And as I already explained in my last post, less force is necessary to achieve the same results if you concentrate the force on the smaller area of a cutting edge or tip.
And the counter remains that use of a wedge (in the form of a point or edge) to concentrate force may be a force multiplier, but the edge is there either way. So in that respect, all things are already equal.
And a pin with no force behind it does not penetrate, nor does a pin do the damage of a sword, even though the pin has a smaller contact surface.
You're still missing my point: a weapon that uses a sharp point to cut through the target's flesh and pierce organs does not need to have the same amount of force put into a thrust as a weapon that depends on blunt force trauma to inflict harm and can therefore be lighter weight while being as deadly or possibly even deadlier.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
And you are missing the counter-point (no pun intended from either of us, presumably). We are not comparing a mithril sword with a steel mace. We are comparing a mithril sword with a steel sword. Given identical designs and identical velocity, the heavier will have more kinetic energy and thus strike harder/deeper.
The counter-argument that you are looking for has nothing to do with 'It is edged therefore less reliant on weight' but rather 'It is lighter, therefore you can achieve higher velocities with it.'
Given that none of the replies to my posts ever stated that, yeah, I missed it.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
1) the properties of Mithril actually do match with those of titanium - rarer than iron, needs higher temperatures and special techniques to forge, 1/3 the weight of iron with the same strength. Interestingly while it can be hardened to nearly the same hardness as high quality steel it is a little softer which hurts its edge holding ability. (Typically knives and swords are hardened to about Rockwell 58-59 while titanium blades only reach 55-56) this might explain why you see it used more in armours where toughness matters more than hardness.
2) a good real world analog for Admantine/Admantine would probably be tungsten - considerable denser so heavier, extremely hard (it’s used to cut hard steels), tough and rigid (guess what armor piercing rounds use) it is actually worked at even higher temps than titanium and is even rarer.
3) the folks explaining the physics have it right - speed is more important than mass but mass helps. Area of contact is also important - the smaller the area the greater the penetration. A straightened out paper clip is going to penetrate a lot further (and do more damage because of that) if it hits end on not long side on. The problem is that the human body can only generate so much speed. Still swinging a 1lb Mithril sword instead of a 3lb steel one is going to get you more speed and that means a lot more energy (speed difference squared).
4) Mithril is not enherently magical - notice that Mithril and Admantine armors don’t get magical bonuses only non magical alterations.
5) so do Mithril weapons exist - certainly, what do you think things like dragon slayer weapons and flametongue weapons are made of? what else is going to stand up to the acid/heat/etc of the dragon or flametongue flame and not lose its strength and hardness?
Did you really think that a masterwork elven sword was steel? Your 5’6’ 125 elf blade master is not going to be swinging a 3 lb chunk of steel as fast as 6’3” 225lb half orc but a 1 lb Mithril sword is going to match or beat the speed and the elf isn’t trying to stop the steel blade just deflect it away from him while opening up a place to run the half orc thru.
1) the properties of Mithril actually do match with those of titanium - rarer than iron, needs higher temperatures and special techniques to forge, 1/3 the weight of iron with the same strength. Interestingly while it can be hardened to nearly the same hardness as high quality steel it is a little softer which hurts its edge holding ability. (Typically knives and swords are hardened to about Rockwell 58-59 while titanium blades only reach 55-56) this might explain why you see it used more in armours where toughness matters more than hardness.
My only point of contention here is your claim that mithril matches titanium. I agree that they do... *except* that according to the Rust Monster entry in the Monster Manual, Mithral is a ferrous material (as is adamantine). Titanium is not ferrous... so while the physical properties all line up for mithral to be titanium (or my personal favorite, aluminum... with Adamantine being Titanium), they are not a 1:1.
though that makes me want a magnetic monster now that can manipulate any metal weapon made of iron, steel, mithral, or adamantine by abusing the ferromagnetic properties inherent or implied by other entries...
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
Mithral is a light, flexible metal. Melee weapons made of mithral are wieded more easily. The weapon have the finesse and light properties. The mithral version of a melee weapon costs 500 gp more than the normal version.
