Let's say that you can get a weapon with a special material on it without spending the cash on the special material. Besides adamantite, what's the best special material you can add to the weapon?
In addition, what are some of the best enhancements one can add to a weapon?
There is no "one best material". It's all situational.
Enhancements?
Well, if you have any kind of build that uses AoOs (such as the very simple and common reach build), then you want a fortuitous weapon. This +1 enhancement allows you to get a second AoO in for the same enemy action. it is 1/round, and BAB-5.... but it is basically a mini full attack against the first enemy that crosses you.
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Abysium: useless as a weapon because it gives no benefit. However, can be use to sicken enemy if you got swallowed whole, at the cost of being sicken yourself. So only use it if you are immune to poison. Also can use it as a gift weapon, makes the receiver sicken.
Adamantine: ignore hardness that is less than 20 when sundering. Also a +1 enchantment bonus to hit, but it doesn't stack with your weapon enchantment bonus, I think.
Alchemical Silver: Cheap way to bypass DR/Silver. However, -1 to damage and only works on slashing or piercing weapon. The cost of -1 damage might seems deep, but the DR you can bypass is worthwhile for its price.
Blightburn: Unless you are a Fire Elemental Construct or you can telepathically wield it more than 60 ft away from it, don't. Otherwise, it's the most powerful material you can have for weapon. After all, you can't DR, fire damage, nor can you SR the drain from its radiation.
Blood Crystal: +1 non-typed damage against bleeding enemies. If you have a way to make enemies bleed like bleeding critical, as well as having high crit range, I guess +1500gp is not bad for what it can do. Weapon is for killing, quicker the better.
Caphorite: You are only allow to make ammunition with this material, which sucks. That doesn't mean the material itself is no good. Any nonmagical light in a 10-foot radius is immediately extinguished, while spells of 2nd level or lower with the light descriptor are rendered inactive for 1d4+1 rounds. Perfect to ambush anything that require light to see. If you are Dhampir or anything similar, it doesn't hurts to keep one. As it gives you 1d4+1 round ignoring level 2 or lower light spell in a 10 ft radius. You can use it to start a fight from a distance, then quickly sneak in for melee. A rogue would like that.
Cold Iron: Double the price to bypass DR/Cold Iron is not bad for starters. You don't have to deal with -1 damage like Alchemical Silver, but it does take +2000gp to enchant. However, it will not be something that you have to worry about since You only need +3 weapon to bypass DR as both Cold Iron and silver, it makes more sense to invest into a weapon with other material and just keep it as back up weapon till you get a +3 weapon.
Darkwood: Add 10gp for +1 to hit and half the weapon's weight? Why not? Too bad that it only works for weapon fulling made out of wood, like club or quarterstaff. Still not bad for a starter weapons. Always keep a club or a quarterstaff will only give you options, especially in low levels.
Elysian Bronze: +1 weapon against magical beasts and monstrous humanoids for a price of 1000gp. The best part is that it stacks with weapon enchantment. So it is a must have if you know you will be fighting magical beasts and monstrous humanoids a lot.
Fire-Forged Steel: +1d4 fire damage to attacks for 2 round after 'exposed' to at least 10 point of fire damage. Increase to 1d6 if you wear Fire-Forged Steel armor. So it's good if you are fighting against something that deal fire damage but also can be hurt by fire damage, like Alchemist. But really not that great.
Frost-Forged Steel: Like Fire-Forged Steel, but less useful as weapon. Most things that deal cold damage would already have resistance to cold. On top of that, you will need to be in cold places to expose your weapon to enough cold damage for it to work, which all the things there would already have cold resistance from them to be there, so really no point get it. If you are crazy enough, enchant a gauntlet with +1 frost,use it to power your Frost-Forged Steel. Same could be done to Fire-Forged Steel weapon, but really no point other than for style.
Glaucite: Just like steel, but cost three times more and 50% heavier. Weight in pathfinder doesn't give you any benefit even if you fall onto someone. You don't deal more damage with more weight crushing a person as you would with a wine bottle. So really no point. But fluff-wise, you are showing off your god like craftsmanship if you swinging this thing around, so I doubt anyone would question your ability in crafting, or to hire someone that can craft.
