Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
D&D 5e currently only has two magical/quasi-magical metals in the core game; Mithral and Adamantine. Rules for armors that are composed of Adamantine and Mithral are contained in the DMG's Magic Items chapter (which IMO is a mistake), the DMs Tools chapter of XGtE contained rules for weapons made of Adamantine, and so far, we have no official rules for weapons made of Mithral (I have Mithral weapons count as being silvered, and heavy weapons no longer be heavy, and non-heavy, non-light weapons become light when they are made from mithral as a homebrew rule for my campaigns. I still allow GWM and similar features to be used on weapons that would be heavy if not made of mithral, though).
The next magical metal/alloy that was officially added and detailed in 5e was Mizzium from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. Mizzium Armor is basically Adamantine Armor, but it has the additional benefit of letting you take no damage on successful Strength and Constitution saving throws where you would normally take half damage on the success. The book also has a fluff-text side-bar explaining some of this alloy's other properties, and also has a Mizzium Apparatus (a.k.a. the most artificer-y magic item in the game that artificers cannot attune to until level 14) and the Mizzium Mortar (a.k.a. the most underwhelming cannon in the game).
Descent into Avernus introduced another such metal; Infernal Iron, but it failed to describe what the substance does when weapons and armors are made out of this extraplanar metal. However, it did give a few hints as to its properties throughout the books, like the Hellfire Weapons and Soul Coins alluding to it having an affinity for trapping/controlling souls, and Infernal War Machines being granted immunity to fire damage, likely due to being made of Infernal Iron. The book also mentions that gold that is stolen or bartered from Mammon has powerful magical powers, such as granting a vehicle that is coated in "Golden Death Armor-Plating" resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
And that's it. That's all the official exotic/magical metals, and the only other metal in the game that has any sort of magical properties is Silver, and it being able to overcome the damage resistances/immunities of many magical creatures, such as Lycanthropes and Devils. In my games, I also let Golden/Gilded weapons have a similar property to Silver weapons, but instead of ignoring Lycanthrope and Devil damage resistances/immunities, a Golden/Gilded weapon ignores the damage resistances/immunities of Celestials of all damage types that the weapon's attacks deal (so a gilded-sword that a Paladin divine smites a Solar with would ignore its immunity to Radiant damage), but it costs 1,000 gold pieces for one weapon or 20 pieces of ammunition. I'm assuming that something like this isn't already in D&D because gold is a soft metal and a really bad material to make weapons out of, but impracticality never stopped D&D before (just look at Double-Bladed Scimitars!).
Other than 4 official magical metals (one of which is setting specific, and the other is planar-specific) and one semi-magical property for a real life metal, there's no other way to customize weapons based on what weapons they're made out of. It has no mechanical difference whether your sword is made of Steel, Bronze, Copper, or Platinum in D&D 5e. And to an extent, I agree that minor differences in what a weapon is made out of compared to another weapon shouldn't matter mechanically in the game. Too much options ends up bloating the rules too much for no good reason. However, I believe that the inverse is also true; not enough cool customization options for weapons and armors ends up making weapons very same-y in the game. A greatsword's a greatsword's a greatsword. If they're not Magic Items, they're identical in statistics in 5e.
I want customization to be a part of weapon choice. I want a character to think more about what weapons and armors they choose beyond "which weapon/armor that has the highest damage dice/AC rating can I use?", and I think that allowing for more metal/alloy customization could encourage creative decision making in many campaigns. A silver/silvered weapon would likely be better in a Descent Into Avernus or Ravenloft campaign than it would be in a campaign that involves having to fight Celestials, in which case a golden/gilded weapon that's using my homebrew rule for those weapons would likely be more appropriate. Mithral Armor would likely be better in a campaign that frequently used Stealth than Adamantine Armor, which would likely be better in campaigns with enemies that frequently knock PCs unconscious or paralyze them. IMHO, there should be more to wearing/wielding a suit of armor/weapon than just its damage/AC and its visual theme. A Death Knight that wears armor made of Infernal Iron should gain some sort of benefit from wearing that armor other than it just being plain awesome (which is a great benefit, but it isn't a good enough incentive, IMO).
