Adamant

This is the pure metal form of the hard, jet-black ferromagnetic ore known as adamantite, from which the famous alloy adamantine is made. Adamant is rarely found in nature, but when it is, it is always be in large spherical pockets in hardened volcanic flows. Adamant is one of the hardest substances known on Toril, but it is also brittle. A sword made of adamant could slice through most metals—but would snap off if struck by another blade or even a smartly wielded wooden cudgel. It sees use in Faerun only in dwarven experimentation and in styluses used to etch metal with names, strike chased ornamentation, and imprint inscrip-tions. Such a stylus shatters if dropped to the floor, though the chips can be used to scratch things. Adamant styluses typically costs 35 to 50 gp, if one can be found at all; Waterdeep and the Great Rift of the dwarves are the best places to shop for one. Adamant is a gleaming, glossy black. Any reflections seen in it acquire rainbow edges, and this peculiar optical property is the sure-fire way to identify this surprisingly light, valuable metal. Adamant is worth five times its weight in gold and takes enchant¬ments readily. Some dwarves have worked together with human wizards to make adamant plate armor bound about with enchant¬ments so that when it shatters, the pieces hang together around the wearer, providing some —albeit flawed — protection. Specifically, adamant shields against all fire and heat, magical or nonmagical, that it comes in contact with, so a wearer of adamant armor can stride through a small fire (one which still allows him the use of some oxygen to breathe) unscathed and even emerge from a fireball blast suffering only 1d6 points of damage from fiery damage to exposed areas. Items made primarily of adamant automatically suc¬ceed in all item saving throws vs. normal fire, cold, and electricity. They receive a +6 bonus to all item saving throws vs. magical fire and a +4 bonus to all item saving throws vs. acid, disintegration, and lightning. Unless items are enchanted to compensate for adamant's brittle nature, however, they receive a -4 penalty on all item saving throws vs. crushing blow and fall.