Special Materials Suggestions Wanted

I'm starting in on some 2da changes for the next hak update and figured I'd add myself some options for special "on hit" properties for special materials. Basically, if a weapon is made primarily of such a material, hitting certain enemies with it might have various effects. There wouldn't be the ability to combine these on the same weapon, but they could add some more variety to what's out there without me having to add additional scripts for every "special" weapon...I can use the same script for every one of these. Armor/shields could use the same script for other purposes.

The ones I'm looking at so far:

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Silver
Weapon: +damage vs. vampires, shapechangers, wolfbloods, werewolves, damage amount varies with the type of enemy
Armor: damage attacking vampires, shapechangers, wolfbloods, werewolves

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Adamantine
Weapon: 25% chance for bonus damage, damage amount varies with size of weapon
Armor: nothing special (such items should already have +AC or minor damage reduction)

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Red Steel
Weapon: +damage vs. elementals, constructs, damage amount varies with the type of enemy
Armor: damage attacking elementals, constructs

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Cold Forged Iron
Weapon: +damage vs. demons, fey, celestials, damage amount varies with the type of enemy
Armor: damage attacking demons, fey, celestials

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Dark Iron
Weapon: from the Dark Realm, +damage vs. animals, beasts, humanoids, damage amount varies with the type of enemy
Armor: damage attacking animals, beasts, humanoids (and damage wearer with each hit if one of the affected races)

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Deadwood
Weapon: "anti-magic" material, on hit gives 25% spell failure chance for a few seconds (variable time on each hit), making spellcasting harder, but not impossible, in combat
Armor: nothing special (such items should already provide some sort of protection from magic and extra spell failure chance)

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Firegold
Weapon: 25% chance for bonus fire damage, damage amount varies with size of weapon
Armor: nothing special (such items would likely give vulnerability to fire to the wearer)


So...anyone have any other suggestions for materials and possible effects? Something that might take a little scripting, rather than just "plus set amount vs. so-and-so" (which can be done via normal properties already)? They don't all have to be metal, either.

Edited to add the following player suggestions, with some edits/changes (from later in this thread, updated by me):
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On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Rust Monster Bone
Weapon: 25% chance to destroy a (semi-random) non-magical metal item on target
Armor: 25% chance to destroy attacker's weapon (if it's non-magical metal)
Suggested by: RustyDios

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Sky Metal
Weapon: +damage, the amount and type of which depends on the current time of day and phases of the moons
Armor: damages attacker, the amount and type of which depends on the current time of day and phases of the moons
Suggested by: RustyDios

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Watersilk
Weapon: 50% chance for bonus magical damage vs. non-elemental/undead/construct creatures
Armor: 25% chance attacker gets disarmed (on failed Discipline check), wearer
takes extra damage from piercing/slashing (such items should have
damage vulnerability property for this part)
Suggested by: MannyJabrielle

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Spellvenom Silver
Weapon: 25% chance to reduce target's spell resistance by 1 for a short duration
Armor: 25% chance wearer's spell resistance is decreased by 1 for a short duration
Suggested by: daveyeisley

On Hit Cast Spell: Material, Blood Quenched Copper
Weapon: 25% chance to make target more vulnerable to physical damage for a short time
Armor: 50% chance a small amount of wearer's current wounds are transferred to attacker
Suggested by: daveyeisley

Mithril: less weight, more enhancement?

Elhanan wrote:Mithril: less weight, more enhancement?

That can effectively be done using "normal" properties ... reduced weight (item props 543~547) and enhancement bonuses (props 314 ~ 362)*

I always thought "OnHit : Cast Spell" took major drains on the server ?.. or has this changed since the spell scripts got "re-worked".. or is this just for this one particular script that would have that function ?

I'd like to see a "Mirror Steel" or something.. something that when hit by a spell returns the spell to the caster... could be highly effective in the beholder tunnels (or when duelling Crideas ! )... ((Maybe the script for an armour would work on the "IfSpellCastAt" option and simply take the spell and fire it at it's originator, could also grant like SR200 ~ie no spell effects the wearer... obviously would need some balancing points.. maybe it's super heavy +1000lbs ~ ie you have to crawl to use it, and the stuff repels magic so no chucking it in a Bag O Holding , but then it would need a special "containment" bag so all the users equipment doesn't go "poof"... hmmm ))

Is it possible to script in a way for "Elemental" or "Ethereal" style items that ignore worn armour (Armour Base AC, AC Bonus (from armour or bracers) and Shield Base Bonus, Shield Bonus (from shield or weapons)...

