Equipment & Crafting Reference
Special Materials — Metals, Woods & Hides
Adamantine, cold iron, mithral, dragonhide and stranger substances can transform an otherwise ordinary weapon, suit of armor or crafted object. This codex gathers extraordinary materials into one practical reference for the Games Master.
Choose a material for the job: a weapon that answers a creature’s defences, lighter equipment for a long journey, or armour suited to extreme heat or cold.
Linked material names open individual entries. Other cards are short introductions; their full Pathfinder rules are in the reference linked below. Check the edition before applying a price or property.
Using Special Materials by Edition
Compare the examples below, then follow the named edition’s reference for its full material properties, prices and restrictions.
D&D 5.5e (2024)
In the 2024 rules, Adamantine Armor and Mithral Armor are uncommon magic items for medium or heavy armour other than hide. Their benefits belong to those finished items.
- Adamantine Armor: critical hits against the wearer become ordinary hits.
- Mithral Armor: removes the armour’s usual Strength requirement and Stealth disadvantage, and can be worn beneath ordinary clothing.
See SRD 5.2.1, pages 209 and 231. Pathfinder prices, hardness and damage reduction are separate rules.
Pathfinder 1e
Each material has its own cost, eligible items and properties. Use the listed entry when commissioning equipment.
- Cold iron and silver: help against damage reduction only when the creature’s rules specify that material.
- Adamantine weapons: ignore object hardness below 20.
- Mithral: halves the weight of an item made mainly of metal. Most mithral armour counts as one category lighter for movement, but its proficiency requirement stays the same.
Pathfinder 1e material rules and prices include the materials listed throughout this guide.
D&D 3.5e
Use the 3.5 SRD special-material rules for this edition’s costs and restrictions.
- Darkwood: a wooden or mostly wooden item weighs half as much; its price adds 10 gp per pound of the original weight to the masterwork item’s cost.
- Dragonhide armour: costs twice the price of the equivalent masterwork armour.
- Combining materials: only the predominant material grants its benefit. The two heads of a double weapon can use different materials.
Rare Metals & Alloys
Legendary ores, unusual alloys and specialized steels are among the most familiar special materials. Some are prized for extraordinary strength, some for lightness, and others because particular supernatural creatures have reason to fear them.
Adamantine
An extraordinarily hard metal associated with meteoric ore and legendary weapons, prized for arms and armor intended to survive punishment that would destroy ordinary steel.
Explore Adamantine →Bronze
The great pre-steel alloy of copper and tin, still encountered in ancient arms, isolated cultures, ritual objects and equipment made where ironworking has never displaced older traditions.
Explore Bronze →Cold Iron
Iron worked by an exacting process and traditionally feared by supernatural beings whose protections fail before weapons forged from the unyielding metal.
Explore Cold Iron →Damascus Steel
Patterned high-quality steel associated with exceptional historical swordmaking, prized for fine workmanship as much as for the flowing patterns visible across a finished blade.
Explore Damascus Steel →Elysian Bronze
An extraordinary bronze associated with hunters of dangerous creatures. Although brazen in appearance, properly worked Elysian bronze possesses qualities far beyond ordinary bronze.
Explore Elysian Bronze →Fire-Forged Steel
A specialized steel shaped to withstand and channel great heat, favored for arms and armor intended for fiery environments or warriors who regularly face flame.
Frost-Forged Steel
The cold counterpart to fire-forged steel, crafted for bitter climates and battles against creatures or powers associated with supernatural cold.
Gold
Beautiful, corrosion-resistant and immensely valuable, but softer and heavier than practical weapon steel. Pure-gold equipment is often ceremonial, royal, sacred or deliberately extravagant.
Explore Gold →Living Steel
A glossy green metal associated with mineral-rich living growth, remarkable for retaining something of the resilience and restorative power of the living source from which it came.
Mithral
A rare silvery metal renowned for combining the strength required for fine arms and armor with remarkably little weight, making it especially prized by master armorers.
Alchemical Silver
A practical marriage of silver and weapon steel, created so a fighting weapon can exploit supernatural vulnerabilities to silver without being fashioned from soft pure silver.
Explore Alchemical Silver →Woods & Living Materials
Ancient forests and supernatural environments produce timbers and plant materials capable of feats ordinary oak, ash and yew cannot match.
Darkleaf Cloth
Leaves and strips of extraordinary woodland material woven and treated into a light, flexible substance suitable for protective clothing and armor.
Darkwood
A rare hardwood valued for being extraordinarily light without sacrificing the strength expected of good timber, making it ideal for bows, shields and other predominantly wooden equipment.
Explore Darkwood →Greenwood
Living timber that retains a connection to growth even after harvesting and shaping, allowing carefully tended objects to behave unlike ordinary dead wood.
Explore Greenwood →Whipwood
A composite of wooden fibres woven and fused into a flexible, resilient material. It strengthens wooden weapons and wooden hafts against attempts to sunder them in Pathfinder 1e.
Wyroot
A strange supernatural wood capable of retaining traces of living energy, making it sought after by craftsmen who know how to preserve those qualities in finished weapons.
Hides & Organic Materials
Some extraordinary equipment begins not in a mine or forest but with remarkable creatures. Hide, bone, scales, mane and similar substances can preserve qualities unavailable to ordinary leather or metal.
Angelskin
A rare supernatural hide carrying a lingering celestial presence, used by armorers and occult craftsmen who know how to preserve the unusual qualities left within it.
Bone
Bone can replace wood, horn or metal where other materials are scarce, especially when great beasts and monsters provide pieces large enough to shape into weapons, tools and armor.
Explore Bone →Dragonhide
The hide and scales of a dragon are among the most celebrated monster-derived crafting materials, capable of becoming remarkable armor and shields in the hands of a sufficiently skilled artisan.
Eel Hide
Tough and flexible hide taken from extraordinary eels and similar creatures, valued for protective equipment requiring greater freedom of movement than ordinary leather permits.
Griffon Mane
Strong, light strands harvested from a griffon and woven into garments or armor by craftsmen seeking to retain something of the creature’s affinity with the open air.
Stone, Crystal & Glass
Worked stone, volcanic glass and strange mineral crystals can form deadly edges and remarkable objects, although brittleness can be as important as sharpness.
Blood Crystal
Pale mineral crystal that darkens in contact with blood, prized for piercing and cutting weapons intended to exploit wounds already opened in an opponent.
Obsidian
Volcanic glass capable of taking an exceptionally keen cutting edge. Its sharpness makes it deadly, while its tendency to chip or shatter sets it apart from forged metal.
Explore Obsidian →Stone
Carefully worked stone can produce axes, spearheads, clubs, knives and tools wherever metal is scarce, unavailable or inappropriate to the culture making the item.
Explore Stone →Viridium
Deep-green volcanic glass contaminated by dangerous minerals. Its keen edge makes it useful for weapons, but handling the substance itself can be as hazardous as facing it in battle.
Metals, Smithing & Fantasy Materials
These videos approach unusual materials from complementary directions: fantasy roleplaying metals and the practical decisions involved in historical swordmaking.
Rules Sources & Further Reading
Pathfinder 1e: Archives of Nethys: Special Materials, with rules from Ultimate Equipment and the Core Rulebook.
D&D 5.5e (2024): summaries adapted and paraphrased from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Consult the SRD for the full item descriptions.
D&D 3.5e: 3.5 SRD: Special Materials. This is the earlier material framework; its mechanics are separate from the 2024 armour items. See its source licence and copyright notices.
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