Base item.This item variant can be applied to the following base items:
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
DU = dense and it vaporizes on its way in, keeping pointy but progressively smaller (vs mushrooming out and becoming dull)
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
DU = dense and it vaporizes on its way in, keeping pointy but progressively smaller (vs mushrooming out and becoming dull)
So the basis for maybe particularly devastating but one shot magic shaft delivered projectiles (arrows, spears, javelins). I figure the documented toxicity could have some lore ramifications too as far as who uses it or potential environmental degradation left in its wake. Probably call it something other than uranium.
1) the properties of Mithril actually do match with those of titanium - rarer than iron, needs higher temperatures and special techniques to forge, 1/3 the weight of iron with the same strength. Interestingly while it can be hardened to nearly the same hardness as high quality steel it is a little softer which hurts its edge holding ability. (Typically knives and swords are hardened to about Rockwell 58-59 while titanium blades only reach 55-56) this might explain why you see it used more in armours where toughness matters more than hardness.
My only point of contention here is your claim that mithril matches titanium. I agree that they do... *except* that according to the Rust Monster entry in the Monster Manual, Mithral is a ferrous material (as is adamantine). Titanium is not ferrous... so while the physical properties all line up for mithral to be titanium (or my personal favorite, aluminum... with Adamantine being Titanium), they are not a 1:1.
though that makes me want a magnetic monster now that can manipulate any metal weapon made of iron, steel, mithral, or adamantine by abusing the ferromagnetic properties inherent or implied by other entries...
The “trick” with the ferrous nature of titanium is that all titanium ores contain iron and unless you liquify the ore and do some extra special ultra high temperature refining then titanium contains 20-30% iron in solid solution in it. So it’s that iron that the rust monsters go after and cause damage removing it. Aluminum won’t work as Mithril - yes it is lighter and nearly as strong but it’s just not hard or tough enough to be used as armor or weapons in combat conditions.
Given the game is in magical fantasy world, you can have fun with it.
Can allow people to have a much larger weapon than normal. Maybe helps with intimidate because if I see someone swinging an anvil, or a greatsword that an ogre would use, yeah lets not pick a fight. Can treat it as a +1 weapon, but if you make use of the softer metal. Can introduce weapon sharpening. Get like 20 hits with it before it loses the bonus. Character sheets online tend to have ammunition trackers to make use of tracking that. You can also step up the damage dice a little by say deals normal damage and a d4 extra. Nothing too crazy, but for a non-magical item, it is still pretty rare. Give an ability to drop it off to be enchanted during the downtime skip ahead. Especially since magic item drops are tricky.
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
Well for one uranium of any sort was not discovered until 1789. It too calls for special processing to purify it so it was not useful to an essentially midevial technologist. Like tungsten it is hard (about as hard as steel), much rarer, and melts at a lower temperature. It’s rarity in most situations is probably a major reason it has so few uses. Normal uranium is mildly radioactive but not explosive (though it will oxidize (burn) especially in powdered form). It is only with the aide of modern technologies that the explosive isotope can be separated from the rest. This is the process that creates “weapon grade”, “fuel grade” and depleted uranium. In WWII anti- tank penetrators were all tungsten it’s only in the last 40 years, with a significant supply of “waste” depleted uranium that we have been using it for armor piercing rounds. In D&D I could see it or it’s ores more luckily as possible magical ingredients but not as an alternative to steel, Mithril/titanium, and Admantine/tungsten. Because most of the radioactivity is from the U235 extracted from regular uranium to make nuclear weapons and reactor fuels the depleted version is only slightly radioactive (about 9 times less than the original stuff) which is why it’s used in projectiles. By the way the penetrators don’t melt that is the shaped charge AT shells. The penetrators simply blast thru then can’t get out the other side and rattle around slowly losing speed acting like blender blades inside the tank pure kinetic energy.
Yep if your the DM you sure can turn it into cartoons (can be great fun playing the old Looney Tunes Module like I did years ago) turn it into anime, anything you want. I prefer a fair amount of realism in my campaigns. So I added my comments your free to ignore them I don’t mind.
