with steel. But let's face it, steel isn't that

intuitive to make. It's iron mixed with more carbon at temperatures north of 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit, about 1,425 degrees Celsius. Research on this topic, I found out that they found steel dating back at least 4,000 years in Turkey, and by about the 4th century BCE, steel was being made consistently in southern India. So thank you for tuning in to this new podcast about steel and large steel structures. Check out Heavy Metal, every week where fine podc...

So in most campaign worlds, steel is the default metal of choice for everything from weapons to armor to probably plow blades and cooking utensils. Which, by the way, thanks to episode 318 of a real podcast called No Such Thing as a Fish by the Research Elves at QI, and please note I'm not actually being racist towards elves or ancestriest or that's what they call themselves, the research elves. Back when eating utensils weren't made of stainless steel, whatever you ate would take on a different flavor depending on whether you're eating with iron, copper, or even gold utensils. You'd taste the metal just as much as the food. That's just another way that stainless steel has benefited the modern world. God, how the heck did I get here?

Oh, that's right. So steel may be the default metal, and if you're running a traditional campaign, that very well may be the standard metal for everything that's made. But what if you're running a campaign where steel isn't a thing yet? In the Iron Age, or Bronze Age, or maybe Copper or Stone Age? Or what about a world maybe that metal doesn't even exist in? Everybody's using stone armor and blunt weapons. Obsidian sharp weapons like daggers and spear tips. They're deadly but fragile. In these cases, you'll definitely be dealing with a different

quote-unquote default material than steel. But I'm going to proceed as if that's not the case, as if steel is the normal metal that you're using in your world. So with that assumption made, when I refer to special materials, I'm talking about material that is different than whatever that default metal is for your world. Here comes the brilliance you expect from this podcast, so buckle up for wisdom. Special materials are, by very nature, special. There it is. Take that soundbite home with you and apply it to your game world. Special materials should be special. Whew. I'm glad I'm done with the research for this week.

Man, tune in next week where I'll talk about how half orcs are also half something else. Okay. Special materials should generally be rare. If you've seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, you know that a mithril shirt plays a role in an important scene and later in the trilogy as orcs and goblins fight over the possession of it. When the mithril shirt is revealed, there's a sense of wonder and awe by nearly everyone who looks on it. Except for Gandalf, who just nods knowingly because he's

like thousands of years old and it takes more than a shiny shirt to ruffle his robes. For everybody else, though, Mithril is this rare substance that even dwarves hardly ever see, much less hobbits seeing it. In the Rings of Power series, by the way, you learn more about this metal, but that's more recent, so I'm not going to spoil anything about that series, especially since, as of this writing, they're planning on a season two. Logically, if a special material is rare, then reactions to it should be wonder or terror. Mithril is this rare and valuable metal, so when

it makes an appearance, people are awestruck by it. Again, except for Gandalf, who's been there, done that, and got the white robes to prove it. Think about how you'd react seeing something very valuable in large quantity, like a solid gold ingot. That's how people would react to these special materials in any sizable quantity. Now here's where DMs you need to understand your game world, because what sizable quantity means depends on the material, especially how rare it is and how useful it is. In default game worlds, dark wood is this very rare thing. But could your world be, I don't know, overrun by it so that every spearhaft and rocking chair is made from it? Absolutely. That becomes the default material for your world and woods like oak,

teak, and maple will become more rare and more valuable, making them the special material in your world. So these rare and special materials could be used by default in some worlds or some universes within your multiverse. Conversely, do you have to use special materials at all? Is it required that you have cold iron, adamantine, or sky metal weapons? No! Don't like them? Don't use them. But with one specific caveat. Special materials that are in 5e and Pathfinder 2e rules are there for a specific reason. Silver weapons are great for lycanthropes, like werewolves. Cold iron is great against fey. Peach wood in Pathfinder 2e is great against undead. Wait, peach wood? Yep. If there's ever a zombie apocalypse, get to Georgia, where

peaches are the state fruit and peachwood should be pretty common. Plus, it's the southern U.S., so every other damn house will have like 37 guns. Hey, I live in the southern U.S., I can crack that joke. Just like I can crack brain cancer jokes. Been there, done that. I know on this podcast, I've cracked a lot of brain cancer jokes, but damned if I can remember what they were. Anywho, I never finished my earlier thought about special materials being terrible. Mithril's all wonderful and everything, but what if there's a material that conveys dark properties like poison or bad luck, or it's rumored to steal souls?

