The world is one of scarcity and invention, and people tend to use anything they can find to build the tools they need to survive. Scavenged rusty iron is scoured, rotten wood trimmed, and scraps of torn leather stitched together piecemeal. Yet if something can be built to last, that is obviously preferable, and individuals of great skill can gather impressively rare or high quality materials and use them to build special items with enhanced capabilities. These items are considered Masterwork. Some of these rare materials are themselves crafted from combinations of more common materials, while others are discovered in their natural state. For those materials that are crafted rather than discovered, they always come from Masterwork Schematics and require a Masterwork Downtime action to make.

Masterwork Materials can be incorporated into any component schematic the crafter holds, so long as they are of adequate crafting skill to use the schematic normally. If the crafter chooses to use a Masterwork Material for crafting in game rather than using the Masterwork Downtime action, it is treated as the Uncommon Gathering Material from the appropriate branch of Gathering. When using the Masterwork Downtime action with a Masterwork Material, there must be enough of the same Masterwork Material to replace all of the least common material of the same branch of Gathering for the effects of the Masterwork Material to shine through. Once the Masterwork Component has been crafted it can be assembled with other components at game to create the final product, as normal.

There are five types of Masterwork Material: Metals which replace Soft or Hard Iron, Woods which replace Soft or Hard Wood, Cloths which replace Fibers or Linen, Furs which replace Scrap or Hard Leather, and Ornaments which are added to schematics and don’t replace any material. Metals can be used in crafting by Metalworkers, Woods by Woodworkers, Cloths and Furs by Tailors, and Ornaments are diverse in their applications.

A completed Masterwork object may only contain one effect from each of the following trees: Metalsmithing, Woodworking, Tailoring, Ornaments.

Typically, unless all wood and metal components of an item are made of these more durable materials, a stronger Masterwork Wood Sundering weapon can sunder an item with a weaker Masterwork or standard Wood component, even if the item also has a Masterwork Metal component, and vice versa. For example, Weapon 1 is a Sundering weapon made of Steel and Burl and Weapon 2 is a Quick weapon made of Iron and Ironwood. When Weapon 1 tries to Sunder Weapon 2 it succeeds, because even though the Ironwood protects it from the Burl’s attempts to Sunder it, the Steel is able to sunder the Iron component and damage the weapon.

To ease communication when employing these mechanics, it’s recommended you qualify the Sunder call with the relevant masterwork material, such as Burl Sunder or Adamantium Sunder. The response, if the defender has a stronger material, can be a qualified No Effect call, such as Bronze No Effect or Greatwood No Effect. Similarly, if a standard sunder is used on a masterwork material the counter would be something like Steel No Effect.

Unless a Sunder call is qualified in this way, it is assumed the Sundering weapon is of standard Iron and/or Wood. Divine and Arcane Sunder calls may sunder any item regardless of its material. The notable exception to these rules is Soulsteel weapons, which sunder other items as if they were of standard wood and iron but are immune to all forms of Sundering, even from Divine and Arcane sources. Soulsteel Immune is the appropriate call in this case. There are many other types of Metal and Wood Masterwork Materials, but all are treated as standard Wood or Iron for the purposes of durability, though they give different mechanical advantages.

Ornaments are somewhat unique in the field of Masterwork Materials because they are usually added to a specific component that may or may not be made of another Masterwork Material, and don’t replace any material in the Schematic. Below are some examples of ornamental gemstones that can be added to the Guard of a weapon during its construction. Many ornaments are crafted using wyrd schematics.