Would it be possible to up the damage people take from
picking up an item made from a material that they are
vulnerable to? I don't think "scratches" is nearly enough.

Observe this undead creature paying for picking up a hoard
of silver items:

A zombie of the dangerous horseman gets a blood-stained tunic from the corpse of Aemelius.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman is burned by a silvery-white hammer and drops it.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman is burned by a dual-bladed silver battle axe and drops it.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him.

A zombie of the dangerous horseman is burned by a broad-headed silver hammer and drops it.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman is burned by a dual-bladed silver battle axe and drops it.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman is burned by a broad-headed silver hammer and drops it.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman is burned by a dual-bladed silver battle axe and drops it.
A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him.

The damage probably barely even registered...

I have seen people dying to those scratches when returning to their corpse to pick #### up (when some joker filled the corpse with a bunch of mithril/iron). So, hell no we won't go! I mean, #### the dam.

You can't put things back into corpses.

burning logs, fiery ring, etc I think.

Elf drops load of mithril by drow about to do a get all. Drow gets all and kills himself. Not even in pk range necessarily.

I have already seen several characters throwing down iron weapons of the type a raiding elf uses just to make him pick up the wrong one when he is disarmed.

Likewise drow can use iron to kill an elf.

Seems the damage is fine to me since you drop the thing anyway. It isn't like you can ever benefit from picking the thing up.

While I do agree that the lines that describe the act should be slightly changed, I don't think the damage should necessarily be raised.

Hell, with the way the damage is, it's merely slap on the wrist. For the most part you could get rid of the "A zombie of the dangerous horseman's burning hands scratches him." line and it would still be accurate, less spam, and descriptive.

I think the few hp penalty that is incurred from vulnerabilities such as your example is "good enough" to make a point, but not dangerous enough to actually do any lasting damage. To put it another way... If the zombie were to hold onto the silver hammer for a few seconds, it would get hurt significantly... but it is immediately dropping the item, much akin to a person putting their hand by/into flame. If you were to stick your hand into the flame, you'd get pretty burned. If you go close enough your reflexes, or in CF-terms your fire_vuln, causes you to pull away maybe getting slightly burned to teach a mental lesson. :P

I don't think the damage needs to be upped at all, though perhaps the wording cleaned up. Cosmetic changes are pretty low priority however.