Special Materials

HP/Inch: 40; Hardness: 10; Cost Weapons and armor fashioned from arcsilver are always masterwork; the masterwork cost is included in the prices given below

This bright white metal has strange electrical properties and crackles with electricity when charged. By strategically incorporating coils of arcsilver into a weapon, suit of armor, or shield, this electricity can be discharged into enemies. Charging an item made of arcsilver is a move action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity, performed by slowly brandishing the weapon or brushing it against a surface.

When a weapon made with arcsilver is charged it passes this charge to anything it strikes, dealing +1d6 bonus electricity damage on its next successful hit. Ammunition is generally too small to gain a substantial charge, and so does not gain this property.

When a suit of armor or a shield made with arcsilver is charged, it passes the charge to the next creature that successfully strikes the wearer with either a metal melee weapon, an unarmed strike, or a natural weapon. This deals 1d6 electricity damage to the attacker.

In addition, arcsilver’s natural electromagnetic properties allow it to be treated as a light density material for the purposes of telekinesis despite being the same weight as steel. Items without metal parts cannot be made from arcsilver.

Although, arcsilver is typically not used as the sole material of an item (in order to protect the user from its electric charge), arcsilver cannot be used in conjunction with other special materials.

Blightburn is a highly radioactive crystalline mineral that grows in isolated pockets. When exposed to air, blightburn crystals give off a deep green glow as bright as a candle.

Any creature coming into physical contact with a blightburn crystal takes 2d6 points of fire damage per round, and creatures within 60 feet of blightburn crystals are exposed to blightburn radiation. Blightburn radiation interferes with teleportation such as Warp sphere abilities and spells of the teleportation subschool. A character attempting to teleport into or out of an area of blightburn radiation must succeed at a caster level check (DC = the Fortitude save DC for the radiation) to successfully cast the spell.

Deposits of solidified negative energy, formed by the precipitation of the plane’s substance in regions oversaturated by raw entropy, can be found throughout the Negative Energy Plane. Known as blight quartz (although the crystals are not a form of traditional elemental material), these crystals appear as black or smoky gray gemstones that periodically shimmer or crackle with eerie, dark purple energy.

The majority of blight quartz deposits are no larger than the size of a human fist. The process of crystallization diffuses the negative energy inherent in the material somewhat, but in large quantities the stuff can be debilitating. As long as a creature carries a pound or more of blight quartz or is within 5 feet of a deposit of blight quartz of a minimum of 10 pounds, that creature incurs 1 negative level. This negative level remains as long as the proximity to blight quartz continues, and disappears when these conditions end. This negative level never results in actual level loss, but cannot be overcome in any way (including via restoration) while proximity to the quartz continues. This is a negative energy effect.

While blight quartz cannot be worked into armor, the material can be used to augment melee weapons, as well as arrowheads, spear tips, and similar ammunition. Doing so costs an additional 200 gp per piece of ammunition or an additional 2,500 gp for a weapon. A creature hit with a blight quartz weapon must succeed at a DC 15 Fortitude save or take 1 negative level. A negative level imparted by a blight quartz weapon or ammunition lasts for 1 minute before fading and never results in permanent level loss. Negative levels imparted by multiple hits reset the duration but do not otherwise stack, nor do they stack with any other negative levels the weapon may otherwise impart, or with any negative levels the creature struck may already have. This is a negative energy effect.

Blight quartz has 10 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10, but the material decays rapidly when taken from the Negative Material Plane, taking 2d6 points of damage that bypasses its hardness each round until it crumbles away into nothingness.

Blight Quartz In The Skybourne Setting: With the walkways shattered, travelling between planes is next to impossible; However, with the emergence of cryptwoods, many parts of Khrone are imbued, sometimes permanently with negative energy. While not a cryptwood tied to the Negative Material Plane, the Eventide region of the Jeo Desert counts as one for the purpose of whether or not blight quartz decays. Extra-dimensional spaces and pocket dimensions that possess Negative Material Plane characteristics also prevent decay of the special material. Spherecasters with the Death sphere may spend a spell point to charge blight quartz with negative energy, staving off decay for 1 hour.