Thus, this thread. Down below I will provide some examples of "magical" metals and alloys that I include/am considering including in my campaigns, and hopefully feedback and more ideas will be provided later in the thread.
First, let's start with the Alloys.
The simplest example from my campaigns is Electrum. Weapons made of/coated in Electrum count as both Silvered and Gilded, which makes them effective against Celestials, Devils, and Lycanthropes.
Next, Infernal Iron. This is an official magical alloy/metal, but it doesn't have any mechanical effects in 5e. In my campaigns, Infernal Iron is made from mixing either Demon Ichor or Soul Silt into molten iron, and then cooling the metal in the River Styx. Quite simply, armor and shields made of Infernal Iron grant the wielder/wearer advantage on saving throws that would Charm or Frighten them and Weapon made of Infernal Iron prevent creatures that have been dead for more than 1 minute from being raised from the dead while within 5 feet of the weapon.
Also in my worlds/campaigns, Orichalcum is an alloy composed of roughly 50% Adamantine, 33.33% Mithral, 10% Gold, 5% Platinum, and the last ~2% of the alloy is a mixture of Tin, Zinc, and Copper, and it is a pale yellowish-electrum color (looking a bit like the color of this example). It has a mixture of Adamantine's and Mithral's properties, allowing you to ignore critical hits and the disadvantage on stealth that the armor normally gives (it doesn't ignore the strength requirement, though, and can't be worn underneath normal clothes). Orichalcum is extremely expensive and rare, as the process of creating the alloy is incredibly difficult to execute successfully, and the metals required to make it are very expensive on their own. In my campaigns, I have both Mithral and Adamantine cost 1,000 gold pieces per pound, and as Adamantine is more dense than Mithral, it is more expensive volumetrically. So, for 10 pounds of Orichalcum, you would need 5,000 gold worth of Adamantine, 3,333 gold worth of Mithral, 50 gold worth of Gold, 250 gold worth of Platinum, and 10 gold worth of the mixture of Tin, Zinc, and Copper. Then, the process of making the alloy roughly triples the cost per pound to make the Orichalcum, ending up with the extremely rare alloy costing 2,700 gold pieces per pound, and each cubic foot of orichalcum weighing ~225 pounds (slightly more than 3.6 grams/cubic-centimeter for those that care about such things, ending up a bit more dense than barium, but much stronger and much more stable). Orichalcum Plate Armor would cost 87,500 gold pieces, and weigh about 30 pounds and an Orichalcum Greatsword would cost 8,100 gold pieces and weigh 3 pounds (assuming these are normally made of steel or iron), costing several dozens of times as much as a normal greatswords/plate-armor and weighing roughly half as much (on top of its more important mechanical benefits, such as ignoring critical hits and disadvantage on Stealth for the Armor and the Greatsword dealing critical hits on objects, not being heavy, and counting as silvered).
Second, the completely new metals.
Starsteel is a type of steel made from meteoric ore, where the meteorites that bring this metal are actually fragmented pieces of the ancient and decaying body of a dead god whose body floated in the Astral Sea for eons, before being sundered into millions of smaller pieces that travelled in all directions at incredible speeds, with many of which managed to wander through portals to other planes of existence (including the many worlds of the Material Plane). For some reason, Fey creatures have an inherent weakness to Starsteel, which burns them with its extreme cold that only they can feel. Weapons made of Starsteel give advantage on attack rolls made against fey creatures and ignores any damage resistances they may have, while armors/shields made of the metal give fey disadvantage on attack rolls made against them.
