Behind the Screen - Chardalyn Usage

Hello & Welcome!

We are nearing the end of Chapter 1 and Adam and his brave crew are learning more about Chardalyn that is around the area and really has piqued the interest of the Duergar in the area.

With so much of it in abundance and with its special, albeit desecrated properties, the topic of how it can be used has come up. As such, I got onto the trusty Internet and did some Investigation and luckily I rolled quite high! So in this Behind the DM Screen, I want to post specifically about rules of Chardalyn usage and be in line with the rest of the "house rules" that Adam and I have established in Tyranny of Dragons (which apply here as well). 

As such I found this post on Reddit - Chardalyn Shard Crafting System by Reddit user marcottedan. And when I read it, I thought it was really good and we would employ these rules into our game as well. So all credit goes to the poster! Here is the content copied:

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This is a guide I wrote for my campaign as I plan to not give many magic item in my campaign. I want players to be able to craft their own magic items with Chardalyn Shards at the core of the system. This is a bit of a crossover with Diablo 2 Gems systems. The goal is to use various party resources so that every class can feel it’s useful in the crafting process, not only the crafter. I made a really big effort to respect RAW (DM Manual and Xanathar rules) as much as possible and keep the balance with the corresponding spell slots, spell effects, item rarity. If you have recommendation or better ideas, feel free to comment!

Definition

Chardalyn is a nonmagical, crystalline substance as strong as metal, though considerably easier to work with than steel, that readily accepts being enchanted. A chardalyn object suffused with the magic of the Upper Planes is considered a consecrated object, while a chardalyn object suffused with the magic of the Lower Planes is considered a desecrated object; both can be identified as such using a detect evil and good spell or similar magic.

The Chardalyn that is dispersed over Icewind Dale is from a Demonic Influence known as Crenshinibon. Thus, the Chardalyn found in the frozen wasteland must be cleansed of its Lower Plane influence before being manipulated.

Over Icewind Dale, desecrated Chardalyn can be found in the form of:

• Chipped Chardalyn Shard, weight 0.2 pound, common

• Flawed Chardalyn Shard, weight 0.5 pound, uncommon

• Normal Chardalyn Shard, weight 1 pound, rare

• Flawless Chardalyn Shard, weight 2 pounds, very rare

• Perfect Chardalyn Shard, weight 5 pounds, legendary

For images, I suggest referring to: https://rankedboost.com/diablo-2/gems/ (Diamond Version). I plan to use Gimp and invert the colors of the Diamond to give Desecrated Chardalyn to players. I’ll use other Gems colors to map their corresponding Enchantment Properties (see below)

Chardalyn Infection

Each day at dawn, roll a d6 for each desecrated chardalyn shard in a character's possession. On a roll of 1, the character must succeed on a DC 10 Charisma saving throw or get the following curse: “I can only wear or manipulate desecrated Chardalyn”. A “Remove Curse” spell can get rid of this curse.

Once a character has this trait, assume that any Desecrated Chardalyn Shard behaves like Levistus’s Chardalyn Amulets, eventually turning the player Lawful Evil.

The opposite version of the curse is done for Consecrated Chardalyn and will turn players into Lawful Good creatures if worn for too long.

Cleansing Chardalyn Shard

By nature, Icewind Dale’s Chardalyn is a tricky material to handle because of its evil roots from Crenshinibon. A character that is infected by desecrated or consecrated Chardalyn cannot participate in the enchantment process. Before enchanting Chardalyn, it must be cleansed using the following spells:

• Chipped and Flawed: Lesser Restoration

• Normal and Flawless: Remove Curse

• Perfect: Greater Restoration

Enchanting Chardalyn Shard

When enchanting Chardalyn shards, you don't know the outcome until you infuse magic in the cleansed Chardalyn shard. This gives a nice random effect that also acts as a money sink on higher levels.

• Chipped: Cast Absorb Element (spellslot lvl 1), 50 GP and 1 day

• Flawed: Cast Magic Weapon (spellslot lvl 2), 500 GP and 10 days

• Normal: Cast Elemental Weapon (spellslot 3), 1000 GP and 30 days

• Flawless: Cast Magic Weapon (spellslot lvl 4), 2000 GP and 50 days

• Perfect: Cast Elemental Weapon (spellslot lvl 5), 4000 GP and 100 days

• Perfect: Cast Magic Weapon (spellslot lvl 6), 8000 GP and 250 days

• Perfect: Cast Elemental Weapon (spellslot 7), 10000 GP and 500 days

Multiple players can participate in the enchantment process, dividing the time by the amount of participants. If an Artificer is part of the crafting team, you can reduce the initial amount of GP and time by a factor of 2 before applying additional party members to the formula. Other class features may affect the gold or the time spent (such as Forge Cleric) at the DM’s discretion.

After casting the enchantment you need to roll a d6 to determine which element has been infused in the Chardalyn and which color it’ll turn to:

1. Acid (Emerald)

2. Cold (Sapphire)

3. Fire (Ruby)

4. Lightning (Topaz)

5. Thunder (Amethyst)

6. The crafter chooses the element

Weapon

• Chipped: +1 elemental damage

• Flawed: +1 hit, +1 base damage

• Normal: +1 hit, +1d4 elemental damage

• Flawless: +2 hit, +2 base damage

• Perfect: +2 hit, +2d4 elemental damage

• Perfect: +3 hit, +3 base damage

• Perfect: +3 hit, +3d4 elemental damage

Armor & Shield

• Chipped: Absorb 1d4 elemental damage

• Flawed: +1 AC

• Normal: +1 AC & absorb 1d4 elemental damage

• Flawless: +2 AC

• Perfect: +2 AC, resistance elemental

• Perfect: +3 AC

• Perfect: +3 AC, resistance elemental

Spellcasting Focus

The damage is applied on spell attack only.