Price 200 gp per lb.

This lumpy cyan metal is made from the corpses of fallen cuazaj. Cuazite is extremely resilient and incredibly light, able to conduct electricity to devastating effect when crafted into a weapon. Any time that a cuazite weapon is exposed to electricity (either by its wieder taking at least 5 electricity damage or directly via a spell such as shocking grasp) it carries and amplifies the charge, and the next time the cuazite weapon deals damage it does an additional 1d4 points of electricity damage. This damage multiplies on critical hits and stacks with that of the shock or shocking burst weapon enchantments, but cuazite weapons can never charge themselves. After carrying an unspent charge for 24 hours, the cuazite weapon’s unspent charge is lost.

Ammunition cannot be made from cuazite.

HP/inch: 10; Hardness 5; Cost weapons +2000 gp; Weight As ice

This hard, deep blue ice is shot through with lighter lines that look almost like veins. Although most popular in polar regions where it can be easier to find, merchants sometimes export everlasting ice to warmer regions that can take advantage of its properties. Any amount of everlasting ice more than a cubic foot thick reduces the temperature in a radius twice its own size, at a rate of ten degrees per hour, until it reaches 0°F. (For example, a sphere of everlasting ice one cubic foot thick would cool an area three feet across, with the everlasting ice at the center.) Excessively high temperatures, such as those of fire or lava, inhibit everlasting ice’s cooling effect, though the ice itself will not melt.

Weapons made of everlasting ice deal an additional 1d6 cold damage when used to make an attack that deals cold damage normally (such as when making an Energy Strike from the Destruction sphere together with a Frost Blast (blast type)).

When wielding a weapon made of everlasting ice, you may spend an attack of opportunity whenever you need to attempt a Reflex saving throw against an attack or effect dealing fire damage to gain a +2 circumstance bonus on that saving throw; you may only get this bonus once per saving throw, regardless of how many weapons made of everlasting ice, or how many attacks of opportunity you can make.

Everlasting ice is not a suitable material for armor.

HP/Inch 6; Hardness 9;
Weapon Cost +6,000 gp (this includes the cost of masterwork)
Armor Cost +9,000 gp (this includes the cost of masterwork)

Exocarn is a warped material forged when a living creature’s body is exposed to extreme planar forces. It is most often obtained by harvesting the corpses of devourers, although rumors exist of strange fiends on the outskirts of creation who synthesize the material from the flesh of captives. The material resembles a murky brown amber that secretes strange black fluid when worked.

Exocarn lies somewhere between flesh and crystal. It can be used to make anything normally made of leather or metal, including weapons and armor. A weapon made out of exocarn inflicts deep and volatile wounds on targets when it strikes home; when the the wielder confirms a critical hit with an exocarn weapon, they roll twice on the weapon damage roll (excluding damage rolls for effects such as sneak attack or the flaming weapon special ability) and take the higher result. If a creature wearing exocarn armor takes bleed damage, the material seeps in to fill in their wounds, reducing any bleed damage the wearer takes by 1 (minimum 0). This reduction improves to 2 if you are wearing medium exocarn armor and 3 if you are wearing heavy exocarn armor.

Armor Material Expertise: Twice per day, the exocarn armor may spread over the wearer, granting them 5 temporary hit points plus 5 additional temporary hit points for every point of enhancement bonus the armor possesses.

Weapon Material Mastery: The exocarn weapon’s damage dice results are maximized on a critical hit. This does not affect dice rolled besides the weapon’s base damage dice (sneak attack dice, dice from the flaming special ability, etc. are not affected, but dice rolled from Vital Strike and similar feats based on the damage dice are maximized).

HP/Inch 3; Hardness 5; Cost 15 gp per pound of the original item weight

Featherglass is a rare material found in the high places of the world, a translucent substance that looks like hazy skyblue ice or glass and weighs little more than air.

