From: tsl@cs.mu.OZ.AU (Tim Leask)
Subject: RQ: Rune Masters and Metals
Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 01:16:25 GMT

Rune Metals and in particular iron are not as awesome as I feel they
should be in RQ3. Back in the old days of RQ2 Iron Wielding Rune Masters
were a quantum step above ordinary mortals. In RQ3 the power of Rune Masters
has waned cosiderably, partly because of the watered down rules for iron
and partly because of the disapperance of the list of Rune Master
benefits.
Iron in RQ3 is pathetic, a mere shadow of it's former self in RQ2. 
Iron in RQ2 was extremely durable and light and was clearly superior
to the other Rune Metals. This is clearly not the case in RQ3.
The problem is further exacerbated by the introduction of armouring and
strengthing enchantments in RQ3. I certainly wouldn't pay 700L per ENC
for raw iron for a weapon or armour. I rather spend the POW and money on
enchantments on a bronze weapon.
To restore iron to it's proper place with regard to the other Rune Metals
and it's 700L price tag I suggest the following changes.

Unnechanted Iron (Raw Iron) is simply as described in Elder Secrets.

Enchanted Iron has twice the Armour Points of it's equivalent ENC in bronze.
e.g. Iron Chainmail gives 14 pt protection for an ENC of 20.
And more importantly Enchanted Iron weapons cannot be damaged by 
non-iron weapons.
(Excepting Adamantite which is extremely rare).

The Enchant Metal spell should be altered as follows. 
Divine Spell 
Enchant <Rune Metal> - 1pt reuseable ritual 
This spell will Enchant 20 ENC of the appropriate Rune Metal.
One point of POW must be expended at the conclusion of the ritual
to complete the enchantment of the metal. Usually the POW is provided
by the recipient of the metal though it need not be.
Part of the enchantment is a user condition.
Usually the condition is that only Rune Masters of the enchanter's cult can 
use the metal.
If the item is used by someone who does not satisfy the user
condition then the item behaves in all ways as it's unechanted form.
e.g. iron dampens magic and becomes twice as heavy, gold stops glowing
and becomes soft etc.
A broken Rune Metal object does NOT require re-enchantment (this is
one reason Rune Metals are better than normal enchantments) it can
simply be repaired in the normal fashion (or via a repair spell).
Melting down will, however,destroy the enchantment. 

I like to think that Enchanted Iron looks like steel - i.e. it takes on 
a silvery sheen, if used by someone in violation of a user condition then
it turns a dull gray (i.e. it looks like raw iron).

Enchanted iron armour can be made into metal armour of more varied weights
the the traditional bronze.
e.g 
	very light chain	7pts of protection	10 pts of Enc
	light chain		9pts of protection	13 pts of Enc
	chain			11pts of protection	16 pts of Enc
	medium chain		14pts of protection	20 pts of Enc
	heavy chain		17pts			24 pts of Enc

formula is 1pt of ENC = 0.7 pts of protection in this example.

Iron Ring Mail of various types could be 

The same applies to predominantly metal weapons.

e.g 	2h Great Sword (Heavy)	ENC 3	Armour Pts	24
e.g	2h Great Sword (Medium)	ENC 2.5	Amour  Pts	20
e.g 	2h Great Sword (Light)	ENC 2   Armour Pts	16

Though with weapons the ENC value shouldn't be allowed to drop below
say half that of the original bronze equivalent. To do so you should
create a new weapon type entirely.   

Now that fixes the problem of Iron.

The other mods I use to beef up Rune Lords are taken directly from
RQ2.
Rune Lords have their POW supported by their God. Thus Rune Lords
always defend against spirits and spells at their full POW regardless
of their magic point total.
If a Rune Lord has an unmodified attack skill over 100% then the portion
over 100% subtracts from the defense skill of his opponent.
This does not apply to non Rune-Lords with skills in excess of 100%
nor should magical bonuses be included. If the skill drops below 100%
for any reason this subtraction no longer applies.
This is because the Rune-Lord is an avatar for his God and he is partially
guided by his Deity.
e.g. Rurik the Rune Lord has 117% with 2h-Spear, he has bladesharp 4 on
and fanaticism running( this gives him a modified attack of 176% ).his spear giving him. Yurg the Trollkin has a 47 % parry but because Rurik is a rune lord
with a skill over 100% this is reduced to 30 % parry (117-100 = 17% subtraction)

Priests (Not Acolytes) recieve the following benefit.
As long as their POW remains at 18 or more they make all POW gain rolls
as if their species maximum were 4 pts higher (e.g. 25 POW for Humans).
If their POW drops below 18 for ANY reason then they become an acolyte
(and thus only recieve a normal POW gain roll)
until their POW once again reaches 18.


I'm using this system in my campaign. What do others think ?

Tim
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