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
DU = dense and it vaporizes on its way in, keeping pointy but progressively smaller (vs mushrooming out and becoming dull)
So the basis for maybe particularly devastating but one shot magic shaft delivered projectiles (arrows, spears, javelins). I figure the documented toxicity could have some lore ramifications too as far as who uses it or potential environmental degradation left in its wake. Probably call it something other than uranium.
It is particularly dense lead. Uranium, like all radioactive elements, break down over time eventually transforming into other elements. Lead itself is toxic. It does still emit some low level radiation, but mostly less dangerous alpha radiation (actually deemed human safe, or at least there is no demonstrated harm to humans from it).
Alpha radiation is only less dangerous from external sources because alpha waves can't penetrate your epidermis. If you inhale uranium dust or get it in your eyes, it will cause more damage than beta or gamma radiation.
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
Well for one uranium of any sort was not discovered until 1789.
So inside the decade of the discovery and isolation of tungsten and older than knowledge of titanium by a couple of years. That sort of moots out your later snideness. And you seemed so good natured and earnest in your earlier posts.
Yep if your the DM you sure can turn it into cartoons (can be great fun playing the old Looney Tunes Module like I did years ago) turn it into anime, anything you want. I prefer a fair amount of realism in my campaigns. So I added my comments your free to ignore them I don’t mind.
Riiiight. Your head canon can alloy, so to speak, mithril to titanium and adamantine to tungsten but, in a world where some entities have the knowledge to turn souls into a fuel powerful enough to propel rocket cars and levitating battle fortresses, playing around with the idea of an analog to a historical-culturally loaded substance like uranium, plutonium, etc crosses some line because "fair amount of realism."
The founders of D&D metallurgy didn't consult the periodic table for their mythic metals. They looted Tolkien, and probably Marvel comics (see other discussion on this board on goblin/hobgoblin actual etymology and how they're used in game to gauge monsters per magnitudes of spider man antagonist). I think it's cool and all to provide insight of actual metallurgy for fantasy metal, but I think your effort at dissing me toying with pushing the idea to propose a more toxic metal (mithril is definitely a "good guy" metal in most lore, adamantine is a bit more neutral, yeah we have infernal iron but I'm thinking there's space on the D&D periodic table for something Abyssal that plays well with the lore of abyssal corrupting incursion) falls a bit off the chart. I mean per lore, both mithril and adamantine have been associated with literally out of this (game) world meteorite phenomena, and may well be as rare as unobtanium ;).
So the basis for maybe particularly devastating but one shot magic shaft delivered projectiles (arrows, spears, javelins). I figure the documented toxicity could have some lore ramifications too as far as who uses it or potential environmental degradation left in its wake. Probably call it something other than uranium.
It is particularly dense lead. Uranium, like all radioactive elements, break down over time eventually transforming into other elements. Lead itself is toxic. It does still emit some low level radiation, but mostly less dangerous alpha radiation (actually deemed human safe, or at least there is no demonstrated harm to humans from it).
Alpha radiation is only less dangerous from external sources because alpha waves can't penetrate your epidermis. If you inhale uranium dust or get it in your eyes, it will cause more damage than beta or gamma radiation.
Yes and if you inhale lead dust it will similarly be rather unhealthy for you. Inhaling dust of any sort, even of non-toxic compounds is not good for you either. Neither is a bullet of any sort smashing through your skin and shattering inside your body.
Last I checked though, there were no mechanics in 5e for any of this, but the primary means by which bullets kill, including DU rounds (which are not normally used in small arms anyway) is by penetration, not by toxicity. Toxicity is too slow and too uncontrollable for most battlefields and thus deliberately toxic weapons are thankfully pretty much never used.
In my idea where I'm using "uranium" inspired metal to give a metal a sort toxic edge but more in lore insinuation than combat mechanics. Maybe have some mithral/adamantine like special metal properties, and give it some similar edge in combat, but the real toll is its insidious corrupting poisoning of the environment, thinking they're used as part of siege munitions or a demonic hosts solider kit, and, vanquished or no, unless properly cleaned up/consecrated the residue has effects over time comparable to the "initial infection" portion of the Demonic infestation timeline outlined in Mord's. It's sort of a mashup of the documented ill effects of DU munitions on the environment and its inhabitants long after a battle, or even at a facility they were stored at (of course the same can be said for munitions period) with the sort of environmental toxicity certain substances would cause in Werewolf the Apocalypse.