Crimsonite is a magical metal that was originally created by Deep Gnomes due to their love of Rubies and mining. Deep Gnomes grew tired of the dreary grayness of the Underdark, so they began to experiment on combining their skills in alchemy, jeweling, metallurgy, and control over elemental magic to create a more visually appealing metal to build their underground cities out of. After many years of hard work, they were able to use a magical process to merge many of the physical attributes of rubies with a specially created alloy for this project (they never told anyone what the alloy was made of). The result was a scarlet-red metal that was nearly as tough to break as diamond and capable of being worked in way similar to steel, which the Deep Gnomes dubbed "Crimsonite". The metal has another strange property; its melting point and its freezing point are vastly different temperatures. Crimsonite starts out in solid form, and melts at roughly the same temperature as Steel. However, Molten Crimsonite (which looks disturbingly similar to blood) can cool back down to room-temperature without solidifying again, it only freezes if it is reduced to -40 degrees (Fahrenheit or Celsius, it's the same temperature). Deep Gnome cities are hidden by terrain that blends into the natural Underdark and illusion magic, but once a character enters one that has mastered the practice of creating Crimsonite, there is a drastic change in visual appearance of the environment, with nearly everything in the city that would typically be made of Steel being made of Crimsonite (with white-marble roads, emerald-green glass for windows, checkerboard floors of topaz and amethyst tiles, and walls made of red-marble), and Molten Crimsonite being used to keep the city warm, as it's a great conductor of heat, so just putting a small, artificial "river" of Molten Crimsonite near a volcanic/ignan hotspot will allow for the heat to be transported throughout the settlement without the problem of it boiling like water would, which makes it ideal for a variety of purposes, such as heating water for cooking and bathing, creating superheated moats to keep out trespassers, and allowing for Rock Gnomes to play the strange sport called "Sapphire-Scuttle", which has gnomes wearing strange shoes that let them stand on a pool of Molten Crimsonite (similar to snow-shoes) who use miniature, one-handed lacrosse sticks to pick up a golf-ball sized Sapphire and then try to throw it into a net (first team to make it to 7 goals wins). Crimsonite weapons ignore damage resistances and immunities that Elementals have, and armors/shields made from Crimsonite grants the wearer the ability to take no damage on Dexterity and Constition saving throws if they would normally take half-damage on a success.
So, what examples do you have from your worlds/campaigns? What metals do you wish there were rules for in D&D 5e?
The next magical metal/alloy that was officially added and detailed in 5e was Mizzium from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. Mizzium Armor is basically Adamantine Armor, but it has the additional benefit of letting you take no damage on successful Strength and Constitution saving throws where you would normally take half damage on the success. The book also has a fluff-text side-bar explaining some of this alloy's other properties, and also has a Mizzium Apparatus (a.k.a. the most artificer-y magic item in the game that artificers cannot attune to until level 14) and the Mizzium Mortar (a.k.a. the most underwhelming cannon in the game).
Descent into Avernus introduced another such metal; Infernal Iron, but it failed to describe what the substance does when weapons and armors are made out of this extraplanar metal. However, it did give a few hints as to its properties throughout the books, like the Hellfire Weapons and Soul Coins alluding to it having an affinity for trapping/controlling souls, and Infernal War Machines being granted immunity to fire damage, likely due to being made of Infernal Iron. The book also mentions that gold that is stolen or bartered from Mammon has powerful magical powers, such as granting a vehicle that is coated in "Golden Death Armor-Plating" resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
And that's it. That's all the official exotic/magical metals, and the only other metal in the game that has any sort of magical properties is Silver, and it being able to overcome the damage resistances/immunities of many magical creatures, such as Lycanthropes and Devils. In my games, I also let Golden/Gilded weapons have a similar property to Silver weapons, but instead of ignoring Lycanthrope and Devil damage resistances/immunities, a Golden/Gilded weapon ignores the damage resistances/immunities of Celestials of all damage types that the weapon's attacks deal (so a gilded-sword that a Paladin divine smites a Solar with would ignore its immunity to Radiant damage), but it costs 1,000 gold pieces for one weapon or 20 pieces of ammunition. I'm assuming that something like this isn't already in D&D because gold is a soft metal and a really bad material to make weapons out of, but impracticality never stopped D&D before (just look at Double-Bladed Scimitars!).