What if the material is only available by committing horrible acts against others? Maybe your world has a bone as a special material that gives a weapon a special property, like extra damage against elves, but only if the bone comes from an intelligent humanoid like, oh, an elf, for example. Anyone wielding such a weapon or wearing such armor made of that material would naturally be feared, shunned, attacked, or maybe all of the above. The takeaway so far is that special materials can be as rare or as common as you like, and you should roleplay NPC and character actions and reactions accordingly. Now let's get game specific, starting with 5th edition. 5e has a number of special materials,

and these materials grant weapons and armor special qualities if they're made from these materials. I'm not going over all of them, but for example, adamantine is one of the hardest substances in existence. If an armor is made of adamantine, any critical hit becomes a normal hit. A weapon made of adamantine, any object that you hit becomes an automatic critical hit. Mithril in 5e is a light, flexible metal. If you're wearing armor made of mithril, and that armor normally imposes disadvantage on dexterity stealth checks,

or if that armor has a strength requirement, those just go away. If you're wielding a weapon made of mithril, it weighs half as much, and if the weapon isn't heavy, it becomes light. If it's light, it gains the finesse property. If it's two-handed, it's now versatile, meaning you can wield it in one or two hands. Another special material called cold iron is mined deep underground and forged at lower temperatures. Cold iron armor, minus one or two penalty to Dex Modifier for a calculated armor class, because it's heavy armor, and heavy armor requires strength two points higher than it normally would, but you're plus two on your armor class versus fey creatures. And of course, Cold Iron Weapons, plus two to hit fey creatures,

and if your strength is greater than 14 and the weapon's bludgeoning, plus one to damage. them 14 and the weapon's bludgeoning plus one to damage. Regular old iron, not steel. It weighs more than steel, so armor is heavier. It's a minus one penalty to the dex modifier for calculating your armor class. Heavy armor requires a strength score two points higher than that listed in the player's handbook. And if it's an iron weapon, it loses all light and finesse properties, an iron weapon, it loses all light and finesse properties. So why would you use it? Maybe your world doesn't have steel yet. The core rule books define numerous other special materials like bronze and copper, stone, bone, rustic wood, all with their special unique rules applied to them. None of those that I just listed, by the way, would be affected by rust monsters. So, hey, if you're going hunting for those big aberrant beasties,

strap on your copper breastplate and take up a bone spear against that nasty monster. Some of these materials, copper for example, when used on weapons or armor can give them the fragile property, meaning they're not as sturdy as traditional steel weapons. meaning they're not as sturdy as traditional steel weapons. In 5e, fragile weapons require a DC-10 dexterity sleight-of-hand check on any natural one on an attack roll, otherwise that weapon is damaged. Damaged weapons only deal half damage on successful hits, and damaged weapons that get damaged further are destroyed and useless. Fragile armor, on the other hand, falls apart when it hit with heavy blows. On a critical hit against you, make a DC 10 dexterity acrobatic save or the armor is damaged and the AC

bonus it grants is halved. Already damaged armor becomes destroyed if it happens again. Copper, stone, bone, rustic wood all have similar rules associated with them. Now jumping over to Pathfinder 2e, there are a lot more special materials defined in the rules. There's some that overlap with 5e, even if the rules are slightly different. At Amantine, for example, the armor is more durable and weapons disregard half of an object's hardness. Cold Iron, fey that critically fail an unarmed attack against a creature wearing cold iron armor becomes sickened one and the weapons deal additional damage to fey Mithril armor is lighter Dragonhide armor is immune to one damage type depending on the color of the original dragon white dragon hide armor

For example would grant immunity to cold damage Silver deals more damage to creatures with weaknesses to it and can ignore certain resistances of other creatures like devils. Pathfinder 2e, as expected, has a lot more variety when it comes to special materials. Abysium, for example, deals poison damage on every hit. Dark wood armor and weapons are lighter and count as non-metal. Jezzet absorbs magical energy. Critical hits made with a Jezzet weapon against a prepared or spontaneous spellcaster cause that target to lose one prepared spell or one spontaneous spell slot unless the target succeeds at a will save. Grisantian Pelt. Rare and precious animal skin,

it's gold and shines in the sunlight. It can be used to make nearly any item made of cloth, leather, or hide. This material is immune to fire, and its hardness is doubled against piercing and slashing damage. Enubrix is a pale, malleable metal whose unusual structure allows it to pass through certain other metals. Bad news. It reduces the weapon's damage die by one,

so a D10 weapon does D8 damage. However, it ignores the resistance's damage die by one, so a d10 weapon does d8 damage. However, it ignores the resistance to damage from metal armor's armor specialization effects and the bonus to AC from any metal shield. Also, strikes with Inubrik's weapons don't trigger the shield block reaction from a metal shield. There's also noqual and sovereign steel, which is extra damage to summon creatures and can do extra damage effects to spellcasters. Orichalcum weapons and armor can hold more magical charge and effects than traditional metals. Peachwood, as I mentioned earlier, easily bypasses undead damage resistance.

