Pricing of an Adamantine heavy shield?


Rules Questions


How would I go about pricing an adamantine heavy shield?

Past posts on this topic tend to conclude that a shield is a weapon, and thus is priced as a weapon (+3000). I don't think this is a solid argument however.


I'd still price it as a weapon.

It's not light, medium, or heavy armor. And it's obviously not ammunition.

Shields are listed in the weapons table.

There's no pricing by weight like mithral, so pricing it as anything else than the listed categories is houserule/custom item territory. Like an adamantine crowbar or pocket watch. You're free to do so, but that argument would never be any more solid than "price as a weapon".

Grand Lodge

A Shield is a weapon.

You price it as a weapon, for Adamantine.

You are not going to get a fully functional Adamantine Weapon, for a lesser price.

There is no other RAW way to price it.


Since there's no entry in adamantine for "shield" but there is one for "weapon", use "weapon". If that isn't acceptable, then adamantine shields simply aren't a thing in the rules.

Grand Lodge

Acceptable?


blackbloodtroll wrote:
Acceptable?

I suppose

I think it is odd that pathfinder has a defined price for mithril shields, but no price for mithril weapons. It does have a price by weight however, which can be used to determine pricing for a weapon (as per the errata on the mithril material)

A mithril shield is priced the same as mithril light armor

Why would they not define a price for an adamantine shield? Does nobody ever want to make an adamantine shield?

And why not list a price by weight for adamantine?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Quote:

I think it is odd that pathfinder has a defined price for mithril shields, but no price for mithril weapons. It does have a price by weight however, which can be used to determine pricing for a weapon (as per the errata on the mithril material)

A mithril shield is priced the same as mithril light armor

Why would they not define a price for an adamantine shield? Does nobody ever want to make an adamantine shield?

Because there is no benefit to making a shield from adamantine, aside from a higher hardness and more hit points (which already varies by material), and the lower ACP all masterwork shields get. Adamantine shields don't grant DR like armor does.

Used as a weapon, however, it does get the adamantine benefit of ignoring hardness less than 20. So pricing it as a weapon makes sense.

Mithral having a specific price for sheild makes sense, as you get actual benefits from making a shield from mithral (a greater than usual reduction in ACP, a lower ASF, and a higher max Dex [which granted, is useless for most shields]). It doesn't have a price for weapons because it didn't have such a price in 3.5 D&D, and Paizo didn't come up with a set price when they changed mithral to actually be somewhat useful for weapons (counting as silver for purposes of DR).

For what it is worth, the 3.5 FAQ stated an adamantine shield is priced the same as adamantine light armor, but does not grant DR. However, I have to disagree, as you aren't getting the same benefit from an adamantine shield as you are the adamantine light armor (DR 1/-). You do get benefits as a weapon, so it should be priced as a weapon.

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / Pricing of an Adamantine heavy shield? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.