Sure there's no 5e rules on personal damages beyond poisoning and illness rules (which can be built out, I mean there's a free adventure on this site that guides the players through a disease they completely make up) but I'm looking more in terms of a lore metal, a sort of wicked sibling of mithril (which is generally associated with tolkienesque nobility) that can be a literal catalyst, so to speak, on a game world if weapons fashioned with it were to make war.
IIRC the traditional fantasy hierarchy is steel, meteor steel/star metal, mithril, adamantium, orichalcum. None are traditionally considered toxic, (although in the MCU, they retconned adamantium to be toxic).
I'm not familiar with that hierarchy, thanks for posting that. Definitely haven't heard of orichalcum. Is there a particular fiction/world that organized that hierarchy?
It’s really: Copper-> Bronze -> Iron -> Steel -> meteoric steel (star metal) from the real world in terms of usability for weapons and armor. Tolkien adds Mithril, AD&D adds Admantine (often confused with marvel comics Admantite which has mostly the same properties).
Orichalcum comes from a couple of different places but I personally know it best from the Shadowrun game.
there's dozens and dozens of metal ores when you look from 1e-4e...if you start counting homebrew (and I do believe orichalcum is pure homebrew for D&D), then you have several hundred ores. Even forgetting homebrew, there is no "this > that" hierarchy.
I don't know if adamant is strictly Greek myth or just derives from the language's word for diamond. I mean it carries on its strength and inflexbility and toughness into the modern use of the word adamant, as in "D&D Beyond posters are generally adamant in the belief that they're first post in a thread is correct." Tacking "ine" onto it just means something possessed of that quality.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
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You're still missing my point: a weapon that uses a sharp point to cut through the target's flesh and pierce organs does not need to have the same amount of force put into a thrust as a weapon that depends on blunt force trauma to inflict harm and can therefore be lighter weight while being as deadly or possibly even deadlier.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Given that none of the replies to my posts ever stated that, yeah, I missed it.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Several thoughts on this thread:
1) the properties of Mithril actually do match with those of titanium - rarer than iron, needs higher temperatures and special techniques to forge, 1/3 the weight of iron with the same strength. Interestingly while it can be hardened to nearly the same hardness as high quality steel it is a little softer which hurts its edge holding ability. (Typically knives and swords are hardened to about Rockwell 58-59 while titanium blades only reach 55-56) this might explain why you see it used more in armours where toughness matters more than hardness.
2) a good real world analog for Admantine/Admantine would probably be tungsten - considerable denser so heavier, extremely hard (it’s used to cut hard steels), tough and rigid (guess what armor piercing rounds use) it is actually worked at even higher temps than titanium and is even rarer.
3) the folks explaining the physics have it right - speed is more important than mass but mass helps. Area of contact is also important - the smaller the area the greater the penetration. A straightened out paper clip is going to penetrate a lot further (and do more damage because of that) if it hits end on not long side on. The problem is that the human body can only generate so much speed. Still swinging a 1lb Mithril sword instead of a 3lb steel one is going to get you more speed and that means a lot more energy (speed difference squared).
4) Mithril is not enherently magical - notice that Mithril and Admantine armors don’t get magical bonuses only non magical alterations.
5) so do Mithril weapons exist - certainly, what do you think things like dragon slayer weapons and flametongue weapons are made of? what else is going to stand up to the acid/heat/etc of the dragon or flametongue flame and not lose its strength and hardness?
