Iron axehead

[Jusmak]

Playing old solo adventure, where pc found iron axe head. Not sure, if it belongs to battle axe or great axe. Or if it is enchanted or not.

I found new RQG info, that enchanted iron is considered as steel, making it sturdier with more HP.  But, unenchanted iron gives normal weapon damage to magical creatures like werewolves. And unenchanted metal is harder to cast spell on, -5 % for each ENC of iron.

So is it more likely to find unenchanted iron weapons, because of damage done to creatures like werewolves, or more likely to find enchanted iron? So it would be more difficult to cast a spell like blade sharp, fire blade, dull to unenchanted iron weapon. But in case of axehead, when weapon itself is 2 ENC, it is maybe only -5% check roll. For shields and armor I guess steel is more preferable.

Thoughts?

 

[Qizilbashwoman]

enchanted iron is IMHO a waste of iron

[JustAnotherVingan]

Enchanted iron damages werewolves etc as well as unenchanted iron.

Unenchanted iron affects all spells the bearer casts, not just those cast on the armour or weapon. It also affects spells cast at the bearer, making it less likely they will be affected by a hostile spell cast at them.

[Diana Probst]

1 hour ago, Jusmak said:

So is it more likely to find unenchanted iron weapons, because of damage done to creatures like werewolves, or more likely to find enchanted iron? So it would be more difficult to cast a spell like blade sharp, fire blade, dull to unenchanted iron weapon. But in case of axehead, when weapon itself is 2 ENC, it is maybe only -5% check roll. For shields and armor I guess steel is more preferable.

Thoughts?

 

I'd take a POW roll there, with a pass meaning you get lucky and it's enchanted.

[HreshtIronBorne]

I think +50% ap is pretty good from enchanted iron. We have always played with both enchanted and unenchanted iron hurting spirits, werewolves, elementals, and stuff. The Antimagic properties of unenchanted Iron are based ENC wielded/worn, so you can't get it too crazy high even covered in the stuff. -60% for a whole suit, which is 12 ENC at 5% per ENC, still only 6 AP too. 

Some species/cults like Enchanted Copper as it gives half ENC but only one less AP than Bronze, which makes it possible fo elves or ducks to wear plates over the important bits. As well as weapons of enchanted copper being SUPER shatter resistant. 

Edited February 16, 2020 by HreshtIronBorne
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[Shiningbrow]

Even if your player does get lucky with it being enchanted, I'd be cautious about which God's magic it was enchanted by! (Which could make for more fun and games! Literally)

[Richard S.]

2 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Even if your player does get lucky with it being enchanted, I'd be cautious about which God's magic it was enchanted by! (Which could make for more fun and games! Literally)

I'm pretty sure that steel is the same regardless of whichever cult enchanted it

[Akhôrahil]

3 hours ago, Richard S. said:

I'm pretty sure that steel is the same regardless of whichever cult enchanted it

If you used your Chaos rune for the roll, it might show off on Sense Chaos. Hilarity ensues.

[Shiningbrow]

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

If you used your Chaos rune for the roll, it might show off on Sense Chaos. Hilarity ensues.

Precisely! 

Also, if it's a Dwarven enchanted iron axe head, perhaps they'll come looking for it...???

[Jusmak]

16 hours ago, JustAnotherVingan said:

Enchanted iron damages werewolves etc as well as unenchanted iron.

Unenchanted iron affects all spells the bearer casts, not just those cast on the armour or weapon. It also affects spells cast at the bearer, making it less likely they will be affected by a hostile spell cast at them.

Ok, that good to know. I was following a bit wrong lead.

POW-roll is good idea, if it's not, it'll be enchanted in babeester gor's temple. For the first piece of iron, anti magic properties are not so interesting, partly because of shield-spell.

[Diana Probst]

1 hour ago, Jusmak said:

Ok, that good to know. I was following a bit wrong lead.

POW-roll is good idea, if it's not, it'll be enchanted in babeester gor's temple. For the first piece of iron, anti magic properties are not so interesting, partly because of shield-spell.

Yeah, but you want to make sure that shield spell goes off on you.

An Axe Trance using all of your magic points that fails on the 5% roll is going to give you a very bad day.

[JustAnotherVingan]

1 hour ago, Diana Probst said:

Yeah, but you want to make sure that shield spell goes off on you.

An Axe Trance using all of your magic points that fails on the 5% roll is going to give you a very bad day.

Unenchanted iron armour does work for sorcerers with long duration spells, at least until they need healing.

[davecake]

18 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Also, if it's a Dwarven enchanted iron axe head, perhaps they'll come looking for it...???

