Dungeons & Dragons: Complete Guide to Metals
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มี.ค. 2022
- A complete guide to Metallurgy for the D&D Multiverse.
INDEX
0:33 Prospecting
2:19 Mining
5:03 Underdark Cultures
5:16 Formation of ore & oil deposits
6:43 Elemental Pure Ore
7:28 Assaying
9:53 Taxation & the Law
11:02 Mine Workers
12:48 Mine Spirits & Superstitions
13:56 Mine Hazards
16:38 Ore Processing & Smelting
18:57 Mithril
19:58 Adamantine
21:00 Blood of the Earth
21:11 Obdurium
22:28 Star Metal
22:59 Gold Extraction (Mercury & Gallium)
24:20 Salt, Lye, Saltpeter, Bitumen and Salt Ponds
25:00 Solanian Truesteel
26:07 Electrum
26:24 Alchemical Silver
26:43 Cold Iron
27:25 Arandur
28:17 Astral Driftmetal
28:30 Ferroplasm/Gith Silver
28:55 Aurorum
29:17 Ysgardian Heartwire
29:45 Fyrite & Flametouched Iron
30:20 Gehennan Morghuth-Iron
30:46 Baatorian Green Steel
31:08 SCREAMING SILVER
31:30 Pearl Steel
31:37 Byeshk
31:50 Fire Brass
31:56 Calomel
32:07 Purple Mournlode
32:18 Thinaun
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Always had trouble researching the more rare and unique metals within DND lore, so a big thanks for this AJ! Greatly appreciated.
Yep, you have it all on tap now my friend!
AJ: what can I say except, your welcome!
Thanks, great content.
I think I’ve learned more about geology and mimerology from this video than I did my actual geology class.
Fun fact native peoples in The Amazon basin had mined and worked platinum pre European contact. The Spanish thought the platinum was worthless and frequently dumped it in their search for gold.
Face palm
In addition to any natural magical metals I rather like to go with magical metals based on the seven classical metals, these are alchemicly created from the base metals and are not mined, they are known as "Perfected Metals" and are are valuable in the extreme. They are only made by the most skilled alchemist/mage, and take time and effort, philosopher stones are a great help. All Perfected Metals are immune to all but the most extreme or specialized acids.
Orichalcum (Perfected Gold): Associated with fire, the sun, ruler-ship/divine right, power generation, and hurts any kind of fiend or creature vulnerable to sunlight. The metal is immune to fire and has the same hardness of mythril. Looks like slightly more reddish gold
Lunargent (Perfected Silver): Associated with cold, the moon, purity (from evil), and divine (good) power hurts anything vulnerable to silver, has basic stats of mythril. The metal immune to cold. Looks like slightly more blueish silver
Hermium (Perfected Mercury): Associated with psychic power, divine (chaotic) power, healing magic, and is bizarre possessing both super fluid an self adherence properties (a mass of it wont easily be separated from the whole and its not too difficult to bottle). Psychics can be mold the metals shape with their mind, giving it hardness and sharpness when they focus on it, the metal can be enchanted to take several programed shapes by normal people. Hermium is not poisonous, but refining it can be very dangerous because Mercury is, and part of creating magically removes the spiritual taint of poison which can effect the alchemist. Hermium looks like liquid mercury with a constantly rippling effect, and when hardened into a shape has the same stats as steel, but if destroyed it can simply reshape itself.
Kypris (Perfected Copper) (also known as Brontium): Associated with conductivity, electricity, arcane technology and divine (law) power. Kypris is a super conductor of electricity, heat, and even mystical/psychic energy. Kypris has the same basic stats as steel, but with twice the hit points, and is immune to electricity. Looks like the soft green of rusted copper, but metallic.
Kassiterum (Perfected Tin) (Also known as Zinnteros): Associated with Sound/music, summoning, aid, divine (neutral) power, and purification. Kassiterum has the hardness of adamantium, but not the sharpness and the material itself is immune to sonic attacks. Kassiterum can hurt aberrations, by passing their damage reduction. Kassiterum is soft pure white, never has any inclusions, and make the purest sounds with struck.
