Adamantium Weapons (sage ability)

Adamantium weapons is a sage-status sage ability in the study of Weaponwright, enabling the character to create +2 or better magical weapons made of metal, as well as fabricating added special features to weapons, such as luck, throwing, elemental influences, venom, wounding, slaying, life stealing, sharpness and holiness, besides a great many more. Success is more or less certain — except that the time necessary to create truly powerful items is long and arduous, and full of set-backs, while inculcating a given power into the weapon requires the character to possess that power, or something very like it, or convincing a being with the necessary magic to take part in the weapon's making.

In fact, the material used is not pure adamantium, but an adamantium-mithril alloy, which must be provided by someone able to make it. This must be available in steady supply, especially if the character wishes to forge a truly monumental weapon, which would surely take years. One-twentieth of the weapon's weight is used or wasted during each fortnight, or two-week period, while the weapon is fashioned. The fortnight is used as a measurement throughout this page.

If a part of the weapon is made of some other substance, be it stone, ceramic or wood, then the character must either possess at least authority-status in that material, or have an individual with at least expert-status as a consultant, or else the weapon cannot be adequately made. If the weapon is in no part metal, or the metal is of incidental importance, such as a club, bow, sling, godentag, bolas, bo or jo stick, quarterstaff and so on, then the character cannot make the item.

Preternatural Weapons

This includes those weapons that possess an attack or damage bonus, but no further abilities. Weapons with a +1 bonus can be fashioned using only mithril, when the character reached expert status. Thus, preternatural weapons requiring this page's ability have a bonus of +2, +3, +4 or +5. Preternatural weapons with a greater bonus cannot be made in the game universe.

Just as a +1 weapon could be fashioned within two or more fortnights, a +2 weapon requires at least six; a +3 weapon requires at least 18; a +4 weapon at least 54; and a +5 weapon at least 162. Each fortnight requires an ability check, or as termed here, a "design check." This reflects the character's creative process, as designs are tried, elaborated and improved upon, steadily over time, until the object is complete. Each failed roll only puts off the character's eventual success, as a failure only indicates that particular strategy didn't work. Failure allows another strategy to be tried, and another, and another, until the final product is at last managed.

Design Checks

The bard's primary attribute is charisma ... which is of no use in this sort of project.