Category:Materials

A material is the substance or substances out of which a thing is or can be made. In GemStone IV, there are numerous materials that weapons, armor, shields, and other useful objects can be crafted of that may or may not have real life counterparts. Any articles involving details about any materials found in GemStone IV should be included in this category.

Decorative Materials

Decorative materials have no distinct functional properties, either because they are not suitable as weapons or armor, or because they fall within one of the existing broader material categories ("mundane wood" or "leather"). They may be used as jewelry, embellishments, or adornments.

Many real-world materials can be used as decorative materials as long as they are suitably "in-genre". However, be aware that just because something exists on Earth does not mean it is on Elanthia.

Note: When you hand an item to a GameMaster or a merchant, they are required to check that the decorative materials on it are approved and will be forced to change its description if the materials are not. If you are not sure about the existing materials on an item but would not like the item to be changed without your permission, verify before you hand it over.

Functional Materials

Functional materials are those which can serve as the base material for weapons and armor.

The standard material for all weapons (except ranged weapons and staves) and metal armor is steel. The standard material for ranged weapons and staves is wood. The primary material for shields may be either metal or wood. However, if the primary material for a shield is wood, it is assumed the shield is banded with steel. If the primary material for a shield is metal, then it is assumed the shield is ALSO made of wood.

Clothing and robe armors (ASG 1-2) are made of cloth, and leather armors (ASG 5-12) are made of leather. Cloth and leather are considered functional materials, but there are no mechanical distinctions between different types of cloth and leather. Armors from the "hard" leather group (ASG 9-12) may sometimes have a metal as a base material, where it is assumed the armor is mainly made of leather and the metal is used for reinforcements.

The base material of an item can be determined by INSPECT.

Properties

Each functional material has the following mechanical properties:

• Attack Strength (AS) bonus when used in weapons
• Defensive Strength (DS) bonus when used in armor or shields
• Material weight modifier which determines how heavy an item made out of the material is
• Gear difficulty modifier for services like enchant or ensorcell
• Strength/Durability (not yet implemented, part of the breakage system)

Level Restrictions

Characters cannot hold items made of a specific material until they have reached a required training level. For example, an adventurer must be at least level 10 to wield a +20 vultite weapon.

An inexperienced adventurer attempting to pickup such an item will quickly drop it:

>get vultite longsword
As you reach for it, you feel a pulse, like an intensity of essence surrounding the vultite longsword.  It might be difficult to hold onto it for very long.

The following formula, which is based on the item’s inherent bonus, can be used to calculate the level required to wield it:

The result must always be rounded up. With vultite, the +20 bonus clearly shows a level 10 requirement. With glaes, (15 / 2 = 7.5), the +15 bonus yields 7.5 which rounds up to a level 8 requirement.

Since there are so many materials in Elanthia, the bonus of combat gear is most commonly referred to in multiples of 5. Thus a +5 mithril item is referred to as 1x, a +15 glaes item as 3x, and a +30 item as 6x. Simply take the bonus and divide by 5 (vultite: +20 / 5 = 4x).

Also, objects can have a different bonus than might seem evident. For example, a wizard can increase an item's bonus by enchanting it. The highest possible enchantment bonus is +50, which can only be used by characters of level 25 and above.

Some rarer materials such as kroderine may have additional special restrictions. See the individual articles for more details.

Base Enchantment Bonuses