Featherglass can be treated in a number of ways to make it either flexible or stiff and brittle, and can be used to create almost any item, though it is too fragile to create effective weapons and armor. Any object made out of featherglass weighs one-eighth of what a normal object would weigh. Featherglass objects are considered weightless for the purposes of telekinesis.

HP/Inch: 10; Hardness: 8; Cost 10 gp per pound

Other than being unusually smooth textured, flowstone appears to be normal dark gray stone, its special properties only becoming apparent when it is manipulated with telekinetic powers. While to hand and tool it is solid and rigid, it molds and shapes like clay under the direction of telekinesis.

By using telekinesis you can shape flowstone instead of lifting it, affecting an amount of it equal to your normal size limit as a full-round action. Any simple shape may be imposed on the flowstone this way, such as flattening a side or shaping it into a rough ball. For something more complicated or finely detailed, more time must be taken: with each full-round action you may shape 1 cubic foot per caster level of your telekinesis effect, allowing you to create specific items or precise shapes, though a Craft check may be required to create anything complex, such as artistic shapes or moving parts. Changes imposed on flowstone in this way are permanent until changed through another use of telekinesis.

Due to its moldability, under the influence of telekinesis two or more portions of flowstone may be merged into a single object, either repairing broken items or simply creating larger masses to work with. Because it normally acts as stone, flowstone is largely unsuitable for weapons and armor.

Flowstone is normally sold in at least 10 pound lots. Smaller portions are generally priced higher per pound while lots measured in hundreds or thousands of pounds may be discounted.

A cubic foot of flowstone weighs 150 pounds, while a 5-foot cube of flowstone weighs nearly 20,000 pounds.

HP/inch: as wood; Hardness: as wood; Cost To determine the price of a greenwood item, use the original weight but add 50 gp per pound to the price of a masterwork version of that item. Items made from darkwood cannot be made into greenwood.

The secret of greenwood lies in its harvesting. Each length is taken, with leaves still attached, from a tree animated by a treant and cut with care to avoid the death of the tree. A dryad then speaks to and shapes the wood, coaxing the living green of the leaves into the grain of the wood itself. The resulting wood remains alive as long as it is doused with at least one gallon of water (plus 1 gallon for every 10 pounds of the item’s weight) once per week and allowed to rest for an hour in contact with fertile soil. Any wooden or mostly wooden item (such as a bow or spear) made from greenwood is considered a masterwork item. Items not normally made of wood or only partially of wood (such as a battleaxe or a mace) either cannot be made from greenwood or do not gain any special benefit from being made of greenwood.

When damp and in contact with fertile soil, living greenwood heals damage to itself at a rate of 1 hit point per hour, even repairing breaks and regrowing missing pieces. If the weapon has the broken condition, it is repaired during the first hour of contact with fertile soil. Greenwood items take only one-quarter damage from fire.

Greenwood can be altered or enhanced with wood-shaping magic such as ironwood, shape wood, and warp wood. The duration of any such effect on a greenwood item is doubled.

Mindglass is a special material as strong as steel that also provides the bearer with protection against an opponent’s psychic abilities. When a creature wielding a melee weapon made of mindglass succeeds at a saving throw against a psychic or mind-affecting effect from a creature, the weapon stores some of that energy and holds it for a future attack. A mindglass weapon can store this energy for a number of rounds equal to the level of the spell, or half the creature’s CR if the effect wasn’t a spell or spell-like ability. If the weapon hits a creature while still holding this energy, it suffuses the target with a disruptive field for 1 round. On a critical hit, the disruptive field effect instead lasts for a number of rounds equal to the weapon’s critical multiplier.

While affected by this field, a target must succeed at a concentration check (DC = 15 + twice the spell’s level) to cast any spell or spell-like ability (in addition to any other required concentration checks). If the check is failed, the affected creature’s spell or spell-like ability is wasted. A Small or Medium weapon made of mindglass costs an additional 13,000 gp.