How about "Rust Bones", made from the bones of rust monsters these weapons and armours have the ability to rust non-magical items they contact much like the creatures themselves....

How about materials that get stronger/weaker depending on time of day/phase of the moons... something like a "Sunstone, Naka Gem and Sharlo Steel (and the combined Naksha GemSteel)".. depending on the current state of their "ruling" orbital body the effect they have changes, so at midday a Sunstone Sword is inherently hot and at full moon a Sharlo Steel Armour is particularly resistant to, well everything ... ... prized by followers of Prizimal and "Wolfies"... this was inspired by the Sharlo Cloak that changes concealment dependent on the moon ...... .....

... ... and that's it.. my brain went all fizzle after that last one.... maybe I'll think of more in time ..... ....




*Item property codes taken from this thread here

RustyDios wrote:I always thought "OnHit : Cast Spell" took major drains on the server ?.. or has this changed since the spell scripts got "re-worked".. or is this just for this one particular script that would have that function ?

Regular on hit cast spell properties do put more strain on the server, since you're effectively casting said normal spell multiple times per round...which means multiple spell resistance checks, multiple saving throws, multiple damage calculations, multiple resistance checks, etc. The script I intend for this will be streamlined, with each effect part of the same script, without built in saving throws or spell resistance checks, without a lot of visual effects, etc.

RustyDios wrote:I'd like to see a "Mirror Steel" or something.. something that when hit by a spell returns the spell to the caster... could be highly effective in the beholder tunnels (or when duelling Crideas ! )... ((Maybe the script for an armour would work on the "IfSpellCastAt" option and simply take the spell and fire it at it's originator, could also grant like SR200 ~ie no spell effects the wearer... obviously would need some balancing points.. maybe it's super heavy +1000lbs ~ ie you have to crawl to use it, and the stuff repels magic so no chucking it in a Bag O Holding , but then it would need a special "containment" bag so all the users equipment doesn't go "poof"... hmmm ))

Now this function alone (with all the various checks and calculations and variable storage and calling other scripts) would bog down the server.

RustyDios wrote:Is it possible to script in a way for "Elemental" or "Ethereal" style items that ignore worn armour (Armour Base AC, AC Bonus (from armour or bracers) and Shield Base Bonus, Shield Bonus (from shield or weapons)...

Not really. The on-hit properties never come into play without the attacker actually hitting (which means they've already overcome all of those protections and inflicted damage).

RustyDios wrote:How about "Rust Bones", made from the bones of rust monsters these weapons and armours have the ability to rust non-magical items they contact much like the creatures themselves....

This one might be possible.

RustyDios wrote:How about materials that get stronger/weaker depending on time of day/phase of the moons... something like a "Sunstone, Naka Gem and Sharlo Steel (and the combined Naksha GemSteel)".. depending on the current state of their "ruling" orbital body the effect they have changes, so at midday a Sunstone Sword is inherently hot and at full moon a Sharlo Steel Armour is particularly resistant to, well everything ... ... prized by followers of Prizimal and "Wolfies"... this was inspired by the Sharlo Cloak that changes concealment dependent on the moon ...... .....

Possible, with some modification. Not as specialized as the cloak of sharlo's shadow (which is a contant effect when worn, rather than an on-hit property), but some of the idea could be used.

Editing original post with the immediately feasible suggestions.

Watersilk: Not really "silk", but rather a strange elemental essence of water that feels like silk when touched. Watersilk weapons and armors are extremely light and flexible, sometimes to the point of making fine elven mithril armors seem like bulky raw iron.

Weapon: A weapon tempered with a watersilk mixture may have a chance to turn the blood drawn into water. Thinner than blood, the wound gushes profusely for a moment or two, causing the affected target to lose a substantial amount of lifeforce.

Armor: When struck by a weapon, watersilk armors will infuse the weapon with watersilk, causing them to become very difficult to grasp, sometimes even making the weapon fly from the attacker's hand. The downside however is the wearer may find that when injured, the watersilk armor in contact with the wound will cause the blood to flow far easier.

Editing original post with this suggestion.

Some great suggestions already.

I've started coding these so that they can begin to be added with the next hak update. So far I've coded silver, adamantine, and red steel.