And a metal called a Sicatite automatically gains a flaming or frost property. It can do extra damage as a weapon and protect you from extreme temperatures as an armor. It's really heavy, though. I know there's a lot more materials defined in the Pathfinder universe and rules, and I haven't covered all of them. You don't have to use all of them in your game world. And there's some materials that would make your PCs too powerful,

so maybe don't use them at all. If you don't want to include so many different materials, don't have them in your world. Don't make them available. Put them on other planes of existence so that when the PCs go there, it feels foreign and different than their home world. Okay, so let's get to some tips, and I've got five. One, always call attention to metal or material that looks different than anything the character has seen before. Whether it's in a treasure hoard, or for sale at a shop, or wielded by a powerful enemy, mithril should shimmer, dark wood should show its purplish hue.

It should be different than regular metals. Which brings me to the second tip. Be verbose to the point of annoying when describing the unique effects of special materials. That silver dagger sinks into the werewolf's flesh and you hear the flesh sizzle and the wound begins to bubble before they roar out in pain and fear. Even if the characters or players don't know the specific rules around that metal, it should immediately call attention to, hey, this is something different and unique. Third tip. This could be a wrong Jeremyism, but I've always thought that the rare special materials should be primarily given to boss level creatures. If some random hobgoblin finds an adamantine broadsword, chances are as soon as their lieutenant sees what they have, they're gonna

either pay them for it, or demand it from them, or just take it from them, or kill them and take it from them. As an example, think about when Frodo's mithril shirt was seen by the orcs and goblins in Mordor. An entire tower of them pretty much killed each other over it. Well, okay, probably to be fair, the two species hated each other anyway, and the shirt was probably just an excuse to start stabbing each other willy-nilly. Fourth tip, don't be afraid to design your own special materials if it makes sense, but be careful about balancing issues and use existing materials as your basis. Almost all the special materials I described are expressly stated to be uncommon or

rare in 5e and Pathfinder 2e, so they should be extremely hard to come by, and more importantly, expensive when the party does find one for sale. If you create a material for a weapon or armor that has benefits, don't forget to add the drawbacks to it. Rarely is something a pure benefit without some sort of negative side effect. It could be as simple as cost being the negative side effect. But maybe items made with a gold sheen on it or etchings inside the metal to give it a bonus to diplomacy checks, maybe they're heavier and more expensive to purchase. But the negative effect could be much, much more dangerous if you want to be creative. Maybe you decide you

want to use Naga hide as a rare armor material that grants a bonus against poison effects. Sounds great, sounds fun. Of course, Naga are intelligent, very intelligent, and they really don't like giving up their skin, so that material obviously will be rare and expensive. Also, imagine you're a Naga. You see someone wearing armor made of one of your fellow Naga's skin. That'll likely make it your life's mission to make sure that person doesn't live to a ripe old age. Fifth tip. Generally, special materials will help in only one mode of play for the character on an adventure. As a reminder, adventuring is defined up in three different modes. Encounter mode, exploration mode, and downtime mode. If the special material helps with encounter mode,

maybe it grants bonuses to combat abilities like additional hit and damage, or maybe it's a different type of encounter. Maybe it grants bonuses for social interactions. This will generally be the most common bonus provided by most special materials. But there could be a special material that grants bonuses in exploration mode. So maybe bonuses to distance covered whenever they're exploring, or their ability to stealth in certain areas and among certain foliage and so forth, or maybe even a bonus to find other items. Or if it grants a bonus in downtime mode, maybe that flute made of, I don't know, alchemical silver lets the bard make more money doing downtime performance work. Special

materials should be just that, special in your game world. Otherwise they're just materials. Giving every Tom, Nancy, and Melichor the Dwarf an adamantine weapon makes adamantine lose its luster. Save them for those special, valuable, and hard-to-come-by treasure hordes, rare and wondrous shops, and give what few exist to bosses and creatures designed to be difficult combats, I'll bet you you and your players would have fun doing it. Do you like this podcast? If so, please consider retweeting it or sharing our posts on social media. I passed 25,000 downloads over the life of the podcast this week, and I am sincerely hoping that you'll help me continue to grow it.

Tune in next week when I'll continue the lore series. I haven't done enough 5e lore, so next week I'm going to talk about the time of troubles, when gods walked and some died among the mortal races of Faerun. If you haven't checked it out yet, please take a look at the book Resigned, How to Know When It's Time to Go, available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble today. I also want to thank our other sponsor, Dentists. When you go to the dentist, you'll talk to the hygienist, you'll get your teeth cleaned, you'll be told you're not flossing enough. Eh, you know the drill. This has been episode 157, all about special materials.

My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2023. References to game system content are copyrighted to respective publishers.