[Rq-rules] [RQIII] Untempered Iron

[Nikk Effingham]

>Could somebody else cast a Fireblade on your bronze sword?

I'd say no. Basically, if you think magic cast at weapons is covered by the
wielders personal countermagic, then wearing iron should prevent your weapons
and belongings from being affected by countermagic. I myself do think that a
countermagic cast on oneself affects all belongings and weapons in hand
(otherwise at higher levels you have to start putting countermagic on yourself
AND your weapons else your foes will develop anti-weapon magic as being far
more effective than anti-personal magic, and you end up with a problem similar
to D20 and 3E wherein feats like Cleave become the standard and combat becomes
a weapon smashing festival). But you might think otherwise, and think that if
someone casts a spell at my weapon, and I have countermagic 4, the spell has no
reason to overcome the countermagic. In which case, internal consistency would
kinda dictate that wearing iron would also leave the weapon unaffected by the
magic nullifying properties.

>Would you be affected by somebody hitting you with a Fireblade?

You could rule that it did, but I would recommend against it. The magic
generates the fire. The fire will hurt you, the iron won't stop that. You might
want to say that the iron cancels out the Fireblade, but I strongly recommend
against that (see below).

>What about an area of effect spell, such as Lightwall?

No effect. If you said there was an affect, you'd be saying that touching iron
causes magic to be dispelled. (i) this means that character with untempered
iron will run around dispelling magic left right and center - so a rune lord
who can't cast magic may well decide to get his 20 ENC worth of iron and start
dispelling everything he comes across. That'd be a headache. (ii) it'd surely
have to kick in every turn! So a character in untempered iron who cast
protection on himself would have it dispelled every round! But the spirit of
the rules is clearly that once you cast the spell, after overcoming the
untempered iron penalty, it stays up. (iii) there are no mechanics for it so is
probably not in the spirit of the rules as intended. For instance, what is the
chance of 1 ENC of iron dispelling a lightwall? What about two? And so on and
so forth. In lieu of any mechanics assume iron just prevents magic being cast,
it doesn't interfere with already existing magic (again, with fireblade, so I
hit you with a fireblade, it shouldn't then be dispelled - you'd be grossly
overpowering untempered iron!).

> Would an elemental or
> whirlvish, or another otherwise magical creature be capable of attacking
> you?

So I'd say yes. The magic animates the creature, and so has nothing to do with
the iron clad victim.

> Would you lose your Mindlink to an Allied Spirit?

I want to say yes. But I think the answer, on the grounds of internal
consistency, is no. Existing magic should probably remain in effect. Of course,
it is open to you to ditch internal consistency. This IS magic after all.
Trying to treat it like a set of consistent rules is to be a bit too much like
a God Learner. So perhaps you could have it block Mindlinks, and give no
explanation as to why it blokes Mindlink but doesn't dispel other spells
(although keep the inconsistency consistent of course, nothing irks a player
more than the iron preventing their mindlink working, but the enemy not
suffering from the same problem the next week they meet them).

>Would untempered iron
> affect spirit magic, divine magic, and sorcery equally?

Yes.

> What about armoring
> or strengthening enchantments cast upon your body before you put on your
> armor?

Enchantments would be unaffected given this thinking, just like existing magical
spells would remain undispelled the enchantments will remain unblemished.

> Magic crystals?

Should be unaffected, but again you could make an interesting (and plausibly
motivated) house rule that to draw magic points from an unpowered crystal is
unsuccessful some of the time (say amount of untempered iron in ENC x 5%).
That'd be fun, it'd add to the book keeping but also add to the anti-magic
problems that beset iron wearers. If you fancy it, go for your life I say.

> Just as a reference point, I'm trying to create an adventure where the good
> guys will face a pair of vampires in untempered iron armor, and I'm trying
> to work out the exploits and possibilities beforehand.

Vampire drain and all special abilities should still work. If you feel fiendish
you may rule that the Disrupt attack from crosses are ineffective given the
iron.

Personally I wouldn't add in any rules about drawing power from crystals (too
much book keeping), I'd keep Mindlink in place (and just rule that existing
spells and enchantments are unaffected), under no circumstances give untempered
iron the ability to dispel magic and I'm a bastard, so I'd give the vampires
disurpt-style protection when wearing untempered iron.