Apeiron (Perfected Lead) (Aka Thanatite, Khronicum, or Stygium): Associated with death (and undeath), curses, the ethereal plane, divine (evil) power. Aperion has the same basic stats as steel, and has natural ghost touch ability and can block all sorts of natural and supernatural radiation very effectively. Apeiron is dull grey, nearly identical looking to normal lead.
Siderite (Perfected Iron): Associated with strength and sharpness, resilience, penetration, space, and defiance to magic. Forging Siderite can only be done with magic and difficulty. Siderite has the same basic stats and counts as Adamantine, though is slightly lighter than steel and has twice the hit points, in addition counts as cold wrot iron as well and will hurt any fae regardless of normal resistances. Siderite is a memory metal, and when bent or warped it will flex itself back to its proper shape unless special magic is used to shape it, it will never dull. Much like cold wrot iron, Siderite is hard to enchant (+2500gp cost to enchant), but makes potent items once it is done. Siderite is a dull mat black, not even metallic looking.
There are/can be others, but they are much rarer, such as perfected: cobalt, salt, jade, and sulfur. Also for fantasy games I like to use a "Gnomish Ceramic" that gnomes make from secret materials and dragon bones... or dragon relatives, like Kobolds.
Believe it or not this is the condensed version >.>
That's an amazing list, and I love the description associated with each here. Thanks!
@@maxwellschad9555 thanks, I was honestly worried about making the post to long.
Good content is never too long.
Thank you very much, I always wondered just what the heck orichalcum was supposed to be. The rest is super cool too, please tell us more! Is bronzium the same as brontium?
Listening to this made me want to see a mockumentary about a D&D mining operation like those on Discovery Channel. "Can a motley crew of kobolds, dwarves, and humans work together to bring in the mother lode?" (It would be filmed by elves, naturally)
I am a fan of the Gold Rush show (I mean, look at my last name and figure out why), so, yeah that video idea appeals to me a lot.
For some reason I first read the title as "A simple guide to meals" and decided to put it on my list to view during lunch. I was a bit confused at first, before I read the title again. 🤣
OwO i cant eat this
For a guy that grew up making several tools, knives, and an oversized splitting maul, some of these magical metals me wish we had more options. Fell in love with Mithril from The Hobit, and was jealous of Bilbo for walking through that mountain that had several Mithril treasures in those hords. Screw the gold, I would be happy with a knife made of that!
Did a lot of blacksmithing in high school and I felt this. An adamantine hatchet would be the most amazing tool. Hard enough to hold a knife edge, even when used to split wood 😍
Adamantine maul or sledge hammer for it's bonus damage against structures and a mithril ripping hammer lmao
I wouldn't mind a breaker bar and set of impact sockets. Lol.
@@ferrumchnop6617 just got done busting a big chunk of concrete out of the ground and read this while catching a breather... Man I need an adamantine breaker bar!
My hometown had a quick silver mine (mercury). I've just been assuming since either the dwarven gods or celestia video where we learn about moradins wife that truesilver is aping the naming convention of quicksilver. This video proves that right.
Now we need magic wood/mushrooms for all the ironwood lovers.
AJ, excellent overview! I've been DMing for 30 years, and building my universe for that long. Yet, have largely overlooked many aspects of mining. You just gave tons of ideas... Cheers; Janos
Glad it was helpful!
Been playing just as long and if it weren’t for a player at our current table that is a mechanical engineer and amateur black smith, our world wouldn’t have the crafting charts and tables that we have.
We recently decided to transition from our own home brews to forgotten realms because we have newer players joining the table and most of the information that is available on line is either FR or Greyhawk. We plan on keeping some of our house rules and systems like the crafting tables and Metal blending rules that was researched for our home brew.
