Useless items.

[ethinos]

That would beg the question of why you couldn't do that to normal iron, steel, bronze, or copper weapons. You'd think they'd be a better starting point if you wanted to melt something down into ingots. I think the answer should be: you should have to collect the raw materials to craft the end product. None of the other crafts have shortcuts that I know of.

[HellsPanda]

also this would just be incentive for high level smiths to farm the ML crypts for rusted gear [yes, they could also pay lowbies for them, but looking at the herb issue, I suspect quite a few would try earning it on their own

[Kendric98]

Rusted items are a part of the decayed atmosphere created in Ravenloft. I use them quite often in my plots. Without them potm would be much more like just another d&d world.

Don't lie there all you can afford! 

[Honoun]

Make it so a lump of coal is needed to refine 5 rusted items into a workable Iron Ingot. You need coal to create a furnace hot enough to seperate all those impurities. Coal of course can only be mined in those same locations that you mine Iron ore. Tada! Mine the iron but with an added bonus you get the occasional lump of coal that can be used to refine the rusted metal.

Tell me that is not a win win situation? I dare you 

[ethinos]

Uh, coal is much harder to get to than iron. So much so, that I'd never want to use it to purify rusted junk metal.

[Honoun]

You can already get coal? I did not know this, well anyway my point was really you need to use something else to purify the rusted metal into something useful. Something else that is as hard to get as getting iron ore. I just used coal as an example cause well it was the first thing that came to my head.
 

[dark_majico]

They aren't useless. The skeletons find use for them! If you are worried about lag, throw the stuff into the nearest sarcophagus. My religious character RP's that he's returning the corpses and the weapons to the coffins as a form of re-burial.

Those skeletons and zombies that are spawned are not the dead that where burried in the crypts. The priestess tells adventurers that the crypts have not been used in years, however new skeltons and zombies appear from no where. So your character is actually defiling the graves. Carry on though lol, hes not a paladin is he? muwhahaha

[dutchy]

i have not seen any good counter arguments at all yet.

you guys go round and round.

i still like the idea and i hope the staff does aswell.

[ethinos]

Those skeletons and zombies that are spawned are not the dead that where burried in the crypts. The priestess tells adventurers that the crypts have not been used in years, however new skeltons and zombies appear from no where. So your character is actually defiling the graves. Carry on though lol, hes not a paladin is he? muwhahaha

Nope, he's not a paladin. You don't have to be a paladin to be religious. He knows they aren't the original inhabitants of the sarcophagi, but it makes him feel better to put them to rest than to simply leave them laying in pieces on the floor.

[Budly]

Not everything you do is really good in all ways. Rusty weapons dont make you money and nothing else.

I say let it be in. Like Macabre say they add to the setting. Should not get even easier to be a craftswo/man if you make these things meltable.

Scaling such things down just kill it like a Bioware game who just turns smaller and smaller in the sense of old school roleplaying and inventory management, seriously! The small details are lovely. Like these rusty blades.