Plated Metal (3.5e Equipment)
All that Glitters
"So, what is this supposed to do?" Pel asked.
He was leaning against a door, a small door, barely four and a half feet tall. Outside, there were assorted growling noises and the occasional thumps as something large, heavy, and assumedly furry.
"Do you have any silver coin?" asked a gnomish voice behind him. Digging through his lab, throwing up a small could of glass retorts, was Cabras.
"No, not ever since inflation drove those out of criculation, forget I said anything," he said, responding to himself. "I never really liked my family's silver plates, I suppose those would work."
"Whatever you're going to do, do it fast!" Pel said, as the hinges began to break free of the wall.
"Yes, yes, here it is." Cabras did something out of Pel's sight, and when he returned, he was dragging behind him a glass container, sloshing with a clear liquid.
"Your sword," he said, extending his hand. Pel looked at the gnome strangely for a moment, before the door shook again, and Pel quickly tossed the short blade to Cabras. The gnome dipped the sword into the container, carefully heating the glass with a small torch. A minute passed in slience, before Cabras withdrew the blade from the liquid. It shone silver. "Coating's a little weak, but nothing for it."
"You can transmute metals?" Pel asked, taking the sword back.
"If that'll get you out there and fighting, then Yes!"
Plated metal
Plated metal, created with a Plating Canister, is a combination metal, combining the properties of two metals. It is a rare substance, and only a few alchemists know how to create it.
Properties
When a metal is plated, the result is a metal with the physical properties of the base metal (Hardness, Hp), and the chemical and magical properties of the plate (No rust, additional damage to were-animals, Bypassing hardness for sundering). For example, a steel sword that is plated in deep crystal would have the physical properties of Steel, but a psionist could channel energy through it.
Note than only items, not raw materials, can be plated. A block of plated steel, if forged into a sword, will simply become an ordinary steel sword.
Cost
When creating a plated object, determine what the object will be plated with. Determine the cost of two pounds of that material, then add 10,000gp. Add this amount to the total cost of the weapon.
DM Notes
Plated metal was an invention of our DM before he quite understood the concept alchemical silver. We fought several gnomes with electrum plated weapons, which wreaked havoc on our teams' shapechanger. We also found a mithral plated sword, which didn't seem to do much, but was always quite sharp.
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