Elemental Crafting: Difference between revisions

[[File:Mithrilvest.jpg|link=The Lord of the Rings (film)|frame|This Mithril Vest gives me [[Dungeons and& Dragons|10/+ 5 damage resistance!]]]]

Going by your typical [[Role -Playing Game]], however, the most important feature of a weapon or item is not who made it or how, but ''what it is made of.'' The more expensive and rare the material, the better. You'll start running into different types of equipment in a certain order, ranging from newbie junk to epic loot:

** Technically, ballistic nylon and Kevlar count as cloth. However, the kinds of role playing games with ballistic armors (''[[Mass Effect]]'', ''[[The World of Darkness]]'', ''[[Shadowrun]]'', etc) tend to not have [['''Elemental Crafting]]''', which is a usually a fantasy trope.

* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' has much of this trope, where armor and weapons can be made of many different materials, with different effects depending on the material - adamantine objects are heavy but nearly invulnerable, mithril items are generally lighter and more durable than steel. Ironwood is a type of wood that can be crafted into bladed weapons. These Ironwood weapons are chiefly used by druids, who have particular class-based issues involving wearing metal armor. Likewise, much of the leather items in the later game come from specific creatures (dragons primarily) where the quality and properties of the leather armor (leather, although it may be a heavy full plate set) is determined by the size and type of dragon. Druids are able to wear dragonscale armor, even if it is counted as a heavy armor.

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games do it like there's no tomorrow. Later games feature multiple [[Elemental Crafting]] lines based on the weight/defense ratio of the armor or lethality of the weapon and gear made of different materials are more clearly crafted differently.

** In recent games, there are two [[Elemental Crafting]] lines: one for heavy armor and one for light armor. As of ''Oblivion'', the sequence is Iron<Steel<Dwarven<Orcish<Ebony<Daedric for "heavy," and Fur<Leather<Chainmail<Mithril<Elven<Glass for "light."

** ''Morrowind'' had a few unique armor types that skirted [[Elemental Crafting]] rules and and also substituted certain armor types for exotic local varieties. There was also a "medium" crafting line. A full list of all armor in the game, broken down by type and crafting line, is located [http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Base_Armor here] but highlights of the exotic differences include: Netch Leather (created from the hides of floating gelatinous creatures called Netches), Bonemold (soft shells hardened using a resin), Chitin (laminated shells from unnamed insects), and Dreugh (aqueous creatures called Dreugh, utilizing both shells and waxes). Arrows composed of "Corkbulb," a Vvardenfell root plant, can be found but are much weaker compared to normal arrows.

* ''[[RunescapeRuneScape]].''

* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' probably had this in mind with its craftable gear. The low tier materials are bubblewrap, cardboard, and styrofoam (all built upon the main raw material, meat). The higher tier is asbestos, linoleum, and chrome. Then again, using currency as something to make weapons and armour out of -- especiallyof—especially if said currency isn't really a feasible weapon or armour material -- doesmaterial—does fit here, doesn't it?

* Averted in ''[[Mabinogi (video game)|Mabinogi]]''. All weapons, armours, shields, and tools in the game are made from iron; with a few, very specific, exceptions. The only other materials involved are those which would normally be used in constructing real-life gear -- suchgear—such as leather, wood, silk or woolen cloth and cord, etc. -- and those needed in order to imbue the gear with magical properties (only applies to a few specific armours). Precious metals (copper, silver, gold, and mithril) are used only decoratively; as furnishings or as a "finish" to decide the final colour. Cost doesn't depend on the materials, but on the quality, complexity, and effectiveness of the gear.

* The weapon side of this isn't extremely prominent in [[Nethack]], as ''which race made it'' tends to be what distinguishes better and worse weapons, but silver weapons are explicitly better than iron ones because they never rust and do extra damage to demons and werecreatures. Wooden elven weapons also tend to be better than their iron equivalents because a lot more enemies and traps have passive rust attacks than passive rotting or burning attacks (also because elves made them). All mundane weapons pale in comparison to named artifacts (including many like [[Public Domain Artifact|Excalibur or Mjollnir]], which you ''can'' in fact [[Dual Wield]] if you're playing the SLASH-EM mod and are likely to for much of the game if playing the right build), but among those the silver saber Grayswandir is generally considered the strongest in the game. One odd quirk is that the ''only'' sabers in the game (and thus the only ones to use the saber weapon skill) are silver sabers--plainsabers—plain iron ones don't exist.

** Armor follows this religiously, though--leatherthough—leather armor is light and allows spellcasting but doesn't do much and can burn; iron armor is heavy and ruins spellcasting and can rust but provides increasingly more protection as you move from ring mail up to plate mail; mithril armor is very light, mostly indestructable and blocks more damage than all but the best iron armor but still ruins spellcasting; and dragon scale mail blocks more damage than anything else, is nearly weightless, ''doesn't'' interfere with spellcasting, is as durable as mithril and provides a magical effect depending on the dragon (the most powerful being "wands and breath attacks bounce back at anyone who tries to use them on you" or "you are immune to or take half damage from virtually any nonelemental magic, including many traps, some inventory-wrecking spells and many instant death effects", depending on which you can find another source for), but generally has to be "[[Just Add Water|crafted]]" yourself or wished for (and generally requires slaying an adult dragon, of course). There's also an extremely heavy suit of glass armor which allows spellcasting, won't burn or rust and is only fragile if you're not wearing it, and which provides better protection than anything except dragon scales and its iron equivalent, but for those with the maximum possible strength it takes up almost half of your carrying capacity just to lift it or the iron equivalent.

* [[Tales of Maj 'Eyal]] has a different hierarchy for metals, wood, cloth, and leather.

* [[Axe Cop]] has the Golden [[Chainsaw Good|Chainsaw]] and Axe Cop's secret [https://web.archive.org/web/20130603080709/http://axecop.com/index.php/acask/read/ask_axe_cop_32/ Golden Axe].