Dwarves are known to trade for iron, both enchanted and unenchanted. This happens quite often in some places - in Dragon Pass, this most happens with the Cold Hard Iron Tribute arrangement with the Cinsina Tribe. 
The terms of trade are ruinous, usually required deeds and service ranging from extraordinary through heroic, occasionally near suicidal and refused, but still considered worth it by the Cinsina, particularly the Red Cow clan, who desperately need iron weapons because they live next to the Telmori. (Coming Storm page 62) Over the years they have accumulated more iron than any tribe in Sartar. But the vagaries of fortune have meant they’ve traded some, given it as dowries or tribute or bribes/gifts, lost some in battle, and quite a bit has ended up with other tribes. Sometimes they’ve needed the help of other just to put together the tribute at all.  My impression is that the ‘Cold Hard’ iron is enchanted, and we know it is delivered fully worked into weapons - if not it can be enchanted. 
My suspicion is the the dwarves also mark such weapons with serial numbers or consignment marks or similar, and keep track of its origins - while they might resent non-Mostali having iron weapons a little, they also know it’s a result of a formally contracted trade, so they won’t try to reclaim it unless the deal is broken. Besides, humans might use it to kill elves or trolls, which is cool. 
Iron axe heads or spear shafts are the most common - because the amount of metal is smaller, you get a far better deal than a sword or mace, and axe heads are very familiar to dwarves. 
 

[davecake]

 

On 2/17/2020 at 5:30 AM, Qizilbashwoman said:

enchanted iron is IMHO a waste of iron

I was really surprised to see characters like Leika or Asborn in the Adventure book wearing unenchanted iron armor, with huge casting penalties (Leika is a Rune Lord who can cast a lot of defensive magic too - I don’t think she is wanting the magic defenses if it interferes with her own casting), and I think it might be an error - the AP of their armour indicates it in enchanted. 
Unenchanted iron seems a really interesting option for armoured warriors that are themselves poor spell casters with poor intrinsic magic defenses (Brithini Horali for example) but even then 50% extra AP probably seems more inviting, at least for armor and shields. 

[Shiningbrow]

1 minute ago, davecake said:

 

I was really surprised to see characters like Leika or Asborn in the Adventure book wearing unenchanted iron armor, with huge casting penalties (Leika is a Rune Lord who can cast a lot of defensive magic too - I don’t think she is wanting the magic defenses if it interferes with her own casting), and I think it might be an error - the AP of their armour indicates it in enchanted. 
Unenchanted iron seems a really interesting option for armoured warriors that are themselves poor spell casters with poor intrinsic magic defenses (Brithini Horali for example) but even then 50% extra AP probably seems more inviting, at least for armor and shields. 

Iron Dwarves wear unenchanted iron at least partly because they don't have much magic to cast...

[davecake]

35 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Iron Dwarves wear unenchanted iron at least partly because they don't have much magic to cast...

Iron dwarves are sorcerers too, if fairly specialised ones without a wide range of spells. I think even for the iron dwarves, the extra 3-4 APS is usually a pretty convincing argument. Especially as, if it is a really important battle, Iron dwarves will want to cast magic on their iron armour itself, given that they can protect themselves from critical that way. 

[Shiningbrow]

2 hours ago, davecake said:

Iron dwarves are sorcerers too, if fairly specialised ones without a wide range of spells. I think even for the iron dwarves, the extra 3-4 APS is usually a pretty convincing argument. Especially as, if it is a really important battle, Iron dwarves will want to cast magic on their iron armour itself, given that they can protect themselves from critical that way. 

True... But with sorcery having duration, if the first (second, third, fourth, fifth) attempt at a casting fails, you can still get it to work for a while with no great loss..  unlike Spirit or Rune magic.

[JustAnotherVingan]

3 hours ago, davecake said:

 

I was really surprised to see characters like Leika or Asborn in the Adventure book wearing unenchanted iron armor, with huge casting penalties (Leika is a Rune Lord who can cast a lot of defensive magic too - I don’t think she is wanting the magic defenses if it interferes with her own casting), and I think it might be an error - the AP of their armour indicates it in enchanted. 
Unenchanted iron seems a really interesting option for armoured warriors that are themselves poor spell casters with poor intrinsic magic defenses (Brithini Horali for example) but even then 50% extra AP probably seems more inviting, at least for armor and shields. 

Leika and Asborn's armour is specifically stated to be enchanted on p24 & 25 of the Gamemaster Adventures book.

[Joerg]

In the case of Iron Mostali, there is nothing to keep them from wearing an enchanted iron plate over an unenchanted iron chain armor. Best of both effects.

In RQ terms, you need a special or a crit to be able to harm an Iron Mostali should you even come into the bad situation of facing some of them in combat.

[davecake]

5 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

But with sorcery having duration, if the first (second, third, fourth, fifth) attempt at a casting fails, you can still get it to work for a while with no great loss..  unlike Spirit or Rune magic.

Not Dwarven Maker spells - they usually take a point of POW to cast. Even if you only lose the POW on a successful cast, you still going to think twice about any form of relying on repeated long duration casting attempts if it means having to try to cast it days ahead of time in the hopes it will be needed. You only want to be casting a spell like that when you definitely need it. 

[davecake]

5 hours ago, JustAnotherVingan said:

Leika and Asborn's armour is specifically stated to be enchanted on p24 & 25 of the Gamemaster Adventures book.

This was not true in the PDF I was looking at (which explicitly said they got the penalty) but it was clearly a mistake - I redownloaded it, and the new version had corrected the mistake and now says the opposite. 
I wish Chaosium made it easier to know you have the current version of the PDF besides download and comparison of the text. Some services let you know when the PDF is updated, that would be great.