Of greater crafting

[Talon Starblade]

Ok, I was looking at the "Superior weapons" list in Palladium Fantasy 1 and 2 (pg271 in 2nd ed), and it got me wonderiung on why the Dwarves and Kobolds were the only species to be listed? I can kind of understand humans not necessarily having improved qualities, although some blacksmiths might kill themselves to try and duplicate even the smallest of exceptional qualities... But Humans aside, where are the Elves? A society as old or older than the Dwarves and equally in making things that stand the test of time, but di all the Elves have going for them in the war was their magic? And what of the other races, do they just buy from Dwarves and Kobolds or do they try and make their OWN stuff better?

And on that same note, why is the weapon quality only on the melee weapons, are only thrown weapons able to benefit from the first bonus or two? Especially where it would come from Elvish construction.

Opinions, comments? Let discussion commence.

[Soldier of Od]

Elves are most definitely not equal with dwarves in making things. Before the Elf-Dwarf war elves were still stuck in the bronze age, while dwarves were technologically way ahead of the rest of the world with their knowledge of iron smithing. It seems that the ability to make 'better quality' weapons with bonuses relies on at least some intrinsic natural ability (even if initially trained by someone else), so far only demonstrated by dwarves, kobolds and jotan.

Perhaps a member of another race may be able to learn these skills, but they would have to be a natural genius, and a one-off. An elf would be no more likely to achieve this than any other race; if anything, less so. The ambitious and adaptable human race would be the most likely to crack this code in my opinion. This should be an opening for adventure as jealous smiths try to work out how they did it, and dwarves or kobolds maybe try to cover it up or even kill the 'pretender'. Alternatively, a story as you say above, concerning a smith obsessed with replicating dwarven skill, could be an avenue for adventure.