Why does a admantine dagger and adamantine greatsword cost the same?
A dagger weights 1 lb and a greatsword weights 8 lb, you'd think a weapon that takes 8 times as much amterial would cost more.
Because items are (generally) priced based on their effect. A dagger gets the exact same benefits from being made from adamantine as a greatsword does.
In 3.0 (not 3.5), the price for an adamantine weapon was based on its damage die. Weapons with a lower damage die were cheaper to make from adamantine then weapons with a larger die.
I have to agree with the OP on this. While bonus may be the same, the cost in materials is not. And rather than say the cost should be 8x more, the case could be made it should cost 25x more for an adam Great Sword. A mundane iron or steel dagger costs 2 gp afterall, and a greatsword of the same material costs 50 gp. This is one of the situations the RAW is definitely wrong.
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(Anything can be rationalized.)
There is, unbeknownst to us mere mortals, a fountain of pure, liquid adamantine. Upon becoming as master of the forge, the crafter must enter the cave which houses the fountain of adamantine, overcoming the dangerous creatures, traps, and other smiths waiting in line like they are at the DMPV. (Department of Material Plane Vendors) Once their, it is a simple matter of creating a masterpiece, one per customer, and returning to their humble shop, many hundreds of miles from the fountain. Coincidentally, the trip costs them exactly 2,998 gold. It is customary to leave a 1 gold tip at the tavern which provides free ale to all smiths, courtesy of the epic level dwarves (and that one goblin with the lisp) who run it just because there is nothing else for them to do, and they have the spare coin. The other gold is for their trouble. Consider them that make the adamantine weapons more charitable than any cleric, more noble than any paladin, and more ingenious than any rogue, because while you are busy slaying monsters for fun and profit, they are doing it mostly for xp, and by being super charitable and stuff they get mad bonuses from their modified vow of poverty, and plan on showing up to the party at the end of the world decked out in full adamantine garb, with total ac's in the ballpark of 7000. (Don't ask how, you don't wanna know.)
"It's three thousands. It's traditional. Besides, if I'd charged less, I'd have more work than I wanted. And if I charged more, I'd have none at all, with others chargin' less. Now do ye want the damn dagger or not?"
(Customer pays, leaves)
"...I was afraid he'd bring up them arrowheads."
I did not know this. Right now my sense of logic and reason are banging on the side of skull and demanding answers. I'm certainly going to have to change this in my game.
I did not know this. Right now my sense of logic and reason are banging on the side of skull and demanding answers. I'm certainly going to have to change this in my game.
If you have a problem with this, then hopefully no one mentions that it takes the exact same amount of poison to coat a Fine-sized creatures dagger as it does a Colossal-sized creatures greatsword. Or how a small size creature, who is half the size of a medium size creature, wields weapons half as long as a medium size creature, yet has the exact same reach as a medium creature. Or how muct AC you get from a shield doesn't change based on size - a creature gets the same AC from a large heavy shield as it does from a medium heavy shield. Or how large weapons only weigh twice as much as their medium versions, instead of 8 times the weight like they actually should. (The same problem happens in reverse - small-sized weapons weigh 1/2 of what their medium counterparts weigh, put should weigh 1/8th of their medium counterpart.)
The rules are written to make a useable game, not to model reality. So there will be some problems if you expect realistic things.