To Adamantine or not adamantine

[Morag the Gatherer]

My PFS Elf slayer has just reached 3rd level.
She has dealt adequately with her defensive needs for the moment. Now its time to upgrade her main weapon, an elven curved blade.

I've been urged by some of the veteran PFS players to invest in an adamantine weapon. They point to some scenarios (none of which I've played or seen) in which the bad guys will try to sunder your weapon.

The problem I have is cost and time. A +1 adamantine elven curved blade costs about 5,000 gold (after selling the current mw weapon). That means no magic weapon until about 5th level. If I enchant my current blade its only 2,000 gold and I'll have it somewhere around 4th level.

I've not yet had anyone try to sunder my weapon but have run into a situation where I couldn't hit my opponent because it took an enchanted blade to do it.

An elven curved blade comes with a +2 vs. sundering so is it worth it to wait for the adamantine?

Morag

BTW: My slayer currently has less than 100 gold.

[burkoJames]

There is also hardness to consider. In higher levels (and the current season) constructs with hardness come up, which basically gives them DR 10/- that applies to spells. So thats another point in adamantine's favor.

[boring7]

Or any time you want to cut through a door or wall. Or if you want to sunder the enemy's weapon. Or deal with DR.

Which still doesn't mean you should. It's a gamble on all fronts which is going to be more useful, that 3k gold you save or an adamantine weapon. A lot of factors to consider.

The RP value in a favored and trusty weapon is variable. If a +7 weapon (which you can use) drops into your lap at level 6, you'll want to use that no matter WHO made your lovely heirloom blade. If it's relatively easy (or literally the only way) to have the same weapon you always carry enhanced and improved then you might want a base that's nigh-unbreakable. It *is* nice having a weapon with some backstory all its own.

If you're likely to be attacked by sunder-happy villains at every turn, an adamantine blade is great. In practice this rarely happens but it really depends on the DM. Sadly this is less useful against a lot of the "fighter screw" monsters like Rust Monsters or certain kinds of oozes because their "I breaks your weapons lolz" abilities aren't affected by material type.

If you come up against a lot of doors or walls or DR you can cut through it, if you don't then you wasted 3k.

Finally, 3k is a big deal right now because you're 3rd level, at level 10 it's like 4% of your character wealth and a decent little "RP toy" thing that has limited usefulness but looks cool. Most of my characters get rings of sustenance, even though it's fairly limited in usefulness.

[Rynjin]

A magic weapon is more important as a first purchase.

DR/Magic is by far more common than people who use Sunder.

[Fomsie]

Depends a lot on the Scenarios/Modules you will be running.

If you are doing some of the newer stuff with robots, then yeah, Adamantine is a huge boon. If you are doing older stuff then you can be OK without it.

For my barbarian in our Iron Gods campaign I got an adamantine weapon because hardness has been common enough to make a difference.

[TGMaxMaxer]

For season 6 scenarios it is worth it to get the Adamantine weapon for 3k (which includes the masterwork cost) before adding the +1 to it. Because constructs with hardness.

In PFS, you can add enchants as you get the money and fame, so no worries there about slowly adding extra things to you weapon.

At 3rd level you should have about 3000g.

You should get 1200g per game at level 3-4 tier scenarios, and 1800g per game at 4-5 tier.

So, assuming you have spent money on armor already, since you are broke, you should get enough to buy an Adamantine ECB by 4th level, and have enough to put +1 on it after your first game of 4th level.

[Tsriel]

TGMaxMaxer wrote:

So, assuming you have spent money on armor already, since you are broke, you should get enough to buy an Adamantine ECB by 4th level, and have enough to put +1 on it after your first game of 4th level.

This.

I quickly discovered how valuable adamantine was in Season 5 in the last segment of Destiny of the Sands.

Spoiler:

My then level 5 paladin had to solo tank the crystal golem in the combat|puzzle segment while my allies went to solve the puzzle to deactivate the golem. Only afterwards did I find out that if I could've gotten through its hardness had I owned an adamantine weapon, which would've solved the problem much faster than nearly getting ground into paste.

I now make it a point to buy adamantine weapons on every character save for my dedicated spellcasters.

[Protoman]

Get adamantine. Better to have it when you don't need it, than need it but not have it. Even better to have it when you need it. Then it's plain awesome. Hardness sucks for martials and blasters. Things with hardness also tends to hit real hard, so I would always prefer to be able to kill them quickly before I lose all my HP.

If you're worried about DR/magic, get oils of magic weapon or bless weapon for 50 gp each.

[boring7]

And you can enchant adamantine later, you can't adamantine your enchanted weapon later.

Presuming that matters, of course, if weapons tend to be found rather than purchased/crafted, you needn't worry about such things.

[Jacob Saltband]

Protoman wrote:

Get adamantine. Better to have it when you don't need it, than need it but not have it. Even better to have it when you need it. Then it's plain awesome. Hardness sucks for martials and blasters. Things with hardness also tends to hit real hard, so I would always prefer to be able to kill them quickly before I lose all my HP.

If you're worried about DR/magic, get oils of magic weapon or bless weapon for 50 gp each.

+1 to this.

[Morag the Gatherer]

Jacob Saltband wrote:

Protoman wrote:

Get adamantine. Better to have it when you don't need it, than need it but not have it. Even better to have it when you need it. Then it's plain awesome. Hardness sucks for martials and blasters. Things with hardness also tends to hit real hard, so I would always prefer to be able to kill them quickly before I lose all my HP.

If you're worried about DR/magic, get oils of magic weapon or bless weapon for 50 gp each.

+1 to this.

You guys talked me into it. I'll pick up a couple of oil of magic weapon to tide me over, then get adamantine when I have the cash.

thanks
Morag

[boring7]

To be fair, at that level there's a good chance one of your party casters should be casting magic weapon on you or others ANYWAY. It's a solid buff and they're supposed to be buffing.

[Protoman]

For PFS? He's better off investing in his own consumables rather than relying on different spellcasters/players' prepared spells when he goes table to table.

[Tallisan "Dusk Guardian"]

For PFS I generally try to get an adamantine weapon first, then make it magic later. It is more cost effective in the long run. Also, instead of getting oil of magic weapon, get oils of bless weapon! It makes your weapon count as good for the purpose of overcoming DR. Just my 2 coppers from a fellow elf slayer.

[Morag the Gatherer]

Protoman wrote:

For PFS? He's better off investing in his own consumables rather than relying on different spellcasters/players' prepared spells when he goes table to table.

I have good luck lately with support casters but they often forget basic stuff. It's been months since anyone has cast bless or prayer on a party I've been in. So best to have the oil handy for magic or bless weapon.

Morag

Thanks for the 2 coppers Tallisan, I think I'll get 1 of each.