Dark Iron (3.5e Equipment)
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Dark Iron[edit]
Dark iron is an illustrious dark-grey metal of roughly the same weight as tempered steel. It only exists deep underground in areas with volcanic activity, where the formation of the metal is made possible by a combination of extreme pressure and heat. Dark iron is mined and industrialized by the denizens of the deep. Duergar were the first to discover the method of smelting and manipulating the metal, and guard its secrets closely. While possessing most of the properties attributed to ordinary iron, dark iron has the added property of rebuking heat and magical energies, preventing such effects from passing through it.
Armors and shields fashioned from dark iron can rebuke fire and heat and diffuse incoming spell energy, granting resistance to fire as per the table below, and bestowing half their combined AC bonus (rounded down) as a bonus to touch AC against spells and spell-like effects. These effects do not include added bonuses to AC from magical enhancement. Only armors and shields normally made of metal can be made from dark iron.
| Shield | Armor | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| None | Light | Medium | Heavy | |
| No | — | 5 | 10 | 20 |
| Yes* | 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 |
| ||||
The wearer of dark iron armor does not take extra damage from exposure to extreme heat that wearing metal armor would normally cause, such as from natural heat hazards or heat-based effects like the heat metal spell.
Weapons fashioned from dark iron can likewise repel and sunder magic. Attacks made with a dark iron weapon are always considered magical, bypassing DR/magic, even if the weapon is effectively mundane. Furthermore, if one were to make an attack as a standard action, a dark iron forged weapon triggers a targeted dispelling upon the target, sundering a single ongoing magical effect currently active on its being. The dispel check uses either the wearer's caster level or his base attack bonus, whichever is higher. Only weapons made partially or completely of metal can be made of dark iron.
Dark iron weapons are especially effective against creatures and objects made purely of magic, such as living spells (MM3). If a living spell or another creature of pure magic is hit by a dark iron weapon it must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + ½ bab + enhancement bonus) or be immediately dispersed and killed. This saving throw may only be provoked a maximum of once per round.
Dark iron armor has double the cost of a masterwork armor of its kind, plus 1,000 gp per point of AC bonus it has, excluding any magical enhancement bonus. Dark iron weapons have the cost of a masterwork weapon +4,000 gp.
Dark iron has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 12.
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