Material
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.
Functional Materials
Functional materials are those commonly used for weapons, armor, and locksmithing. These materials contribute mechanical factors such as natural enchantment bonuses. Decorative materials can be used for adornments and non-combat items but have no mechanical properties. The following table lists all of the currently available functional materials. Other materials not listed here are considered decorative.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
|
See list of woods for more information on functional woods.
Level Requirements
Characters cannot use certain materials for weapons, shields or armor until one has reached a certain training level. For example, an adventurer would have to be at least level 8 to use a glaes weapon. Basically it comes down to dividing the (positive) enchantment bonus by two, then potentially rounding the result up (glaes: +15 / 2 = 7.5 -> 8). Below is a table with examples:
| Level | Bonus | Metal | Wood |
|---|---|---|---|
| All | +0 | iron, steel | mundane wood |
| 1 | +2 | invar | yew |
| 3 | +5 | drakar, gornar, kelyn, mithril, rhimar, zorchar | rowan |
| 3 | +6 | - | carmiln |
| 4 | +8 | faenor | deringo |
| 5 | +10 | ora (white, black), razern | kakore |
| 6 | +12 | imflass | hoarbeam |
| 8 | +15 | glaes, mithglin | mesille, mossbark |
| 9 | +17 | - | ipantor, witchwood |
| 9 | +18 | eahnor, vaalorn | villswood |
| 10 | +20 | eonake, rolaren, vultite | faewood, orase, ruic |
| 11 | +22 | - | fireleaf, glowbark |
| 12 | +24 | - | wyrwood |
| 13 | +25 | golvern, veil iron | illthorn, lor, sephwir |
Note that the bonus of combat gear is often referred to in a different manner - in multiples of 5. Thus mithril could be referred to as 1x, glaes 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. By, for example, enchanting an item, the bonus is increased.
Some rarer materials such as kroderine may have special restrictions. See the individual articles for more details.
Weight Modifiers
Each functional material has a weight modifier that determines how heavy an item made out of that material is, compared to the base weight of the item type. Item weight is a major factor in the encumbrance system.
See item weights (saved posts) for a full list of base item weights, and the individual material articles for their respective weight modifiers.
See lightening for more information about the merchant service that changes item weights.
Enchant/Ensorcell Difficulty
The following table shares the modifications each material can cause when attempting to enchant or ensorcell an item primarily made of such material. This list is subject to revision as materials are added or modified. Last updated 11 April 2015.
| Material | Weapons | Shields | Armor | Bows | RuneStaves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| adamantine | -500 | -500 | -500 | ||
| alexandrite | -500 | 0 | |||
| black-alloy | 0 | -50 | 0 | ||
| bone | -250 | 10 | -250 | ||
| bronze | -50 | -50 | |||
| carmiln | 10 | 10 | |||
| cloth | 0 | ||||
| copper | -50 | -50 | |||
| coraesine | -999 | ||||
| deringo | -20 | -20 | -20 | ||
| drakar | -50 | -50 | -50 | ||
| drake | 0 | ||||
| eahnor | 15 | 15 | 15 | ||
| eonake | -60 | ||||
| faenor | 15 | ||||
| faewood | 10 | 0 | |||
| feras | 0 | ||||
| fireleaf | 15 | 15 | |||
| glaes | -10 | -10 | -10 | ||
| glass | 0 | ||||
| glowbark | -10 | -10 | -10 | ||
| golvern | -10 | -10 | -10 | ||
| gornar | -50 | -50 | -50 | ||
| hoarbeam | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
| illthorn | 0 | 0 | |||
| imflass | -30 | -30 | -30 | ||
| invar | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| ipantor | -40 | ||||
| iron | -30 | -30 | -30 | ||
| ironwood | 0 | 0 | |||
| kakore | 0 | 0 | |||
| kelyn | 0 | ||||
| krodera | -999 | ||||
| kroderine | -999 | -999 | -999 | ||
| leather | -10 | ||||
| lor | -25 | ||||
| mein | -10 | -10 | -10 | ||
| mesille | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| mithglin | 15 | 15 | 15 | ||
| mithril | 20 | 20 | 20 | ||
| modwir | 0 | ||||
| mossbark | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| obsidian | -500 | ||||
| ora | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| ora-black | -75 | ||||
| ora-white | -40 | ||||
| orase | 0 | 0 | |||
| razern | -20 | ||||
| rhimar | -50 | -50 | -50 | ||
| rolaren | -40 | -40 | -40 | ||
| rowan | 20 | ||||
| ruby | -500 | ||||
| ruic | -60 | ||||
| sephwir | -25 | ||||
| steel | -10 | -10 | -10 | ||
| urglaes | -999 | -999 | -999 | ||
| urnon | -999 | ||||
| vaalorn | 10 | 10 | 10 | ||
| veil-iron | -50 | -50 | -50 | ||
| villswood | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| vultite | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| white-alloy | 0 | 0 | |||
| witchwood | -75 | ||||
| wood | -100 | -10 | -100 | -10 | -10 |
| wyrwood | -60 | ||||
| yew | -20 | ||||
| zelnorn | -999 | -999 | -999 | ||
| zorchar | -50 | -50 | -50 |
Behind the Scenes: History of Materials in GemStone
GemStone III had at least as many different types of materials in it as exist on Earth because everything from iron and steel to oak and yew can be found there. Where it gets more interesting is in the different magical materials that exist. Originally, these materials had names taken directly from Iron Crown Enterprises' "RoleMaster" gaming products.
Until 1998, ICE had the worldwide gaming rights to the Middle-Earth world-setting created by J.R.R. Tolkien. The names that he created--mithril, eog, galvorn, and others--are therefore found throughout ICE's gaming products.
When GemStone III was written, the names of these materials were used but the properties of them were not necessarily copied over as well. For example, in "RoleMaster" the material eog has a +30 magical bonus; in GemStone III, eog was only +10.
At the end of 1995 when the ICE age came to an end, Simutronics was legally required to change all references to materials with "RoleMaster" names. Items actually in the possession of characters were allowed to retain their old material names, with the stipulation that should the item ever be handled by a GameMaster, the material would be converted to whatever the corresponding new material was called. (For example, an old "galvorn" item that a GameMaster needed to work on for some reason would be returned to the player as a "golvern" item.)