Did you really think that a masterwork elven sword was steel? Your 5’6’ 125 elf blade master is not going to be swinging a 3 lb chunk of steel as fast as 6’3” 225lb half orc but a 1 lb Mithril sword is going to match or beat the speed and the elf isn’t trying to stop the steel blade just deflect it away from him while opening up a place to run the half orc thru.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
My only point of contention here is your claim that mithril matches titanium. I agree that they do... *except* that according to the Rust Monster entry in the Monster Manual, Mithral is a ferrous material (as is adamantine). Titanium is not ferrous... so while the physical properties all line up for mithral to be titanium (or my personal favorite, aluminum... with Adamantine being Titanium), they are not a 1:1.
though that makes me want a magnetic monster now that can manipulate any metal weapon made of iron, steel, mithral, or adamantine by abusing the ferromagnetic properties inherent or implied by other entries...
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
I'd go with additional properties
Mithral Weapon
Base item
Mithral is a light, flexible metal. Melee weapons made of mithral are wieded more easily. The weapon have the finesse and light properties. The mithral version of a melee weapon costs 500 gp more than the normal version.
Base item. This item variant can be applied to the following base items:
Battleaxe, hand axe, quarterstaff, light hammer, longsword, mace, morningstar, rapier, sickle, spear, warhammer.
Since some folks are jumping in with some metallurgy (I tuned out on the physics and body mechanics), I liked mcwilson's analogies, and now I'm curious. On the tungsten adamantine scale, what about depleted uranium? I don't know much about it other than it's used in anti-armor munitions, I don't know if that's for some sort of reactive explosive capacity, I assumed it might have been a density toughness thing.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
DU = dense and it vaporizes on its way in, keeping pointy but progressively smaller (vs mushrooming out and becoming dull)
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
So the basis for maybe particularly devastating but one shot magic shaft delivered projectiles (arrows, spears, javelins). I figure the documented toxicity could have some lore ramifications too as far as who uses it or potential environmental degradation left in its wake. Probably call it something other than uranium.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The “trick” with the ferrous nature of titanium is that all titanium ores contain iron and unless you liquify the ore and do some extra special ultra high temperature refining then titanium contains 20-30% iron in solid solution in it. So it’s that iron that the rust monsters go after and cause damage removing it.
Aluminum won’t work as Mithril - yes it is lighter and nearly as strong but it’s just not hard or tough enough to be used as armor or weapons in combat conditions.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Given the game is in magical fantasy world, you can have fun with it.
Can allow people to have a much larger weapon than normal. Maybe helps with intimidate because if I see someone swinging an anvil, or a greatsword that an ogre would use, yeah lets not pick a fight. Can treat it as a +1 weapon, but if you make use of the softer metal. Can introduce weapon sharpening. Get like 20 hits with it before it loses the bonus. Character sheets online tend to have ammunition trackers to make use of tracking that. You can also step up the damage dice a little by say deals normal damage and a d4 extra. Nothing too crazy, but for a non-magical item, it is still pretty rare. Give an ability to drop it off to be enchanted during the downtime skip ahead. Especially since magic item drops are tricky.
Well for one uranium of any sort was not discovered until 1789. It too calls for special processing to purify it so it was not useful to an essentially midevial technologist. Like tungsten it is hard (about as hard as steel), much rarer, and melts at a lower temperature. It’s rarity in most situations is probably a major reason it has so few uses. Normal uranium is mildly radioactive but not explosive (though it will oxidize (burn) especially in powdered form). It is only with the aide of modern technologies that the explosive isotope can be separated from the rest. This is the process that creates “weapon grade”, “fuel grade” and depleted uranium. In WWII anti- tank penetrators were all tungsten it’s only in the last 40 years, with a significant supply of “waste” depleted uranium that we have been using it for armor piercing rounds. In D&D I could see it or it’s ores more luckily as possible magical ingredients but not as an alternative to steel, Mithril/titanium, and Admantine/tungsten.
