Which metal to choose?

[Astafas]

I'm having a go at crafting this time through. Which metal should you choose for crafting armor and weapons respectively, and why?

[Xandax]

Weapon - I'd go with Cold Iron. Simple reason is that it is the "best" metal which does not impose some benefit which affects the number of enchantsment a weapon can have. Adamantium for instance, gives a +2 bonus to the weapon, but takes up an enchantment slot. And for weapon those slots are important.

For armor, I'd suppose mithril is best, as it provides a weight benefit and the "armor is counted as one less weight type" benefit, but I did not care much about that personal, I just made mine with Cold Iron as well

[Astafas]

Thanks, good advice, I hadn't thought about the maximum number of enchantments. On that subject, is it possible to upgrade your enchantments by removing old and throwing new ones?

[Xandax]

Originally Posted by Astafas

Thanks, good advice, I hadn't thought about the maximum number of enchantments. On that subject, is it possible to upgrade your enchantments by removing old and throwing new ones?

I did not specifically try this when I played, but I do not think so.
It was not possible for me to remove an enchant, and I did not notice the game checking to see if an enchant were an upgrade and then replace it with said upgrade.

So I'd have to say no, you need a new weapon.
That is why I'd not recommend doing much in the way of enchanting weapons until you can do the enchant you actually want.

I think you can find a link to my spreadsheet somewhere in this forum, in case you need to plan ahead. I find it a good tool to see which enchants are availble at what level if you are the type that plans ahead (me, I generally just do most at the spur of the moment in such games ), but it shows pretty much little else. (I'm sure it could be added with more information, but I do not really play much NwN2 at the moment, so can't be bothered )

Edit: linky:
crafting spreadsheet (xls)

[Astafas]

Great Xandax, what a good job! If you ever get to adding info, why not start with the locations of these hardfound gems?

[kyle]

Don't know if other people found those, but in 1.03, I'm finding a lot of crafting gems at merchant shops. Top quality ones, like Blue Diamond (for +5 bonuses). One easy to find merchant at the later stages of the game is stocked with good gems. Won't post here because it's a spoiler and in an area you'll have spent a lot of time in.

[Cyrinn]

You can upgrade in a way. No, you cannot remove an enchantment, but you can add to the + ones or just simply add on another.

You can do this provided you do not "max" the item out. That is, fill all three enchant slots as mentioned. So, if I had a +1 longsword with a fire enchant (and it is not made out of adamantine or darksteel) I can add the +2 recipe to make it a +2 weapon with the fire still.

Note: a +1 item does not become a +3 item when the +2 recipe is applied, it just becomes a +2 item.

You can keep upgrading all the way to +5 as long as the third slot is not used. If it is, you are stuck with it at that point and you must make a new weapon to enchant further.

A nice way to play with the crafting system is to load the toolset and create a little mod with all the crafting items. Then, create a script to level your player to 20 and load the mod. Level your char as a wizard (or wiz/cleric or wiz/druid) and take all the crafting feats and allocate skill points accordingly. Then play with the system and apply your findings to your campaign game.

To OP,

Cold iron and alchemical silver are the best and if I had to pick one I guess I would go with cold iron since there seem to be a few more demons (fey and warlocks are negligible) than devils and werewolves. For armor definitely mithral since you get the three enchant slots AND weight reduction AND one lower class (heavy = medium, medium = light) AND higher total AC (you can have higher dex bonus) than other types. A warlock or bard with the armored caster feat can wear mithral full plate and a mithral shield since it is considered medium armor!

Just keep in mind that you won't be able to craft this stuff for awhile since the check is fairly high and much higher for the "better" metals.

+10 basic check for mithral
+15 basic check for adamantine


***SPOILER***

(highlight)

Adamantine weapons are necessary to defeat iron golems (or at least, by far the easiest way!)

[sun_facer]

I think alchem silver is better. Though there are slightly more demons, the worst fights are often with giths or requiring alchem silver.

Question -Reavers are afraid of cold iron or silver?