Greenwood: Greenwood items take only one-quarter damage from fire, so that is good for wood weapon in general. The main dish of this deal is that it can heal itself. 1 hp per hour when damp and in contact with fertile soil. If it is broken, it get fixed in an hour. So as long as you give it a hour, you are good to keep fighting, don't have to spend gold to fix that weapon anymore. Like Darkwood, it only works for weapon fulling made out of wood.
Horacalcum: +6000gp for a +1 to hit and a little bit more hit point on the weapon is simply not worth it. Also doesn't work as ammo. So unless you really need that +1 circumstance bonus on attack, don't waste your gold. Wish it was just as good as it would be as armor.
Inubrix: +5000gp, deal damage one size smaller and always treat as broken, why would people want that? Well, Brilliant Energy against iron and steel for which would cost at least 50000gp. You have to weight your options. If a rogue wants to land his sneak attacks against someone with full plate, this is your material. It will worth your gold since you will fully relying on your sneak attack dice instead of your weapon dice.
Living Steel: It repairs itself 2 hit points per day, or 1 hit point per day if it has the broken condition. Not as much as Greenwood, but doesn't need to do anything to it. Also can be apply to more weapons. At the cost of +500gp.
Mithral: Great as armor, not great as weapon. Count as silver weapon to bypass DR without the -1 damage like Alchemical Silver. Mind you, though, weapon of Mithral weight have as much, and it only cost +500 gp/lb. Weight your options, I, personally, would go for Alchemical Silver as weapon over Mithral.
Nexavaran Steel: Cheap Cold Iron that cost only +50% of the weapon's cost, instead of double like Cold Iron. Cost +3000gp to enchant instead of +2000gp like Cold Iron. Since it's obviously for starting weapon, I would choose Nexavaran Steel over Cold Iron anytime.
Nexavaran Steel: +1 enchantment bonus to damage against constructs and undead created by feats or spells. I'm not sure if it stacks with weapon enchantment bonus. I don't think it does, but someone can let me know otherwise. That's not all Noqual can offer though, it has +4 bonus on any saving throw made against a magical source. So if someone tries to cast break on your weapon, you are in a better place.
Siccatite: +1 fire or cold damage on attack, but also deal 1 of that type of damage to you each round. So it's good if you have a little bit of fire or cold resistance. Also you don't have to deal with all the trouble like Fire/Frost-Forged Steel, while you deal much less damage while taking damage at the same time. Tiefling might want those since they have the resistance.
Silversheen: Alchemical silver that is immune to rust? Why won't you get it? If you have the gold, I would get it over Alchemical Silver. Unlike Alchemical Silver, I would invest enchantment on Silversheen since you get immunity to rust with a cost much lower than adding Rusting weapon ability. But before you choose this as your main weapon, wait. Keep reading.
Singing Steel: Bard weapon. Want an axe guitar for your bard? Here it is. If you are not Bardic performing, just don't get it.
Sunsilver: So Silversheen is a good early mid level material then? What if I tell you that you can get it for cheaper? Sunsilver will do the trick. Do all the same things but only 25gp per pound on top of masterwork. Better than +750gp flat.
Viridium: Give contract leprosy (Fortitude DC 12 negates) on hit. Give greenblood oil (Fortitude DC 13 negates) on crit. All with the cost of +200gp. But the DC is low and you will also have to make save just carrying it. So unless you have a extradimensional space or a scabbard lined with lead, just not worth it to me.
Voidglass: +1 damage to slashing or piercing weapon, flat. It worth every piece of that 1,000 gp. As weapon goes, it might be the one you would settle with in late game as your main weapon.
I'd probably go with horacalcum or voidglass. +1 circumstance bonus to hit from horacalcum, +1 damage from voidglass - only contingent on voidglass being that it has to be piercing or slashing. Just all-round versatility there, useful in every situation regardless of what you're swinging the blade at.
That having been said.