A gold rush campaign where the party are prospectors could be fun. They could start out finding their claim, then have to negotiate with the local elves to be allowed to work it. After that they'd build up their mine, employing laborers and fighting off bandits who try to shake them down and rival prospectors. Eventually perhaps they might stumble upon something deep within the earth that they really shouldn't have woken up, something ancient and angry. They may decide to collapse their mine on it and save the land, or try to kill it or bargain with it to be able to keep their hard won wealth...
And if you get bored.... Random earthquake, everyone died 🤣
Yes!
OMG AJ. Videos like this are a dream for us world builders. Please make more like this about fields and practices overlooked but fundamental to past societies. So useful and informative!!
Happy to do so!
Oh man, imagine playing a bard that wields a sword made of screaming silver, every time your sword strikes it hums like a giant tuning fork. You could change your grip to alter the note, making your fighting into an actual musical performance. Dual-wield them for maximum coolness.
Actually, in so far as platinum goes, pre-Columbian Americans in Ecuador were refining and using the metal as early as 600 BCE. Mostly as an artificial allow of platinum and gold, with rhodium and iridium contaminants. I also seem to remember reading in my Archeology class that at least one tribe was using natural draft foundries in the mountains to get fires hot enough t to smelt platinum. Been a long time since those classes though.
Can't remember what they said about the meso-American Obdurium works though.
Heh!
“Some believe adamantium is made by alloying steel and mythril”. The dwarves find this laughable. Not to mention the myth that Moradin forged the dwarves from the noble metals of copper, silver, gold, and mythril.
This is straight up invaluable.
Why thank you sir.
Medieval fantasy-based industry is always one of my favorite topics to touch on when my players decide to converse with the local merchants or villagers. It's a perfect opportunity to drop some tidbits of information on how adamantite is forged or mined, or what tools and practices are employed in pulling it out of the ground.
So many opportunities to build lore in a logical way, and the information makes your players feel more grounded, and gives them ideas on where they may want to go in the future.
holy shit, I can finish my metallic oozes
Fun fact: The reason why platinum mines only started relatively recently is because it's so rare few people of eurasia knew it existed. It's almost entirely found in south africa and south america, at least as far as mineable places go. When raiding the indigenous people of South America, conquistadors dubbed it 'platina' (little silver) and largely ignored it. It had been used in the same way as gold for quite some time.
That *is* a Fun Fact. I love Fun Facts. 👍
Africa has got a super resource of Platinum.
Spain also dumped a lot of platinum into the sea at some point. That must really hurt now.
Obdurium is one of my favorite fantasy metals that you did not forget it!!
Unless it has been reprinted since, thinaun doesn't just strip the soul from a creature it kills, it holds onto the soul of any creature who dies while in contact with it, so it can only hold one such Soul at a time and will release an earlier soul to capture a new one. The distinction here being that a weapon isn't the only way thinaun can capture a soul nor is it the only reason you would want to. If a creature is wearing a ring or other object made of the material, their soul cannot be stolen upon death as the metal will capture their soul instead. Additionally, because the soul is still present resurrection and other such magicks are easier to perform on such a creature. Might also be useful for a creature who has made a pact with a spirit from the lower planes and does not with their soul to be taken away.
Another factor of mining in D&D is burrowing monsters like Badgers and Dragons. Many larger creatures would make tunnels that may open a mineral.
That screaming silver sounds metal as fuck (no puns intended). I imagine a blade that sings increasingly louder as the fight goes on, becoming a nearly deafening ring as the final blow is struck. Definitely going to put a weapon made from this stuff somewhere in my game.
When miners used the canary method they felt really bad and sad, so the higher ups had to give in and make a small cage they could close and supply oxygen with a small tank. Which kept the little creature alive and breathing clean air when they passed out.
That is just such an incredibly sweet twist to that little bit of knowledge in my head, that I'm just grinning like an idiot! Ty for sharing! ☺
Now this, this is the good stuff right here.