Other than 4 official magical metals (one of which is setting specific, and the other is planar-specific) and one semi-magical property for a real life metal, there's no other way to customize weapons based on what weapons they're made out of. It has no mechanical difference whether your sword is made of Steel, Bronze, Copper, or Platinum in D&D 5e. And to an extent, I agree that minor differences in what a weapon is made out of compared to another weapon shouldn't matter mechanically in the game. Too much options ends up bloating the rules too much for no good reason. However, I believe that the inverse is also true; not enough cool customization options for weapons and armors ends up making weapons very same-y in the game. A greatsword's a greatsword's a greatsword. If they're not Magic Items, they're identical in statistics in 5e.
I want customization to be a part of weapon choice. I want a character to think more about what weapons and armors they choose beyond "which weapon/armor that has the highest damage dice/AC rating can I use?", and I think that allowing for more metal/alloy customization could encourage creative decision making in many campaigns. A silver/silvered weapon would likely be better in a Descent Into Avernus or Ravenloft campaign than it would be in a campaign that involves having to fight Celestials, in which case a golden/gilded weapon that's using my homebrew rule for those weapons would likely be more appropriate. Mithral Armor would likely be better in a campaign that frequently used Stealth than Adamantine Armor, which would likely be better in campaigns with enemies that frequently knock PCs unconscious or paralyze them. IMHO, there should be more to wearing/wielding a suit of armor/weapon than just its damage/AC and its visual theme. A Death Knight that wears armor made of Infernal Iron should gain some sort of benefit from wearing that armor other than it just being plain awesome (which is a great benefit, but it isn't a good enough incentive, IMO).
Thus, this thread. Down below I will provide some examples of "magical" metals and alloys that I include/am considering including in my campaigns, and hopefully feedback and more ideas will be provided later in the thread.
First, let's start with the Alloys.
The simplest example from my campaigns is Electrum. Weapons made of/coated in Electrum count as both Silvered and Gilded, which makes them effective against Celestials, Devils, and Lycanthropes.
Next, Infernal Iron. This is an official magical alloy/metal, but it doesn't have any mechanical effects in 5e. In my campaigns, Infernal Iron is made from mixing either Demon Ichor or Soul Silt into molten iron, and then cooling the metal in the River Styx. Quite simply, armor and shields made of Infernal Iron grant the wielder/wearer advantage on saving throws that would Charm or Frighten them and Weapon made of Infernal Iron prevent creatures that have been dead for more than 1 minute from being raised from the dead while within 5 feet of the weapon.
Also in my worlds/campaigns, Orichalcum is an alloy composed of roughly 50% Adamantine, 33.33% Mithral, 10% Gold, 5% Platinum, and the last ~2% of the alloy is a mixture of Tin, Zinc, and Copper, and it is a pale yellowish-electrum color (looking a bit like the color of this example). It has a mixture of Adamantine's and Mithral's properties, allowing you to ignore critical hits and the disadvantage on stealth that the armor normally gives (it doesn't ignore the strength requirement, though, and can't be worn underneath normal clothes). Orichalcum is extremely expensive and rare, as the process of creating the alloy is incredibly difficult to execute successfully, and the metals required to make it are very expensive on their own. In my campaigns, I have both Mithral and Adamantine cost 1,000 gold pieces per pound, and as Adamantine is more dense than Mithral, it is more expensive volumetrically. So, for 10 pounds of Orichalcum, you would need 5,000 gold worth of Adamantine, 3,333 gold worth of Mithral, 50 gold worth of Gold, 250 gold worth of Platinum, and 10 gold worth of the mixture of Tin, Zinc, and Copper. Then, the process of making the alloy roughly triples the cost per pound to make the Orichalcum, ending up with the extremely rare alloy costing 2,700 gold pieces per pound, and each cubic foot of orichalcum weighing ~225 pounds (slightly more than 3.6 grams/cubic-centimeter for those that care about such things, ending up a bit more dense than barium, but much stronger and much more stable). Orichalcum Plate Armor would cost 87,500 gold pieces, and weigh about 30 pounds and an Orichalcum Greatsword would cost 8,100 gold pieces and weigh 3 pounds (assuming these are normally made of steel or iron), costing several dozens of times as much as a normal greatswords/plate-armor and weighing roughly half as much (on top of its more important mechanical benefits, such as ignoring critical hits and disadvantage on Stealth for the Armor and the Greatsword dealing critical hits on objects, not being heavy, and counting as silvered).
