Elemental Crafting: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[As You Know|As we all know]], Iron is stronger than Bronze is stronger than Copper, so therefore all weapons and armor made of Iron must be better! Well, not necessarily. In [[Real Life]], other factors come into it, including design (a well-made bronze tool is superior to a low-end iron tool), the maker's skill, available forging techniques (bronze is actually stronger than wrought iron, and pure iron is more or less useless), facilities, time, the quality of the raw material, and alloy composition. Some metals are likewise better suited to cutting, resisting damage, or being light enough to carry. They will frequently be used by the [[Ultimate Blacksmith]].

 

{{hardline}}

* ''Cloth'' - "Armor" made of cloth is usually reserved for [[Squishy Wizard]] types and badass martial artists to whom [[Armor Is Useless]]. Otherwise, it will be the baseline worthless armor you start with. It also tends to be robes or clothing rather then actual protective gear.

* ''[[Sen Zar]]'' swore by this, to the point that it managed to completely break the game. This is one of the many reasons why it's considered one of the worst tabletop roleplaying games ever devised.

* ''[[Exalted]]'' features the five magical materials: orichalcum, moonsilver, jade, starmetal, and soulsteel. Each one has a somewhat exotic origin in the setting (orichalcum must be forged by a Solar from pure gold in the heart of a volcano using mirrors to capture sunlight; moonsilver must be forged in the depths of the Wyld; jade comes in many varieties and is found in the very depths of the earth; starmetal comes from the remains of dead gods; and soulsteel is made from boiled-down ghosts), and provides extra bonuses to the specific type of Exalted it's associated with (orichalcum for Solars, moonsilver for Lunars, jade for Dragon-Blooded, starmetal for Sidereals, and soulsteel for Abyssals). The bonuses are based on material; orichalcum is exemplary of the weapon or armor's quality, moonsilver is mercurial and ever-shifting, starmetal plays on fate itself to aid its bearer, and soulsteel focuses on causing pain or unnerving its bearer's foes.

** Averted sometimes in 3rd edition - many advanced materials in fact make weapons less damaging than steel does. Alchemical Silver is an example.

** Averted in 4th edition, where stronger types of armor are described as being made differently and more skilfully than generic types, without actually naming the materials used. For example, the Drakescale armor mimics the scale patterns of the drake creature; it is not described as actually being made out of scales from a drake.

** Materials are never given for the most interesting weapons in the game, which either have properly fantastical names (Sol Katti), are taken directly from legend (Durandal), or have qualitative adjectives (Killer Axe, Brave Lance).

* Stronger weapons and armour in ''[[Rune Factory]]: A Fantasy Harvest Moon'' usually contain a high percentage of gold and/or silver, in addition to ordinary old bronze and iron.

** Played straight with craftable metal armor and leather (which comes in different colors of dragon hide), and even mage armor, which isn't exactly craftable. Gold and silver are usually reserved for enchantable jewellery, but five silver weapons exist: Wolfbane, the sickle, silver bolts, the rod of Ivandis, and the Ivandis Flail. All of them are weak, and only used because silver is the only thing that can hurt [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampyres]]. Wolfbane can also prevent werewolves from transforming. In ''Runescape'', silver and gold are depicted as very soft and weak elements as in [[Real Life]].

** This is taken to silly extents with woods; Oak bows aren't as good as maple bows which aren't as good as Yew bows, and so on. That's all well and fine. But the the game also has Woodchopping and Firemaking skills which follow the hierarchy of bowmaking, which means that Oak, well-known in real life to be rather dense and a pain in the ass to split, is much, much, much easier to chop down and make a fire out of than supple Yew trees.

* In ''[[Infinite Undiscovery]]'', there are distinct tiers for each equipment type, all by material. Gets particularly ridiculous when you realize two characters use magic books for weapons, and the material used to make the paper and quill will determine ''what books you can write''.

* ''[[Monster Hunter]]''

** The metals hierarchy is iron < steel < ''dwarven'' steel < [[Serial Numbers Filed Off|stralite < voratun]].

 

[[Category:Video Game Items and Inventory]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]