Noqual looks like a pale green crystal to the untrained eye, but can be worked as iron despite its appearance. Noqual is light—half as heavy as iron, yet just as strong. More importantly, noqual is strangely resistant to magic.

An object made of noqual gains a +4 bonus on any saving throw made against a magical source. Weapons made of noqual weigh half as much as normal, and gain a +1 enhancement bonus on damage rolls against constructs and undead created by feats or spells. Noqual armor weighs half as much as other armors of its type. For the purposes of movement and other limitations, heavy noqual armor is treated as medium armor, and medium noqual armor is treated as light armor. The armor’s maximum Dexterity bonus increases by 2, and armor check penalties are reduced by 3. The armor’s spell failure chance increases by 20% and applies to all magic cast while wearing the armor, regardless of the magic’s source or the wearer’s class abilities. The wearer of a suit of noqual armor gains a +2 resistance bonus on all saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities. Noqual has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and hardness 10. Noqual ore is worth 50 gp per pound. Noqual increases the cost of light armor by 4,000 gp, medium armor by 8,000 gp, heavy armor by 12,000 gp, a shield by 2,000 gp, and a weapon or other item by 500 gp. Creating a magic item that incorporates any amount of noqual into it increases the price of creation by 5,000 gp, as costly reagents and alchemical supplies must be used to treat the metal during the process.

This black volcanic glass is extremely sharp, and can be shaped into a variety of weapons that deal piercing and slashing damage. Bits of obsidian inserted into a length of tempered wood create effective swords such as terbutjes (Ultimate Equipment). Obsidian weapons cost half as much as base items of their type, and weigh 75% of what base items of their type do. Obsidian can be used to craft light and one-handed weapons that deal piercing or slashing damage, as well as spear tips and arrowheads. Obsidian weapons have half the hardness of their base weapons and have the fragile quality. The fragile glass nature of obsidian is perfect for creating sharp points and blades, but those same qualities make it unsuitable for creating armor. Armor cannot be constructed from obsidian. Magically strengthened obsidian does not have the fragile quality, and can be made into any armor or weapon that can be made of stone.

Price: +1200 gp (this includes the cost of masterwork)

Shadow cords are thin threads of stable shadowstuff woven into clothing or light armor. Shadow cord responds to glamers and improves their efficacy when placed on the wearer. Any glamer cast on the wearer is treated as if it had an additional (sensory) talent of the wearers choosing applied to it and a +1 circumstance bonus to the effective caster level of that glamer.

Price 500 gp per lb.

The otherworldly hair of sidhier carries strange otherworldly properties, and when gathered in large quantities and treated, can bestow minor magical effects on equipment.

Armor made of cloth or leather that has been woven through with sidhair (requiring a DC 15 Craft (armor) check) grants half its armor bonus to AC against attacks made by incorporeal creatures. In addition, rope, whips, and other such objects can be woven through with sidhair, granting them the ghost touch quality while they are attended items, for a maximum number of rounds per day equal to the hit dice of the creature holding it (this is only for that creature; another creature may use the sidhair normally until they too have expended their charge for the day).

For every 4 pounds an object, weapon, or suit of armor weighs, 1 pound of sidhair needs to be added to it to gain any benefit. A sidhier can produce 1 lbs. of hair every 20 years.

Weapon Price: +2,000 gp (this includes the cost of masterwork)
Armor Price: +4,000 gp (this includes the cost of masterwork)

A stabilized form of shadowstuff can be created via Permanent Illusions and strange rituals. Weapons and armor made of this quasi-real material become practically weightless and unbreakable by conventional means. Unfortunately this makes them also far less effective and lethal than their completely real counterparts.