Second, the completely new metals.
Starsteel is a type of steel made from meteoric ore, where the meteorites that bring this metal are actually fragmented pieces of the ancient and decaying body of a dead god whose body floated in the Astral Sea for eons, before being sundered into millions of smaller pieces that travelled in all directions at incredible speeds, with many of which managed to wander through portals to other planes of existence (including the many worlds of the Material Plane). For some reason, Fey creatures have an inherent weakness to Starsteel, which burns them with its extreme cold that only they can feel. Weapons made of Starsteel give advantage on attack rolls made against fey creatures and ignores any damage resistances they may have, while armors/shields made of the metal give fey disadvantage on attack rolls made against them.
Crimsonite is a magical metal that was originally created by Deep Gnomes due to their love of Rubies and mining. Deep Gnomes grew tired of the dreary grayness of the Underdark, so they began to experiment on combining their skills in alchemy, jeweling, metallurgy, and control over elemental magic to create a more visually appealing metal to build their underground cities out of. After many years of hard work, they were able to use a magical process to merge many of the physical attributes of rubies with a specially created alloy for this project (they never told anyone what the alloy was made of). The result was a scarlet-red metal that was nearly as tough to break as diamond and capable of being worked in way similar to steel, which the Deep Gnomes dubbed "Crimsonite". The metal has another strange property; its melting point and its freezing point are vastly different temperatures. Crimsonite starts out in solid form, and melts at roughly the same temperature as Steel. However, Molten Crimsonite (which looks disturbingly similar to blood) can cool back down to room-temperature without solidifying again, it only freezes if it is reduced to -40 degrees (Fahrenheit or Celsius, it's the same temperature). Deep Gnome cities are hidden by terrain that blends into the natural Underdark and illusion magic, but once a character enters one that has mastered the practice of creating Crimsonite, there is a drastic change in visual appearance of the environment, with nearly everything in the city that would typically be made of Steel being made of Crimsonite (with white-marble roads, emerald-green glass for windows, checkerboard floors of topaz and amethyst tiles, and walls made of red-marble), and Molten Crimsonite being used to keep the city warm, as it's a great conductor of heat, so just putting a small, artificial "river" of Molten Crimsonite near a volcanic/ignan hotspot will allow for the heat to be transported throughout the settlement without the problem of it boiling like water would, which makes it ideal for a variety of purposes, such as heating water for cooking and bathing, creating superheated moats to keep out trespassers, and allowing for Rock Gnomes to play the strange sport called "Sapphire-Scuttle", which has gnomes wearing strange shoes that let them stand on a pool of Molten Crimsonite (similar to snow-shoes) who use miniature, one-handed lacrosse sticks to pick up a golf-ball sized Sapphire and then try to throw it into a net (first team to make it to 7 goals wins). Crimsonite weapons ignore damage resistances and immunities that Elementals have, and armors/shields made from Crimsonite grants the wearer the ability to take no damage on Dexterity and Constition saving throws if they would normally take half-damage on a success.
So, what examples do you have from your worlds/campaigns? What metals do you wish there were rules for in D&D 5e?
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