Crafting with Special Materials

Special Materials are resources tracked individually because their identity matters during crafting. They can include unusual plants, creature materials, rare minerals, specialist fibers and woods, magical substances, and materials created through more specialized forms of craft.

Most projects do not require Special Materials. Conventional Materials can provide the full Material Cost unless a Recipe or Formula says otherwise.

When a Special Material is used, the project may care about the material itself, its physical form, a useful Property it possesses, or a supernatural Affinity it carries.

Reading a Material Entry

Special Material entries use a common set of terms to describe how a material is tracked and how it can be used.

Not every material uses every field. A Special Material does not need a Property, Affinity, Elemental Aspect, or Direct Use simply because it is tracked individually.

Value and Ingredient Credit

A Special Material's Value represents the normal value of its listed Tracked Quantity.

When an appropriate amount of that material is accepted by a crafting project, its Value can provide Ingredient Credit toward the project's Material Cost.

For example, if a project requires 25 gp of materials and uses an appropriate Special Material worth 5 gp, that material can provide 5 gp of Ingredient Credit. The remaining 20 gp must still be supplied through other acceptable materials.

Ingredient Credit is part of the project's existing Material Cost, not an additional discount.

Unused Value is not refunded or carried into another project, and Ingredient Credit cannot reduce the remaining Material Cost below 0 gp.

Value measures economic contribution rather than magical strength. A more expensive material is not automatically more powerful than a cheaper one.

Materials Must Be Appropriate

Special Materials are not interchangeable simply because they have the same Value.

A Fiber cannot normally replace the Metal needed for a sword, and one 10 gp Reagent does not automatically replace another 10 gp Reagent when their functions are different.

Sharing a Material Type, Property, Affinity, or Elemental Aspect can make two materials suitable for some of the same projects, but it does not make them universally interchangeable.

The Recipe or Formula determines what materials it accepts.

Material Types

Material Type describes the material's primary physical role in its current usable form.

Common examples include Reagent, Fiber, Wood, Mineral, Metal, Glass, Hide, Bone, Plating, Food, and Component.

Material Type describes what the usable material is rather than where it came from. A creature can provide Plating, a plant can provide Fiber, and a crystalline substance can function as a Reagent if that best describes its crafting role.

Some Recipes accept any suitable material of a particular Type. Others require a specific material.

Properties

Properties describe recurring crafting functions.

Examples include qualities such as Medicinal, Preservative, Binding, Conductive, or Retentive. A Recipe or Formula can use these Properties to determine whether a material is suitable for a particular part of the craft.

Properties are not powers by themselves. A Conductive material does not automatically deal Lightning damage, a Restorative material does not automatically restore Hit Points, and a Retentive material does not automatically store magical charges.

The finished Recipe or Formula determines what the material actually accomplishes.

A material can have several Properties or none at all.

Affinities

Affinity represents a meaningful supernatural provenance or resonance retained by a material.

Most Special Materials have no Affinity.

When one is present, it can matter to Recipes or Formulae that require a particular supernatural connection. Sharing an Affinity does not automatically make two materials substitutes for one another.

Elemental Aspect

A material with Elemental Affinity can also have an Elemental Aspect, such as Air, Earth, Fire, or Water.

Elemental Aspect identifies the material's particular elemental expression. It is not a separate Property or Affinity.

Two materials can share the same Elemental Aspect while remaining very different substances with different uses.

Material Requirements

Recipes and Formulae can specify materials in several ways.

A Required Material names a particular substance that must be used. Another material does not replace it unless the Recipe explicitly allows an alternative.

A Required Material Type calls for a suitable material of a particular Type, such as Fiber, Metal, or Reagent.

A Required Property calls for a material possessing a particular Property.

A Required Affinity calls for a material carrying the listed supernatural Affinity.

A project can also require a particular physical form, such as powder, wire, sheet, plate, or a coherent crystal.

When several requirements apply to the same material, that material must satisfy all of them.

One material can satisfy several applicable requirements at once, but its Value is counted only once toward the project's Material Cost.

Compatible Properties

A Compatible Property provides an additional way for an appropriate Special Material to contribute to a project.

Unlike a Required Property, it is not mandatory.

For example, an ordinary item might be craftable entirely from Conventional Materials while also listing Waterproofing as a Compatible Property. A suitable Waterproofing material can then provide Ingredient Credit when it is actually incorporated into the item as part of its construction.

Using a Compatible Property does not automatically give the finished item a new ability. The finished item's mechanics remain those established by its Recipe or item entry.

Special Material Profiles

Some crafting entries include a Special Material Profile.

This identifies the Material Types that can normally provide Ingredient Credit when meaningfully incorporated into the item.

A Longsword might list Metal because the blade is its principal structural material. A bow might list Wood and Fiber because both can form meaningful parts of its construction.

A Special Material Profile is not a list of mandatory ingredients. Conventional Materials remain sufficient unless the Recipe establishes a specific requirement.

Tracked Quantity

Tracked Quantity is the amount represented by one normal inventory entry.

Depending on the material, this might be a portion, bundle, spool, jar, shard, Core, a measured weight, or another practical unit.

Tracked Quantity is an inventory convention. It does not determine how much every Recipe consumes.

A Formula might require one whole Vortex Core, part of a measured material, several sheets from a packet, or another specific amount.

The Recipe determines what is actually consumed.

Divisible and Whole Materials

Some materials can be divided without losing what makes them useful. Others must remain intact.

Divisible materials can provide Ingredient Credit according to the amount actually used.

Materials that depend upon a coherent physical structure are normally counted as whole objects when a Recipe requires that structure.

As a practical rule, materials that must remain whole are counted, while materials that can be divided are measured.

Direct Use

Some Special Materials have a Direct Use that allows them to be used during play before they are crafted into something else.

Direct Use appears only when the raw or minimally prepared material has a defined effect of its own.

Many valuable crafting materials have no Direct Use.

A material's Direct Use also does not determine what a finished item made from it can do. Finished mechanics come from the Recipe or Formula.

Storage and Handling

Some materials require particular storage, preservation, stabilization, or handling.

These requirements are described in the individual material entry when they matter.

Materials without special requirements can normally be transported and stored using appropriate ordinary containers and precautions.

Gathering & Recovery explains the general procedures for collecting, preserving, and transporting crafting materials.

Finding Materials

The Materials section of the Crafter's Compendium contains the Special Materials currently established in Eldareth.

Regional flora and forage articles cover materials associated with particular environments, while Special Materials of Eldareth collects other unusual, manufactured, creature-derived, elemental, magical, and technical resources.

Advanced & Magical Crafting explains what happens when materials are processed, refined, transformed, incorporated into Components, or used in more complex construction.