Objects made of stable shadowstuff are treated as illusions with the shadow descriptor in addition to the object and materials they are emulating. They interact with spells and sphere effects as shadow illusions would, treating their wielder as their source. They are unaffected by the destroyed condition and cannot have their native state permanently altered after their creation. If suppressed or modified by magic, shadowstuff objects return to their native physical state upon reaching their full hit points (instantaneous effects such as warp metal or warp wood reduce a stable shadowstuff object to 1 hit point in addition to its normal effects). Their nature is unaffected by disbelief and all listed and stats and abilities remain unchanged even if revealed to be a shadow illusion.

Equipment made of stable shadowstuff has 5 hit points per inch of thickness and a hardness of 0. Stable shadowstuff stubbornly retains its shape and regenerates half its hit points (rounded up) each round and can even restore itself from the destroyed condition.

Weapons and ammunition made of stable shadowstuff have their weight reduced to 1/5th their normal weight, gain the fragile quality and may be treated as up to 2 sizes smaller by their wielder if to do so would be beneficial for the purposes of attack penalties and hands required to wield the weapon.

Attacks and abilities using shadowstuff weapons or ammunition resolve as touch attacks and ignore damage reduction and energy resistance, but deal exclusively nonlethal damage, as well as have all damage they deal halved (rounded down). This limitation also applies to all additional damage added from any source.

Only leather (not studded leather) armor, padded armor, bucklers, and light shields can be made of stable shadowstuff, but that armor may appear to be, and is treated as, any armor or shield type (including unarmored) if to do so would be beneficial to the wearer. Shadowstuff armor weighs 1/5th its normal weight, has its armor check penalty reduced by 3, spell failure chance reduced by 20% and its maximum Dexterity bonus improved by 4. Donning or removing stable shadowstuff armor is always a swift action.

Price: 100 gp per part (a part is equal to one Tiny-sized object)

Unstable shadowstuff is an amorphous blob of no discernible color behaving like something between liquid and smoke. It falls or drips at an erratic rate as if its mass and density are in constant flux. Occasionally it has been seen to ignore conventional rules of gravity and matter by crawling up walls, dripping upwards or moving through solid objects unpredictably. Parts of shadowstuff kept together, no matter how many, take up no more space than a single part. Those who utilize this odd material usually keep a massive reserve in an inkwell made of stable shadowstuff to prevent the surreal properties of the material from allowing it to leak out or escape.

Characters with the Illusion sphere can quickly but temporarily shape unstable shadowstuff into semi-stable forms. By spending a spell point as a standard action, an illusionist may transform unstable shadowstuff into any mundane non-masterwork object of the same approximate mass (Tiny size).

Multiple parts of this strange stuff can be used to create a single larger object. This object retains its new form for 1 minute per Illusion caster level of the shaper.

Unstable shadowstuff may be consumed like a material component as part of the action to use a sphere effect or class feature with the (shadow) descriptor. If consumed, grants a +2 circumstance bonus to caster level of the effect.

Unstable shadowstuff, when shaped, behaves in all ways as stable shadowstuff except its native physical state is that of an amorphous blob. If destroyed, suppressed or altered it reverts to that state.

This deep green volcanic glass is similar to obsidian but is formed when molten rock is tainted with anomalous trace minerals from deep beneath the earth whose emanations are toxic to living things. It can be fragmented to razor sharpness, but even a tiny amount of viridium contacting the bloodstream can pass on a wasting sickness.

Any successful hit with a viridium weapon causes the target to contract leprosy (Fortitude DC 12 negates). On a successful critical hit, a tiny fragment of viridium breaks off within the target, affecting it as though with greenblood oil (Fortitude DC 13 negates). A creature carrying a viridium weapon must save every 24 hours or contract leprosy unless the weapon is kept inside an extradimensional space (such as an efficient quiver) or a scabbard lined with lead. Oozes, plants, and outsiders are immune to the deadly emanations of viridium. Viridium weapons have half the hardness of their base weapon and have the fragile quality. Viridium can be magically strengthened at an additional cost of +1,000 gp for a weapon or +20 gp for ammunition. This removes the fragile quality from the item but does not otherwise affect its abilities.