• Chipped: +1 elemental damage

• Flawed: +1 to hit +1 damage

• Normal: +1 to hit +1 DC +1d4 elemental damage

• Flawless: +2 to hit +2 DC +2 damage

• Perfect: +2 to hit +2 DC +2d4 elemental damage

• Perfect: +3 to hit +3 DC +3 damage

• Perfect: +3 to hit +3 DC +3d4 elemental damage

Socketing Chardalyn Shard

You can equip a piece of Enchanted Chardalyn Shard on any mundane weapon during a Short Rest. A weapon, armor or focus can only socket one Chardalyn Shard at the time. By default magic items have no sockets unless specified otherwise.

Unsocketing Chardalyn

You can unsocket a Chardalyn Shard from an item to move it on another item later. To do so you must do a relevant Artisan Tool check of your choice (Smith, Jeweler, Tinker, ect). Any character can help if he's proficient with an Artisan Tool itself.

• Chipped DC 11

• Flawed DC 13

• Normal DC 15

• Flawless DC 17

• Perfect DC 18

On failure:

• 30% chance to destroy your artisan tool

• 30% chance to destroy the socket slot on the original item

• 25% chance to destroy the original item

• 8% chance to dispel the the Chardalyn Enchantment on the shard

• 5% chance to break the Chardalyn Shard into 1d3 shards of lower tier

• 2% chance to destroy the Chardalyn Shard

Reforging Chardalyn

3 pieces of the same tier kind can be merged together in order to create a Chardalyn shard of a superior quality. A spellcaster character can help the crafter by adding a bonus equal to the spellslot level he used to help. On failure you lose 1d3 Chardalyn in the process.

• 3 Chipped: DC 11 Arcana

• 3 Flawed: DC 13 Arcana

• 3 Normal: DC 15 Arcana

• 3 Flawless: DC 17 Arcana

Dispelling Chardalyn

You can use the “Dispel Magic” spell to remove an existing effect on a Chardalyn Shard in order to enchant it again. A spellcaster character can help the crafter by adding a bonus equal to the spellslot level he used to help. On failure, the Chardalyn breaks into pieces of a lower quality, destroying 1d3 pieces in the process.

• Chipped: Dispel Magic DC 11

• Flawed: Dispel Magic DC 13

• Normal: Dispel Magic DC 15

• Flawless: Dispel Magic DC 17

• Perfect: Dispel Magic DC 18

Desecrated and Consecrated Chardalyn Shard

You may consider desecrated Chardalyn Shard to use Necrotic or Poison damage type or resistance and Radiant if it’s a consecrated Chardalyn Shard. However those types of Chardalyn Shards cannot be Reforged, Dispelled or Enchanted. They can only be equipped as-is when they are found in the world. Equipping any of those two types prevents equipping the other type or any other Enchanted Chardalyn. This is to make sure players do not only equip and run the whole campaign with Desecrated Chardalyn Shards from the get go.

Sources

• https://www.reddit.com/r/rimeofthefrostmaiden/comments/lewcrs/item_crafting_with_chardalyn/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

• Crafting Time: Xanathar Guide / Crating Magic Item

• Crafting Gold Piece Cost: Sane Magic Item Price PDF

Edit: adjusted desecrated chardalyn to either necrotic or poison damage since chardalyn berserker do poison damage with their weapons.

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I feel this is in line with the rest of the crafting rules that Adam has posted in our other game and it really gives us a guide for using this material in our game. 

I will make an adjustment to the rules, to make it a bit more interesting. The Failure condition applied to Unsocketing, Reforging, & Dispelling I would also apply to Cleansing, Enchanting, and Socketing as well. Proficiency in Crafting tools would help with Socketing / Unsocketing, Reforging, To me, there is always a risk of failure when working with special materials, so all steps in the process should have a DC rating. It makes it more interesting.

I thought about applying some other Curse to go with the Chardalyn but I think the in game mechanic is already fine.  If the pre-defined Curse infects someone using these items then it will make it difficult for them to switch to other items that they may find or craft, unless they go about trying to cleanse themselves.

Furthermore, in the Knuckleheads and Other Oddities: A Traveller's Guide to Icewind Dale (by D&D Adventurer's League), we have this handy little titbit:

So I am happy to incorporate this as well this as well. The rules of crafting items directly out of Chardalyn would follow these rules posted by Adam - Skills & Crafting. 

Note - I'll post separately about Homebrewing for this campaign. RotF is a bit light on giving items to players so I am adding some custom ones. Plus. with all the fun minis I have from different artists, there are several which I will also have to Homebrew custom Monsters for, because, why not?!?! :-)

The Guide referenced above is worth checking out as there are other fun things to consider too if you want to broaden your Frostmaiden adventure.

This way the Heroes can harness the power of this material, enhance the loot and their chances of survival in the game, but at both a cost and risk. 

Let's see how this plays out. It should provide for some extra fun. And let's see what Aldrick, Grom, Shayde, and Tor will find as we get into Chapter 2 and want to try to craft other items!

Hope this can help others be inspired for their games, and again, lots of credit to the original Reddit user.

Stay safe and happy continued painting and gaming!

-Pete