#craft (weaponsmithing)

[terolusgreyhawk]

Craft (armorsmithing) or (weaponsmithing), or Knowledge (the planes) DC20: 

Vikram is a special material, a variety of celestial steel made from holy iron mined in Nidavellir (the lowest layer of Ysgard) and smelted by celestial dwarves. The finished metal has DR 10/evil (an exception to the rule about DR being only for creatures; it stacks with hardness, also note that adamantine doesn’t bypass DR). It is useful for making more durable weapons and armor, especially when fighting enemies known to favor sundering tactics. Items made with vikram cost 30gp more per pound of metal in their makeup.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Knowledge (religion) DC17:

According to drow custom and the theology of Kiaransalee, the drow demigoddess of revenge, a vow of formal revenge (vendetta in Undercommon, or kanly when between aristocrats) must be made aloud to the target, and then a curved dagger forged and profaned for this specific purpose. These vendetta daggers are often ornate, decorated with the name of the intended victim (hence the drow idiom "I've got a dagger with your name on it") as well as unholy symbolism related to Kiaransalee. Even if the victim is slain by other means, the dagger is traditionally used to finish them off, then offered to the demigoddess.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Craft (weaponsmithing), Appraise, or Knowledge (history) DC20: Benz knives are a very rare set of small masterwork blades collected by wealthy evil people of taste, particularly assassins. Exactly 288 of these knives exist, each with its own unique, ornate design and engraved number. All of them were forged by the human serial killer Benny Delon (CY 1249-1298) of Skyshroud, each to be used for a single murder at his hand. The blades are all made for a human hand, and vary in design from daggers and kukris to sickles and short swords. Thanks to Dolan's masterful smithing and deep emotional connection to each blade, they are very resilient against the ravages of time, and all still function well in combat. Some experts have pointed out the similarities between the exotic shapes of Benz knives and the weapons forged by demonic smiths of the Abyss, which often share similarity qualities as well. Each Benz knife grants +1 damage to applied poisons and counts as evil-aligned; in addition to their masterwork component and base price for the weapon type, add 600gp to the price of each for these special abilities and their value as collectors' items.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Craft (armorsmithing) or Craft (weaponsmithing) DC15: This rare magic wood is as hard as normal wood but very light. It is harvested from the eponymous darkwood tree, a naturally magical tree found in deep forests where few animals live, such as the Eld. Any wooden or mostly wooden item (such as a bow, an arrow, or a spear) made from darkwood is considered a masterwork item and weighs only half as much as a normal wooden item of that type. Items not normally made of wood or only partially of wood (such as a battleaxe or a mace) either cannot be made from darkwood or do not gain any special benefit from being made of darkwood. The armor check penalty of a darkwood shield is lessened by 2 compared to an ordinary shield of its type. To determine the price of a darkwood item, use the original weight but add 10 gp per pound to the price of a masterwork version of that item. Darkwood has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 5.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Craft (weaponsmithing), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (the planes), or Knowledge (arcana) DC15: This iron, mined deep underground, is forged at a lower temperature to preserve its delicate properties. Weapons made of cold iron cost twice as much to make as their normal counterparts, due to the great difficulty in forging the material. Smiths sometimes say it ‘takes in the cold’, as cold iron will always feel colder to the touch than normal metals. 

Depsite this, it is valued highly by adventurers for its antimagical properties. Known for its particular effectiveness against fey creatures and demons, it can also sometimes interfere with spells and other magical effects. Because of this, it is much more difficult to imbue it with any magic of its own, so any magical enhancements to a cold iron weapon or armor cost an additional 2,000 gp. 

Items without metal parts cannot be made from cold iron. An arrow could be made of cold iron, but a quarterstaff could not. A double weapon that has only half of it made of cold iron increases its cost by 50%. Armor can be made of cold iron, but is much rarer. Cold iron has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Craft (weaponsmithing) or (alchemy) DC15: A complex process involving metallurgy and alchemy can bond silver to a weapon made of steel or iron so that it bypasses the damage reduction of creatures such as lycanthropes. Weapons forged from normal silver, for ceremonial or artistic purposes, do not possess this special property. On a successful attack with a silvered weapon, the wielder takes a -1 penalty on the damage roll (with the usual minimum of 1 point of damage). The alchemical silvering process can’t be applied to nonmetal items (such as stone, bone, or wood), and it doesn’t work on rare metals such as adamantine, cold iron, and mithral. Alchemical silver has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 8.

[terolusgreyhawk]

Craft (armorsmithing) or (weaponsmithing) DC15: Adamantine is an ultrahard, gritty black metal that can be forged into spectacularly tough weapons and armor. Weapons fashioned from adamantine have a natural ability to bypass hardness when sundering weapons or attacking objects, ignoring hardness less than 20. It is prized by adventurers and explorers for this quality: as an adamantine hammer can smash through stone as easily as a steel one through wood, or shatter an enemy’s steel longsword as an iron one does to bronze.

Armor made from adamantine grants its wearer damage reduction of 1/- if it’s light armor, 2/- if it’s medium armor, and 3/- if it’s heavy armor. There are legends of warriors clad in adamantine full plate, a suit of which would cost a small fortune and be a master smith’s magnum opus, but render its wearer as impenetrable as a rhinoceros. Adamantine is so costly and difficult to shape that weapons and armor made from it are always of masterwork quality. 

Items that do not normally have metal parts cannot be made from adamantine. An arrow (that is, the arrowhead) could be made of adamantine, but a quarterstaff could not. Weapons, armor and shields normally made of steel that are made of adamantine have one-third more hit points than normal. Adamantine has 40 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 20.