Darklight (3.5e Equipment)

= Darklight =

Summary::Crafted out of the depleted remains of radioactive materials (or rarely, sometimes still radioactive materials), darklight items are very heavy and very dense. The process of making a darklight item is a rare one, due to the rarity of the material and the difficulty of converting it into useable form, and the troubles of forging it period. However no one can deny its benefits; a super hard, super dense material rivaled only by adamantium but much more robust per inch, and able to pierce through other metals like paper when launched with force. Depleted darklight is usually made into walls and armor for vehicles, where the weight is less of a concern.

Any weapon primarily composed of metal can be made as a darklight weapon. Depleted darklight is a silvery gray color, and not radioactive or harmful to the touch. Darklight weapons count as adamantine, ignoring hardness less than 20, and can ignore up to 5 points of hardness for materials with hardness equal or greater than 20. It has hardness 25, 80 hit points per inch of thickness, and doubles the weight of any object made of depleted darklight. The damage die of the weapon goes up by one and the handedness of the weapon increases by one step (light to one-handed, one-handed to two-handed, and two-handed weapons cannot be handled without taking Exotic Weapon Proficiency in the Darklight version of your weapon). When made into ranged projectiles, any shot which successfully slays a creature or destroys an object continues on to attack creatures or objects behind it, with a cumilative -4 penalty on the attack roll.

Armor made of darklight has similar effects to adamantine, but the weight is doubled, the armor check penalty is doubled, the maximum dex is reduced by 1 (minimum +0), and the arcane spell failure increases by 10%. In return users gain the armor bonus as a bonus against being bull rushed or tripped, and the damage reduction obtained is twice that of adamantine (DR 2/- for light armor, DR 4/- for medium armor, and DR 6/- for heavy armor). This damage reduction stacks with damage reduction/- granted from race or class, but not by magical enhancements.

Recently some have attempted to convert raw darklight ore into functional weapons and armor after the terrible radioactive disaster of attempting to turn refined darklight rods into weapons. Only through magical means have they managed to succeed, gaining a variant of darklight known as radioactive darklight. While similar to normal depleted darklight items, it causes nearby objects to glow as if under a blacklight. Radioactive darklight items have the same abilities as above, except on a critical hit they deal 1 Con damage and treat the enemy as having failed one of the saves against radiation poisoning. It seems like a steal, except for one little fact; the user is constantly subjected to the radiation naturally emitted by darklight ore, making it a trick only being immune to ability damage can pull off, and a hazard for everyone nearby. Such items cost 10% more than their normal counterparts.