Blue Dragonscale:
For weapon, extra damage vs dragons
For armor, immunity to electricity, +saves vs all dragon breath

Truesilver, as silver, but rare, and powerful, even to slay racial type, shapechanger.........

Skywatcher wrote:Blue Dragonscale:
For weapon, extra damage vs dragons

existing property: Damage Bonus vs. Racial Type: Dragon

Skywatcher wrote:For armor, immunity to electricity, +saves vs all dragon breath

existing property: Immunity: Damage Type: Electrical (wouldn't work as an on-hit property)
existing properties: Saving Throw Bonus: Electrical (and Cold, Acid, Fire) (wouldn't work as an on-hit property)

Skywatcher wrote:Truesilver, as silver, but rare, and powerful, even to slay racial type, shapechanger.........

existing property: On Hit: Slay Racial Group: Shapechanger

Good ideas, just already covered by existing NWN item properties.

How about a material that lowers targets defenses with each hit?

One that lowers the victim's SR to make hitting it with spells easier for casters? Put this on some sling bullets or somesuch, hit a couple times and then pop a disabling spell on them, etc...

A material that lowers enemy damage resistances or reductions with each hit?
Turns things brittle, etc...

Editing original post with these suggestions.

daveyeisley wrote:How about a material that lowers targets defenses with each hit?

One that lowers the victim's SR to make hitting it with spells easier for casters?

This one might be possible with a simple EffectSpellResistanceDecrease() call....hmmm.

daveyeisley wrote:A material that lowers enemy damage resistances or reductions with each hit?

This one probably wouldn't be feasible, as it would require extensive checks on effects and equipment properties of the creature hit, then removal of all said resistances/reduction, then addition of similar but lowered powered versions of each, then restoration of said effects/item properties after a certain amount of time.

How about "Soul Gem" ... this is the material a certain blade is made from already.. on a weapon it absorbs the soul of those struck to empower itself, on an armour it gets progressively harder to hit the wearer the more it gets hit (maybe with an increasing concealment effect ?).... the only drawback is if the user is not in a constant battle the items start to feed on the user instead....

> Inspired by the Soul Reaver that can be found already ...

"Quicksilver".. this material acts just like normal silver, however it has odd properties when exposed to different temperatures... when it gets cold the metal starts to flow in a semi-liquid state allowing the user to move more freely, yet when hot it solidifies slightly making it actually harder to move....
the material can be mixed with other components by master alchemists to either keep it as "Frosted Quicksilver" (a beneficial potion) or "Heated Quicksilver" (a rather harmful poison bestowing slow)...

When in a cold climate (or during winter / raining) it adds haste to the weapon or armour, when in a hot climate (or during summer) it adds a slowing effect (movement speed decrease)... at all other times it behaves just like normal silver (damgage vs. shapechangers etc) ... ...

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:

daveyeisley wrote:A material that lowers enemy damage resistances or reductions with each hit?

This one probably wouldn't be feasible, as it would require extensive checks on effects and equipment properties of the creature hit, then removal of all said resistances/reduction, then addition of similar but lowered powered versions of each, then restoration of said effects/item properties after a certain amount of time.

Another way to handle it might be to not bother checking for resistances etc, and simply have the weapon apply a damage vulernability to a thematically appropriate damage type to the target. IE. If the weapon is intended to reduce damage reduction or physical resistances, then just have it apply slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing vulnerabilities (say like 100% or so).

daveyeisley wrote:

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:

daveyeisley wrote:A material that lowers enemy damage resistances or reductions with each hit?

This one probably wouldn't be feasible, as it would require extensive checks on effects and equipment properties of the creature hit, then removal of all said resistances/reduction, then addition of similar but lowered powered versions of each, then restoration of said effects/item properties after a certain amount of time.

Another way to handle it might be to not bother checking for resistances etc, and simply have the weapon apply a damage vulernability to a thematically appropriate damage type to the target. IE. If the weapon is intended to reduce damage reduction or physical resistances, then just have it apply slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing vulnerabilities (say like 100% or so).

That might just work...

Any others for today? I'm going to be wrapping up additions for the updated hak and tlk files, then uploading them tonight or tomorrow. These need entries in the tlk file and a couple 2da files, so that I can do the scripting later.

To sort of go with the 'Already items in play' theme:

* Shadowsilk - for making clothing needed for those injured by sunlight. Made from the silk glands of certain Aenean creatures (ie; some might already exist, or add remains to Queen spiders, etc).