Ok, weird question. Is there such thing as an adamantine shield?

[asthyril]

i cannot find anything that references them, just weapons or categories of armor. is it categorized as a weapon?

[BeowulfIam]

asthyril wrote:

i cannot find anything that references them, just weapons or categories of armor. is it categorized as a weapon?

Yes. You receive no DR, but it's masterwork and bypasses DR as Adamantine while shield bashing. It costs 3,175 gp.

[asthyril]

BeowulfIam wrote:

asthyril wrote:

i cannot find anything that references them, just weapons or categories of armor. is it categorized as a weapon?

Yes. You receive no DR, but it's masterwork and bypasses DR as Adamantine while shield bashing. It costs 3,175 gp.

but where is that listed? and what type of shield? can you make a tower shield out of adamantine since the normal description of it says it is made of wood?

[Tinalles]

1) Shields are usually armor, but can be used as weapons if you shield-bash.

2) Adamantine is a special material. You won't find the stats for items made of special materials anywhere in the equipment list; you're supposed to work that out for yourself using the formulas given in the special materials section.

3) Shields can legitmately be made from adamantine despite the fact that the adamatine special materials description never explicitly mentions the word "shield". Treat as light armor for purposes of pricing. As evidence, I cite the existence of a "Mithral Heavy Shield" in the "Specific Armors" section of the Magic Items chapter, whose price was clearly calculated treating a regular steel heavy shield as the base price, plus the mithral modifier for light armor.

So, for example, an Adamantine Heavy Shield would cost:

20 gp (base shield price)
5,000 gp (adamantine modifier)

So for 5,020 gp you wind up with a Heavy Adamantine Shield. It provides:

- a +2 shield bonus to AC
- DR 1/-
- a +1 bonus on attack rolls to shield bash with it
- an armor check penalty of -1
- the ability to ignore up to 20 hardness if you attack objects with it (I don't think you can use it for a Sunder maneuver unless it's got spikes added).

[asthyril]

Tinalles wrote:

3) Shields can legitmately be made from adamantine despite the fact that the adamatine special materials description never explicitly mentions the word "shield". Treat as light armor for purposes of pricing. As evidence, I cite the existence of a "Mithral Heavy Shield" in the "Specific Armors" section of the Magic Items chapter, whose price was clearly calculated treating a regular steel heavy shield as the base price, plus the mithral modifier for light armor.

except that mithral lists a category for shields, which happens to be the same price as light armor.

[blackbloodtroll]

You price it like a weapon. It bypasses DR/Adamantine when used as a weapon.

A shield is a weapon.

[Tinalles]

Oh, for the love of little green gargoyles. You're right. The mithral entry lists a shield price, and the adamantine doesn't.

In my 3.5 DMG, it has a line for shields listing the price of an adamantine shield as +2,000 gp. That appears to have been omitted from the PF core rules.

So the question then becomes -- was that omission intentional, or an oversight?

If it was intentional, then there is no such thing as an adamantine shield (per RAW).

If it was an oversight, then there IS such a thing as an adamantine shield, but we don't know how to price it.

So at this point I have only two suggestions: get people to hit the FAQ button on your post, and get your GM to house-rule it in the meantime. I mean, it doesn't make any sense that you could make a breastplate out of adamantine, but not a shield.

[asthyril]

well this is for PFS, and since the only reason i was asking, is that i have a sylvan sorcerer - halfling, who has a lion animal companion. in order to get the companion places he could not normally go i was going to buy some armor with the hosteling ability from the new equipment guide. but it needs to be heavy armor or a tower shield for a medium creature in order to hold a large lion. since i wasn't going to be using it anyway, i was thinking of making it adamantine so i could use it as a small 6' bridge stored in my handy haversack :).

thats where i came to this problem of no listing for adamantine shields, and the additional question that since tower shields are described as made of wood, can you actually make them adamantine (or could you use a heavy metal shield for a large sized creature as a medium sized tower shield and do it that way?) i don't know. that's why i'm here i guess lol.

[Misunderstood Monk]

I'm sure you could perform a sunder combat maneuver with a shield without spikes too. An adamantine shield would be all the better. Sounds like a great idea. My next shield wielding character will absolutely have one.

[Dragonamedrake]

Yes but only if its a circle and looks like THIS.