I appreciate the fact that you try to incorporate all editions and yet still manage to maintain a sense of being edition agnostic. Thank you for your effort.
Oh good, one of my players is an artifice armorer, working on his masterpiece. I was trying to figure out what metals would be most appropriate for him to need (and hire people to... acquire), and I find this video! You always seem to have what I need
Ive found an ol list of metals that have at some point turned up in dnd. Theres like 50 or so various materials with various properties that can be used for weapons/armor as well as some wood species.. my players have a field day lol
where can I find this? would love to know ab the woods for my druid :)
Tell us
This video is so metal.
Didn't know I needed this video.
Hey AJ could you do a list of the 10 best to worst layers of the abyss to spend an hour in
You are a gift to the hobby. The depth and precision of your research is truly exceptional. As a professional DM, you are someone I look to as a resource when I need to know something, inside and out. Many thanks.
My pleasure Chris!
This is really great if you have a player using the Artificer class, so many goodies for them to find and study.
COME ON HEAVY METAL!
Notice me Loc Nar-Sanpai!
@@uglyweirdo1389 no
One of my players is a blacksmith so this is very useful, thanks
In LotR, it explained that Frodo's mithiril shirt was more valuable than the entirety of the Shire.
If you have armor that is no heavier than ordinary clothing, you would have a huge advantage because the biggest problem with armor is its encumberance.
Was just planning a Star Metal “gold rush” style mini plot, so this was just what I needed to fill it out with more than I could have even hoped for. Thanks for your industrious work AJ!
Funny Thing: apparently, back in the day, Amber was also called electrum, because it could be charged with static electricity, similar to a balloon, iirc.
Thank you very much for this.
It was very interesting.
On a related note, the words electron and electricity come from the Greek word for amber, ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron). The Latin version of the Greek was called electrum and referred to both the metal and amber, as you pointed out.
I was hoping to find something to inspire me to do some adamant mining in runescape. You delivered in a way beyond my wildest expectations! Thank you so much for your wonderful video!
Glad I could help!
My dad’s a farmer. He griped that divining rods “always worked” in our county because of the aquifer. Then he went to a south county with no aquifer, and proved divining rods worked there too.
I absolutely love this video. I love playing the wandering smith/craftsman trying to find the best materials to craft legendary items. This is going to be extremely useful.
It is just silly that stuff like this isn't coming out under the WoTC brand. I love their "lore you should know" series, but this is probably better. good job dude!
WoTC should consider sub-licenses so they can tap some of this 3rd party content for some revenue while allowing the brand to expand. I agree with you, seems silly.
Not that surprising. They're just one company with normal people working there. AJ has the advantage of being a planeswalker. It's easy for him to pretend to be a New Zealander making TH-cam videos.
What a great topic to make a video about! Thank you for clarifying all the different D&D metals for us!
I love the detailed resources D&D gives for some of these materials. It gives a good way to include players in well-established lore without hardwiring them into set scripts. Like the specific, step by step construction of the Dragonlances. I'm sure all those archmages didn't have the time to personally collect all the exotic, extraplanar materials to create their epic artifacts.
On the other hand, the whole party can wind up being just a few of many Bothans who died to bring us this Baatoran green steel.
Hit F for the Bothans
Your image/description of a dragon being a master smith was awesome. I want to see that in a cinematic so much! FORGET DRAWVEN SMITHS...this is the rise of the legendary Dragonborn smiths!
Mentioned this to some people and they pointed me to Themberchaud the current Wyrmsmith in Gracklstugh of the Underdark.
Thank you for taking the extra time to time stamp the chapters! Now i can use this video as a quick reference!!!
This video is pure gold
Thank you for this one
How wonderful. I love these deep dives into the daily life of fantasy worlds.
Looking at the logistics of these places is one of my favorite ways to daydream…
or used to be now that my every waking moment is filled with the unending demands of the small folk.
