Mithril weapons of 0 weight?


Rules Questions

Dark Archive

So I noticed something odd. With a weapon, mithril costs 500gp/lb. This has, in the past, resulted in such oddities as a mithril small dagger costing less than a masterwork mithril dagger.

So to make things strange. Some of the Eastern weapons, like Fighting Fan and Iron Brush, are listed as - weight. But they are made of metal, so they qualify for mithril. So how does that work? By the cost per lb formula, a mithril fighting fan would give you a masterwork weapon for 5gp! This doesn't seem right, but I don't know what other rule would apply.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Hm. For a home game, I'd probably houserule a minimum of 300 or 500 gp. PFS is in an interesting place, though...

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Akari Sayuri "Tiger Lily" wrote:

So I noticed something odd. With a weapon, mithril costs 500gp/lb. This has, in the past, resulted in such oddities as a mithril small dagger costing less than a masterwork mithril dagger.

So to make things strange. Some of the Eastern weapons, like Fighting Fan and Iron Brush, are listed as - weight. But they are made of metal, so they qualify for mithril. So how does that work? By the cost per lb formula, a mithril fighting fan would give you a masterwork weapon for 5gp! This doesn't seem right, but I don't know what other rule would apply.

The mithril price of a weapon is based on the ORIGINAL standard steel weight, not the final mithril weight.

The Exchange Owner - D20 Hobbies

There is a comment somewhere to treat items of weight - when using mithril as weight of 0.5 lb.


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Here is the FAQ.

Ultimate Combat FAQ wrote:

Weapons: There are melee weapons in Ultimate Combat (pages 131 to 132) with a weight of "—". If these weapons are primarily metal (like the kerambit), how do you calculate the cost of creating mithral versions of these weapons?

Treat these weapons as 1/2 lb weapons for the purpose of creating a mithral version of the weapon.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Thank you! ^_^

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Ahh didn't see the -, read it as a dagger for some reason.


You are welcome. :)

The FAQ's on mithral are scattered among several different books. They should probably put links to the related FAQ's in them. They've done that with some other topics.


But if you treat them as ½ lb, doesn't it still mean that it is cheaper to get a mithral version of the weapon than a masterwork? Which seems silly given that mithral makes them masterwork as part of it's price...


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Maybe it takes more labour to make really nice steel weapons, while Mithral always comes out nice? You're paying for the extra labour.

Dark Archive

It's odd, but the developers have in the past mentioned that they don't really care, since any weapon small enough to meet the loophole has such low damage dice that it's extremely situational anyway.

Meanwhile, thanks for pointing out the FAQ entry, I hadn't seen that one before. My brawler from Tien can now get his mithril fighting fan backup for when punching things isn't working without me feeling *nearly* so guilty about it.


K-kun the Insane wrote:
Maybe it takes more labour to make really nice steel weapons, while Mithral always comes out nice? You're paying for the extra labour.

That's how I take it. Mithral is easier to work with than regular steel. The price is in the cost of the metal itself.

Sczarni

Speaking of FAQ requests for Mithral...


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Lifat wrote:
But if you treat them as ½ lb, doesn't it still mean that it is cheaper to get a mithral version of the weapon than a masterwork? Which seems silly given that mithral makes them masterwork as part of it's price...

Yup, this is certainly a topic that has come up in my FLGS in recent weeks. Stupid mithral daggers for halflings. :-p


K-kun the Insane wrote:
Maybe it takes more labour to make really nice steel weapons, while Mithral always comes out nice? You're paying for the extra labour.

I don't have any issue with that. Steel needles are immensely superior to bone or wood ones, despite also being cheaper and easier to make. Sometimes material really does make a difference.

Dark Archive

By the way, not being able to edit posts after an hour is quite annoying when one notices a typo they made several hours ago (top post was meant to compare mithril dagger with masterwork steel dagger, sorry for any confusion!)

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