Because most of the radioactivity is from the U235 extracted from regular uranium to make nuclear weapons and reactor fuels the depleted version is only slightly radioactive (about 9 times less than the original stuff) which is why it’s used in projectiles. By the way the penetrators don’t melt that is the shaped charge AT shells. The penetrators simply blast thru then can’t get out the other side and rattle around slowly losing speed acting like blender blades inside the tank pure kinetic energy.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Yep if your the DM you sure can turn it into cartoons (can be great fun playing the old Looney Tunes Module like I did years ago) turn it into anime, anything you want. I prefer a fair amount of realism in my campaigns. So I added my comments your free to ignore them I don’t mind.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Alpha radiation is only less dangerous from external sources because alpha waves can't penetrate your epidermis. If you inhale uranium dust or get it in your eyes, it will cause more damage than beta or gamma radiation.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
So inside the decade of the discovery and isolation of tungsten and older than knowledge of titanium by a couple of years. That sort of moots out your later snideness. And you seemed so good natured and earnest in your earlier posts.
Riiiight. Your head canon can alloy, so to speak, mithril to titanium and adamantine to tungsten but, in a world where some entities have the knowledge to turn souls into a fuel powerful enough to propel rocket cars and levitating battle fortresses, playing around with the idea of an analog to a historical-culturally loaded substance like uranium, plutonium, etc crosses some line because "fair amount of realism."
The founders of D&D metallurgy didn't consult the periodic table for their mythic metals. They looted Tolkien, and probably Marvel comics (see other discussion on this board on goblin/hobgoblin actual etymology and how they're used in game to gauge monsters per magnitudes of spider man antagonist). I think it's cool and all to provide insight of actual metallurgy for fantasy metal, but I think your effort at dissing me toying with pushing the idea to propose a more toxic metal (mithril is definitely a "good guy" metal in most lore, adamantine is a bit more neutral, yeah we have infernal iron but I'm thinking there's space on the D&D periodic table for something Abyssal that plays well with the lore of abyssal corrupting incursion) falls a bit off the chart. I mean per lore, both mithril and adamantine have been associated with literally out of this (game) world meteorite phenomena, and may well be as rare as unobtanium ;).
Now let's get real, how would vibranium fit....
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
In my idea where I'm using "uranium" inspired metal to give a metal a sort toxic edge but more in lore insinuation than combat mechanics. Maybe have some mithral/adamantine like special metal properties, and give it some similar edge in combat, but the real toll is its insidious corrupting poisoning of the environment, thinking they're used as part of siege munitions or a demonic hosts solider kit, and, vanquished or no, unless properly cleaned up/consecrated the residue has effects over time comparable to the "initial infection" portion of the Demonic infestation timeline outlined in Mord's. It's sort of a mashup of the documented ill effects of DU munitions on the environment and its inhabitants long after a battle, or even at a facility they were stored at (of course the same can be said for munitions period) with the sort of environmental toxicity certain substances would cause in Werewolf the Apocalypse.
Sure there's no 5e rules on personal damages beyond poisoning and illness rules (which can be built out, I mean there's a free adventure on this site that guides the players through a disease they completely make up) but I'm looking more in terms of a lore metal, a sort of wicked sibling of mithril (which is generally associated with tolkienesque nobility) that can be a literal catalyst, so to speak, on a game world if weapons fashioned with it were to make war.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I'm not familiar with that hierarchy, thanks for posting that. Definitely haven't heard of orichalcum. Is there a particular fiction/world that organized that hierarchy?
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It’s really: Copper-> Bronze -> Iron -> Steel -> meteoric steel (star metal) from the real world in terms of usability for weapons and armor.
Tolkien adds Mithril, AD&D adds Admantine (often confused with marvel comics Admantite which has mostly the same properties).
Orichalcum comes from a couple of different places but I personally know it best from the Shadowrun game.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
FWIW 2E Volo's Guide to All Things Magical had also a bunch of metal, shell, minerals etc.. with properties.
there's dozens and dozens of metal ores when you look from 1e-4e...if you start counting homebrew (and I do believe orichalcum is pure homebrew for D&D), then you have several hundred ores. Even forgetting homebrew, there is no "this > that" hierarchy.
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
I don't know if adamant is strictly Greek myth or just derives from the language's word for diamond. I mean it carries on its strength and inflexbility and toughness into the modern use of the word adamant, as in "D&D Beyond posters are generally adamant in the belief that they're first post in a thread is correct." Tacking "ine" onto it just means something possessed of that quality.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.