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A golem is made out of Wormwood resin. For game purposes, is the resin tough as clay, or as hard as iron?

Braden Campbell wrote:A golem is made out of Wormwood resin. For game purposes, is the resin tough as clay, or as hard as iron?

Iron, since in the books its generally implied that Wormwood resin is at least as strong and tough as most common metals, with the added bonus of being far lighter.

Of course, if you were going to allow that sort of silliness, you wouldn't actually be able to make a golem from Wormwood Resin unless you were actually able to get it right from the source and cast it in the few minutes that it remains a liquid before hardening.

both.

toughness and hardness are two different, although related, attributes.

from wikipedia:

In materials science and metallurgy, toughness is the resistance to fracture of a material when stressed. It is defined as the amount of energy that a material can absorb before rupturing, and can be found by finding the area (i.e., by taking the integral) underneath the stress-strain curve.

In materials science, hardness is the characteristic of a solid material expressing its resistance to permanent deformation. Hardness can be measured on the Mohs scale or various other scales.

basically, wormwood resin is easy to fracture, like clay, but hard to scratch/indent, like iron. so items made from Resin would have a tendency to shatter/chip, but would be very hard to carve, or bend.

Wormwood resin-smith's would obviously know some techniques to make it less likely to shatter/chip, probably equivalent to the tempering of steel/iron or the firing process used for clay. infact, a wormwood smithy would likely resemble a pottery shop than an ironworks.

Actually, both... that resin is essentially a mystical polymer. It has the hardness of metal, but the overall resistance of organic material.

glitterboy2098 wrote:both.

toughness and hardness are two different, although related, attributes.

from wikipedia:

In materials science and metallurgy, toughness is the resistance to fracture of a material when stressed. It is defined as the amount of energy that a material can absorb before rupturing, and can be found by finding the area (i.e., by taking the integral) underneath the stress-strain curve.

In materials science, hardness is the characteristic of a solid material expressing its resistance to permanent deformation. Hardness can be measured on the Mohs scale or various other scales.

basically, wormwood resin is easy to fracture, like clay, but hard to scratch/indent, like iron. so items made from Resin would have a tendency to shatter/chip, but would be very hard to carve, or bend.

Wormwood resin-smith's would obviously know some techniques to make it less likely to shatter/chip, probably equivalent to the tempering of steel/iron or the firing process used for clay. infact, a wormwood smithy would likely resemble a pottery shop than an ironworks.

Where do you get all that from? I don't have the book handy, but it gave the impression that Wormwood resin was more or less ready-to-go as is, and once it'd been cast into the shape of a sword blade or breastplate the only work left was to file it more precisely into shape, sharpen it if it's a weapon, and maybe drill a few holes in if it's an armor plate and you need something for the straps to attach to.

Rallan wrote:
Where do you get all that from? I don't have the book handy, but it gave the impression that Wormwood resin was more or less ready-to-go as is, and once it'd been cast into the shape of a sword blade or breastplate the only work left was to file it more precisely into shape, sharpen it if it's a weapon, and maybe drill a few holes in if it's an armor plate and you need something for the straps to attach to.

i was merely answering the question:

Braden Campbell wrote:A golem is made out of Wormwood resin. For game purposes, is the resin tough as clay, or as hard as iron?

(emphasis added)

as it is, what of the material you indicated contradicts what i said?

tempering and firing are part of the casting/shaping process, not final work. to make a resin item the resinsmith would be taking molten resin, pouring it into molds, and then firing it in an oven to set the material slowly, thus strengthening it. once it's removed from the mold you'd file it and drill it as needed.

keep in mind that the question was tough as clay, hard as iron. since you can have both, i suggested such. the material then becomes as hard to file/bend as iron, which isn't all that hard actually, and as brittle as clay. the firing process would make it more like pottery/Porcelain, less brittle than the clay normally would be.

in fact, Porcelain is a good example of this. it is hard to scratch, but easy to chip. it holds up well to cutting, but breaks when hit hard.

So... does the resin golem have the same MDC stat as a clay golem, or an iron one?

Ninjabunny wrote:

Braden Campbell wrote:So... does the resin golem have the same MDC stat as a clay golem, or an iron one?

Iron would be my best guess. The resin is as strong as steel or iron, so I would give a Wormwood Resin Golem the same stats as a Iron Golem.

though if you like my idea of the resin being more brittle than iron, you could give it a weakness in the form of ballistic attacks (like bullets) doing extra damage, to reflect the 'chipping' aspect.

You could put a Battle Stone in them too, and double their MDC...

Whenevre i think about wormwood resin, I always pictured something like black volcanic glass.

These are some interesting thoughts on the resin. I've always thought of it looking like amber in certain ways too. IE color and maybe density.

That is a nasty thought about those battlestones. I remember someone trying to pull that one on me.

You might NB! You might!

Ummmm............ Well ok! You might be mad! ::::Ducking behind an MDC wall!:::

:::Ducking::: Back to the topic at hand. Wormwood!

Hmmm. Braden's articles will be cool to see when they get published!

:::Still ducking from NB and his plasma rifle:::

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL That's a good one NB.


I hope we get to see this one (Wormwood Article from Braden) before 2008!

I like resin to be pliable in the hands of those favored by Wormwood or those controlling the resin. I see it as titanium taffy that can be molded perfectly into whatever and then turned into a very tough solid.

I would love to see Wormwood golems maintain their tie to the living planet so they can walk through resin walls, up resin buildings and even heal themselves by diving into the ground.

That is a good way of looking at it.

It's an interesting thought too. What if after the resin is created you have so much time to form it. After that if becomes solid and unchangable.

I suppose that you could interpret in whatever way you wanted in your particular game.

OK... so the Wormwood golem will have as much MDC as an iron one... 80 MDC (doubled if a Battle Stone is added).

Thanks everyone!

I would definately make sure you add one to it Braden! Just to mess with your players as you can!

Ninjabunny wrote:Incorrect, Resin only needs to be poored into it's moldes and wait for it to harden. once its had time to set it's ready to go, nothing else realy needs done to it. Another strange gift from the living planet.

Presumably there'd be a few minor things you might need to do after it's been cast. Sharpening the edges of blades, filing or grinding excess material back to the exact shape for precision work, maybe drilling a few holes in armor plates to thread straps through. But yeah, as per the book resin is pretty much ready to go without any treatment beyond pouring into a mould before it sets.

I could see weapons made out of that material!