[blackbloodtroll]

An Adamantine Shield cost an additional 3,000 gp, just like every other weapon.

It really is that easy.

Silversheen shield? +750gp.

Fire-forged steel shield? +600gp.

Frost-forged steel shield? +600gp.

Viridium shield? +200gp.

Whipwood shield? +500gp.

When in doubt, price as a weapon.

A shield is a weapon.

[asthyril]

for PFS you cannot 'assume' anything. RAW is how it goes.

[blackbloodtroll]

RAW, a shield is a weapon.

Look at the weapon list. Look at the Fighter's Weapon Training groups.

Weapon.

Price as a weapon.

[asthyril]

then why does mithril have a separate entry for shields, where all weapons are done by weight?

[blackbloodtroll]

Some materials have separate pricing for shields, and some don't.

Shields are weapons, and when there is no listing for shields, you price them as weapons.

[Lythe Featherblade]

It annoys me sometimes too that materials that should be usable for something aren't listed. But as said above treat shields as weapons unless specified otherwise. Mithril I'd assume is an exception because it does lower armor check penalty, without a written benefit I'd assume few people would use any of the other materials. I ran into the same annoyance recently when I wanted a non-standard shield and couldn't find a benefit when logically there should have been one.

[Darth Grall]

I assume they just didn't want to deal with overlapping adamantine mods, so shields only count as weapons for the material.

[Bruunwald]

It's still not a FAQ candidate.

Come on people, use your brains.

[blackbloodtroll]

Well, making a shield out of Adamantine does nothing for it's protective abilities, but does make it a better weapon.

Make more sense now?

[Nevan Oaks]

Shield (light and heavy) are weapons but by RAW
"You cannot bash with a tower shield, nor can you use your shield hand for anything else."
Bucklers and tower shields are not weapons. Though IMO think the pricing them as weapons is still the best way to go.

[LazarX]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Well, making a shield out of Adamantine does nothing for it's protective abilities, but does make it a better weapon.

Make more sense now?

It also is more difficult to sunder.

[Ughbash]

I still want an adamantine quarterstaff :)

[ProfPotts]

Pages 118 to 119 of the GameMastery Guide list which special materials you can use for which armours and shields. Adamantine isn't listed for shields (tabe 5-7) so strict RAW suggests that they can't be made from that material (no matter what logic would dictate). Slightly less strict RAW, tower shields are listed as being able to use 'wood' special materials only, so still no adamantine.

[asthyril]

on a side note, i just noticed that ultimate equipment changed the cost of mithril shields from the core rulebook +1000g to the UE +1500g

[blackbloodtroll]

If it's for PFS. Ask your venture captain.

Expect it to be priced as per RAW, as a weapon.

[Martiln]

asthyril wrote:

then why does mithril have a separate entry for shields, where all weapons are done by weight?

mithral shields have more benefit to their non-weapon aspect than adamantine shields do. The AC penalty is reduced, AND the spell failure chance goes down. Adamantine shields get nothing defensively, outside of the extra protection from sunder. I've always done adamantine shields priced as weapons.

Also the equipment section says if the item isn't primarily made of metal, it can't be made out of adamantine or mithral or alchemical silver. The same reverse argument is true in that items not made primarily of wood can't be made of darkwood. So no adamantine tower shields, no mithral quarterstaves, and no darkwood longswords.

Also also, this is without the assumption of specific spells that alter the above rule(ironwood and so on).

[blackbloodtroll]

Nothing RAW prevents Adamantine shields.

Just because the Gamastery Guide doesn't have it on it's random roll chart, doesn't negate it's existence.

Just price it as a weapon, which a shield is, as per RAW, and be done with it.

[Cold Napalm]

asthyril wrote:

on a side note, i just noticed that ultimate equipment changed the cost of mithril shields from the core rulebook +1000g to the UE +1500g

Your right. I always did think the 1000 for shields was too good anyways so I will probably be using the UE one myself...but for PFS, wonder which one is considered RAW....

[asthyril]

i think the newest rules take precedence over older ones for PFS, otherwise they wouldn't be able to update mistakes like the staves in the APG.

[Captain Sir Hexen Ineptus]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

You price it like a weapon. It bypasses DR/Adamantine when used as a weapon.

A shield is a weapon.

This would be correct.