Thanks again AJ, alas the crash and giggling in the next room signals the end of my 60 second break. I’ll catch up with you again soon.
I'll be here :)
Your content is just getting more and more incredible. I wouldn't be surprised if WotC watch your channel to learn about lore.
Fantastic video. Never expected this subject to be covered!
In this video its almost hard to distinguish when you're talking of real life history and when you're talking directly of the fantasy world in DnD. But really interesting, inspiring and relaxing to listen to regardless, just about all your videos are.
This is one of my favorite D&D lore videos! It covers so many world building angles and made me think of treasures I could give NPCs and PCs! Thank you!
I love these kinds of videos. I’m more interested in HOW the DnD universe works than what happens in it.
when i'm stuck while writing campaigns, A J Pickett comes to me, posting useful lore from d&d
I’d love to see something like this but with plants!
Can do
Seconded
Thirded. I can only hazard a guess how many noteworthy ones alone can be found within the material plane before taking into account the Fey wild and beyond.
For as much as I learned about how 'divining rods' or dowsing rods, shouldn't work (in our world), our ancient people relied on it. It was definitely used in ancient China and throughout Europe.
And I'm sure many modern people still swear by it. It should definitely be used in our adventures (perhaps with spell use). Thanks for putting our real world myths & knowledge of ancient mining ⛏️ in this lore. We should even put ouji boards in there too
Hilarious image of a dragon metalworker. Powering through the lack of hands through sheer force of will!
... or hands of man.
My god, this video is awesome. This is not putting down the other videos, but this is something rarely talked about, and no one puts in this much effort. Can you please do one on Strongholds or even better on commanding a ship for sea voyages?
This is the video I always wanted but never found thanks aj
Most welcome
These types of videos on the nuts and bolts of D&D are my jam. The flora one was great too. :D
This one is fairly well researched :) Thank you and Enjoy!
My writer soul wishes you only blessings from its deepest depth for videos like these. Practical research is the hardest part of any world building. Rarely do writers use it all, but what they use makes the stories so much more real, and here you are giving simply said examples to wow some readers! Great work!
2 videos in a row I've arrived early. Clearly, I am blessed by the Sages.
Always cool to move a bit of realism into a fantasy setting like AD&D. ❤💪
I've used dowsing rods several times in my life. I play it off like it's no big deal but people's reactions are always priceless.
Especially if they are religious ;)
(by the power of Lord Dagon mother Hydra and great Cthulhu. I declare the water pipe to be here!)
excellent
It works
Always love exotic materials! I can't wait to sip tea as I listen to this all
Indeed!
I was hoping to hear more on Orichalcum. Mentions of it in official dnd texts I've found don't elaborate on what mechanical benefits it would grant.
play Earthdawn ;)
Platinum was being used for decorative and religious purposes in South America more than half millennium before its first uses in Europe
One of my players convinced me that the group's sapphire mine would have veins of iron close by. (They took over a fort/mine from a pre written module.)
So their mine, worked by kobolds, produced gems and iron. Needless to say the adventuring party eventually retired with a nice business to keep them wealthy for the rest of their lives.
Yes!
I've been looking for a decent source with a listing of fictional metals now more than ever, because I'm preparing a Silk Road-inspired campaign setting.
This came in at the perfect time!
I was surprised that Oriculum wasn't mentioned, but then I recalled it was an alloy, not a naturally occuring substance. My sleep deprived mind can't recall what Dragon magazine, or maybe AD&D module it appeared in, but I do recall it was made with Mithral, Gold and Mercury (maybe others). It acted like Silver against beasties, could be used to substitute spell components and increased the chance to enchant an item (as the old 7th level spell from the way back times) significantly. It was also expensive as it was difficult to make. I use it in my homebrew as a Mcguffin from time to time.
Indeed!
One of your greatest videos. Thank you.
Man this is good stuff to work into ambiance and natural traps
All very interesting. I always appreciate the real world information you provide. It’s a very nice touch.
