Meteoric Iron (3.5e Equipment)

Author: Sulacu (talk) Date Created: December 21, 2011 Status: Complete Editing: Clarity edits only please

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Meteoric Iron

Meteoric iron is presumed by some lofty-minded scholars to come from pieces of the sun, fallen to earth. In truth, its origin is slightly more material, where ferrous rocks exposed to the magical radiation of the void get captured into the atmosphere and fall to the ground, leaving smoldering craters in their wake. Because of the small size of most meteors and the extreme rarity of the event, meteoric iron is exceedingly rare.

Meteoric iron is iron infused with the element of fire. It looks like iron with a dull, reddish gleam. In space, microscopic particles bombard such meteors, leaving enclosed tiny crystalline deposits throughout the iron that draw a constant backdrop of heat energy from the elemental plane of fire. As such, meteoric iron is hot to the touch even in a cold environment. Objects fashioned of meteoric iron emit warmth in a radius roughly equivalent to its size, sufficient to gird a single person or more against the cold. Items fashioned from meteoric iron protect the wearer or user from the effects of cold weather and climate as per endure elements, conferring level 3 cold protection. Furthermore, meteoric iron has the following properties when used to create specific items.

Armor and/or Shields

A creature directly touching a meteoric iron surface or wearing meteoric iron armor without proper heat-resistant underpadding takes 1d4 points of damage every round, unless they have at least resistance to fire 5.

A creature gains resistance to cold while wearing orichalcum armor. The values can be found in Table: Cold Resistance.

Table: Cold Resistance

Shield	Armor
	None	Light	Medium	Heavy
No	—	5	10	20
Yes	5	10	20	30

Armor fashioned from meteoric iron is often called meteoric armor.

Weapons

Weapons fashioned from meteoric iron, often called meteoric weapons, deal meteoric damage. Such weapons bypass any damage reduction/meteoric a creature may have. Certain monsters of the Cold subtype may be vulnerable to meteoric damage.

Certain fire-based weapon enhancements become enhanced when used on meteoric weapons. Flaming and flaming burst weapons made from meteoric iron deal an additional +1d6 of fire damage on a successful attack, and an additional +1d10 on a critical hit.

Miscellaneous

Items that recreate spells with the Fire descriptor (such as wands) function at +4 caster level and +2 to save DC when fashioned from meteoric iron.

Statistics

An observer can identify meteoric iron with a DC 30 Knowledge (arcana) or Knowledge (architecture and engineering) check. Crafting them is done with a +15 to the Craft DC.

Meteoric iron has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10.

Value

Meteoric armor and shields have double the base cost of a masterwork item of its kind. Added costs are +500 gp (light or shield), +2,000 gp (medium), or +4,500 gp (heavy). A proper underlay to wear meteoric iron armor without incurring damage must be made of fire-retardant or resistant material, such as dragon- or salamander hide. The underlay is part of the armor and increases its weight by 5 pounds, the effective armor check penalty by 2 and the arcane spell failure chance by 5%. Such an underlay adds 1,000 gp to the cost of light armor, 2,000 gp to the cost of medium armor, and 3,000 gp to the cost of heavy armor.

Meteoric weapons have twice the cost of a masterwork weapon +1,500 gp. This includes the cost for fire-resistant hilt wrapping, preventing damage to the wielder's hands.

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