So, uh, there is steel in D&D, right? I'm not sure where the technology level is. I know there's no machinery or guns, but metals are confusing. Any help?
Depends on the DM. Generally; however, I would say that there are steel weapons. The DM is free to create the world and to determine its state of technological advancement.
• Some of the character powers reference steel, like Steel Monsoon, or Steel Serpent Strike.
• The description of Scale Armor mentions "Overlapping pieces of highly durable material, such as steel..."
• Part of the standard adventurer's kit is Flint and Steel.
• Historically, the rapier and the wide use of steel came about around the same time, probably due to the preferred composition of rapiers. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that historical rapiers were primarily steel.
Historically, the rapier and the wide use of steel came about around the same time, probably due to the preferred composition of rapiers. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that historical rapiers were primarily steel.
Actually, I'm fairly sure that rapiers didn't come about until long after steel had been developed. The rapier is a derivative of the smallsword, which came about as a civilian blade around the Renaissance era, and is fairly useless against armor; steel, comparatively has been around for much longer. It did not gain mass-production until the 16th century or so, but "Damascus steel" was common enough during the crusades. I'd be hesitant at placing steel availability as "widespread" before the 5th century, but even before then it wasn't unknown, and it was fairly common by the 1200s.
Basically unless the DM is going to decree that metalurgy is really low tech, then steel weapons exist. If they don't exist then the larger varieties of swords are probably not possible or at least they would be pretty crappy.
Something about the default setting, the Points of Light, feels a lot like Ravenloft to me - the whole "points of light surrounded by darkness" bit that can be used to isolate areas from one another. And in Ravenloft, those distinct areas can have culture ratings from something like 1 to 9. This influences available technology and whether or not lighter armor is preferred over heavy armor.
It's not unlikely that weapons are made of one kind of metal over another in different regions, or that an area might be able to better purify their steel, resulting in better or different weapons.
I think Player Characters, though, should be from a region with ready access to steel, even if the majority of the campaign takes place in less developed nations. PCs are special, after all.
AFAIK, iron/steel is the normal metal used for arms and armor, and the game doesn't differentiate the two. As said, though, it can vary between DMs.
Steel is made through the normal process of forging iron into a weapon. When a iron is heated on a fire, carbon from the burning wood or coal is transfered to the iron, which is then beaten into the metal when it is folded. The process results in steel. It's a process that is discovered long before it is understood.
Early steel vs iron however was more a refereence to quality then anything else, a cast iron object for example is just poured out into a mold and then hammered into shape and thus get very little carbon mixed in, whereas steel items such as swords are often returned to the fire repeatedly to be reheated and worked further and thus have a higher carbon content.
As early as 4/5th Century BC the Spaniards were renowned for their steelmaking (specifically swords) - when Julius Caesar went to Spain he had the Spanish smiths teach the Romans for example. So certainly in most fantasy settings there will be some form of steel.