Metallurgy and alloys have become very important in my solo Pathfinder game. I use rules and tables from lots of systems and I could have used this information a few months ago.
You sir are starting to scare me with your wonderful timing of your videos i just started on a blacksmith character
ah, another informative video for the inspiring smith or artificer
That's quite the collection of metallurgic lore. Well done!
These are the lore videos I love the most.
A real mine of great ideas and inspirations , very informative . Well done sir . 🍺
Adventurers stop please.
I am willing to pay you I swear.
I found a big strange rock and suddenly the king would not just let me farm anymore.
He said I and all my farm hands had to "mine iron for the war against the barbarians"
We were doing as he said when we woke something up down there.
all my farmhands are dead now and I lost a hand.
Some horrid land shark thing I think I herd someone call it a Bullete.
Please help me by slaying this creature!
The king will have my head if I can't get back to work!
D:
...
..Dere is a good quest westie UwU
AJ you are remarkable!
Many thanks :)
I was surprised to hear that the eberron metal made it in the video. There are at least a couple more from Eberron but they would fall into the exotic category since they come from the other planes of Eberron. Good stuff, should be relevant to games here soon since the party has a smith.
This is fantastic! I'll have to return to this to take notes!
I'm going to do the same thing!
His index in the description is my first step.
The Roman's also used crude oil from the ground not just ancient Chinese.
this is now my favourite video you've put out. I need to made a cheat-sheet from all of this to add to my DM binder.
I started doing that about half way through the video
So, I enjoyed this one so much that as I was rewatching for the who knows how many times, I had the thought, what about a similar video revolving around the timber/lumber industry in a fantasy setting? Magical trees, their uses, the people that use and are involved with fantasy trees, the forest spirits and druids that care for them, the carpenters that work the material into useful objects, homes buildings. I would love to see your take on it AJ :)
On that same note there are textiles, magical or fantasy cloth. Stone for building everything from cobblestone roads to castles, and the quarrying of said stone. I think it would make a really great miniseries and fit right into this magnificent channels repertoire. The complete guide to metals is truly fantastic, described and brought to life in the ways only AJ Pickett can!
Fantastic video! I would love to see another one talking about minerals/gemstones if you can find any lore about that
Will do!
Love this
Also if anybody wants to know, gunpowder is made from sulfur, salt peter, and charcoal, and the Giff give you stats for guns and a powder keg bomb.
You could say that a stick of dynamite is similar to alch fire
Roughly, but will also knock prone and break glass
Man, this makes me wish there were weapon and armor forging rules in fifth edition. That’d be awesome.
The rules for magic item creation are laid out in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) on page 129, and in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything (XGTE) on pages 128 and 129.
@@O4OUR yea but i think they mean forging normal weapons
@@stevenle9960 There are rules for that too. You need to know those before you make magical ones.
This was a great addition to the usual line up of monsters. It's giving me all sorts of ideas for villainous weapons in my games! Thank you AJ!
Loved this one. I always like to see the background lore for the many wondrous items. Thanks AJ!
Hell yea, I LOVE these kinds of lore vids
Just the video I was needing thank you AJ. It's funny sometimes you drop a video when I need the information.
Once again, a smashing video. Each one of these floods my mind with plans and ideas.
where can I find out specifics on the properties of screaming silver? that metal seems fucking METAL!
A technology for dealing with deadly gas build-up, some mines would dig 2 shafts, then light a fire at the top of the second one, and that would create a draft through the mine and remove days off for letting the air clear.
Wow! So many metals! Thank you for this well made video.
Fantastic video. Firing up all my creativity for my next storyline ideas for my players! Thank you
This is perfect. I had just started looking into exotic materials for some world building and you released this video a few days ago. Brilliant.
Cold Iron in Phandalin, eh... Hmmmmmm🤔
Amazing video. Incredible. Cannot thank you enough for sharing all of this.
Another great video AJ!