In the real world lead not worth much because its soft, heavy, dirty and poison to boot. Out side of batteries, and glaze its not much used today.
But in the game world it has amazing properties.
it blocks scrying and detection spells.
in the game world pretty much every important place from jewel cases to throne rooms beg to be lined with the stuff. not to mention its probably an important ingredient in all manner of anti magic paraphernalia.
How much should lead be worth in game? equal to copper? maybe even silver?
OK not silver... but its gonna be up there.
Price is determined by supply and demand. The supply is extremely high.
Now, as for demand. Johnny Commoner has no need for lead. He's got nothing worth protecting against divination spells, and it's toxic to boot. The ancient Romans knew of lead's toxicity, so in a medieval world with magic healers it's reasonable to assume that lead's toxicity is also common knowledge.
Your average merchant doesn't make enough powerful enemies to have to pay much for anti-divination, so he's not likely to buy lead-lined stuff, either. Unless it's very, very cheap.
Anti-divination is needed only by the rich and powerful. Adventurers, merchant princes, nobles, royalty, some churches, and the like. Demand is, therefore, low relative to metals like iron and copper.
High supply and low demand makes it a cheap but useful good. Like food or iron. It'd probably be roughly on par with iron, which has both a higher supply and a higher demand.
Well, sling bullets are lead. 5 pounds of those cost 1 silver piece, or 2 copper pieces per pounds.
Of course, firearm bullets are also lead. 1 pounds of those (assuming you use the "Guns Everywhere" price, so its not artificially inflated) cost 6gp.
The price of trade goods in the core rulebook follow a pattern (more or less):
1 sp (0.1 gp)- 1 pound iron
5 sp (0.5 gp) - 1 pound copper
1 gp (1 gp)- none (maybe steel?)
5 gp (5 gp)- 1 pounds silver
1 pp (10 gp) - None
5 pp (50 gp) - 1 pound gold
10 pp (100 gp) - none (older editions had electrum pieces, worth 2x the price of gold. So 1 pound of electrum.)
50 pp (500gp) - 1 pound mithral* or platinum
Following that, lead could be priced at 5 copper pieces per pound. Though that does mess with the price of sling bullets, which would have to be increased to at least 2 silver, 5 copper per 10 bullets.
*(Mithral is listed at 500gp per pound. However, its not mentioned if that is per pound of the normal item, or per pound of the reduced weight. If it is 500 gp per pound of the items newly reduced weight, that makes mithral actually cost 1000gp per pound. Convenient, as that is actually what the next step on the table would be.)
Fair points.
the ancient romans used it for glaze on their dishes the same way we used it for paint and gas additive.
in other words they may have known it was poison but they still used it.
the sling bullets seems to represent the fair economic price in a real world conversion of the time.. and lead bullets represent game mechanic prices not real prices (through they may include manufacturing)
look at it this way... how much was lead worth in the dark ages (typical magic and might setting)
now add it to use in large quantities among the higher classes (remember lining buildings, houses, lock boxes, maybe even clothing) and probably medium uses amung the lower class. it was not all kings and squalor. the merchants, lower nobles and anyone with any general desire for a modicum of privacy is going to be using the stuff.
Most people dont use it to this level in games. but dont you think it honestly should be?
no it wont be valued like GOLD but Lead is way less common than iron and is generally mined as a byproduct of mining copper and silver.
Well, sling bullets are lead. 5 pounds of those cost 1 silver piece, or 2 copper pieces per pounds.
Of course, firearm bullets are also lead. 1 pounds of those (assuming you use the "Guns Everywhere" price, so its not artificially inflated) cost 6gp.
Given the differeing costs and effort required to make them, ammunition obviously has the cost of labor included, so raw lead is probably lower than 2cp/pound. Iron is 1sp/pound according to Ultimate Equipment, so lead's much cheaper than iron no matter what. I was wrong, it seems.
Since it seems to be the only smaller denomination possible, lead is probably 1 cp/pound based on the price for sling bullets.
Edit: Why would pure lead sling bullets be less expensive per pound than actual lead, if lead is 5cp/pound?