Best special mats I've seen came from the World of Warcraft tabletop; arcanite gives a weapon a +1 enhancement bonus but the real beauty of it is that it increases a P/S weapon's threat range by 1, and that stacks with keen/improved critical. Still only adds 1, but a 14-20 threat range is pretty damn appealing.
Thorium is another from the WoW RPG; doubles the weight of a weapon and you need to have an exotic weapon proficiency feat to use it - though I believe exotic weapon proficiency[thorium weapon] covers any weapon made of it, it's been a while - but a one handed thorium weapon adds strength and a half damage and a two handed thorium weapon adds double strength damage.
I'd definitely try to get any DM open to third party material(most of mine are adamantly against it) to allowing either of those.
I should be clear, the arcanite only ever increases the threat range by 1. So an 18-20 weapon becomes 17-20, but keen/improved crit only increases it to 14-20; 15-20 as normal and the extra 1 from arcanite. I'd be very interested in these other tricks your gm has, however.
Should also note that in the game both options I listed are rather expensive; arcanite runs about 5k for a weapon, thorium 10k. So they might be less than practical for a character leveling up from level 1 but if you're building a character at a point where you've got some significant starting wealth to throw around, worth the investment.
But the OP specified that they were assuming that you got the material without the price tag, which is also why I endorsed horacalcum - with the price tag I'd probably agree with SiuoL's assessment on that one.
A cracked Pale Green Prism (Ioun Stone) gives you +1 circumstance bonus on attack for 4000gp flat that works regardless what weapon you hold. It's a far better choice than spending it on a weapon that you might not get to use. General rules, you only invest damage on weapon, anything else can be done with other items or with enchantments. Bypass DR count as damage in investment terms.
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A few notes to your notes, SiuoL;
Adamantine is also the most effective way of dealing with many Golems and their DR/Adamantine.
Alchemical Silver is not limited to Piercing/Slashing weapons. It can totally be applied to Bludgeoning weapons, it just suffers the -1 damage to P/S.
Blightburn can be utilized by Blightburner Kineticists. It's kind of the point of the material appearing opposite the archetype in the same book...
Fire-Forged Steel Spiked gauntlets or a Cestus combined with a Shirt of Immolation on a grapple-specialized Monk or Brawler would pair well.
Noqual is basically Mithral that provides a +2 Save Vs Spells when used in armor for a whole lot more gold. Not particularly worth it to buy, but maybe a cool flavor piece to hand out to players when you GM?
A cracked Pale Green Prism (Ioun Stone) gives you +1 circumstance bonus on attack for 4000gp flat that works regardless what weapon you hold. It's a far better choice than spending it on a weapon that you might not get to use. General rules, you only invest damage on weapon, anything else can be done with other items or with enchantments. Bypass DR count as damage in investment terms.
In practice, you aren't wrong. In the specific instance of this question, money is no object so questions of investment and cheaper means of achieving the same ends, while valid points to make in general, are aside from the point in the specific instance.
To me the end goal is always to get a weapon to at least +4, preferably +5, depending on what other special abilities I want to slap on it. Given that either of those bypass most types of DR anyway, and that I'm usually playing a character with a high enough strength that most DR is just delaying the inevitable. So with that mindset I personally value flat bonuses to hit and/or damage over situational methods to bypass DR. Especially when my DM's tend to be very mum about what kind of monsters we'll be facing.
Also, mea culpa, I had been thinking that circumstance bonuses stack with each other, but just looked it up and found that I was mistaken about that. So that probably factored into me overly valuing horacalcum. Though another question to ask is whether one's CMD is lower or higher than an ioun stone's 24 ac, and as such, whether or not it's easier for an enemy to deprive you of that +1 circumstance bonus via disarming & sundering your weapon or knocking your ioun stone out of the sky.
Ultimately though I'd definitely go with voidglass over horacalcum if given the choice. Because, if nothing else, voidglass is a glass and not a metal and there fore isn't going to rust so if your DM likes throwing any of that your way, you're golden. Though I imagine if one has a DM inclined to throw rusting enemies at you to deprive you of your shiny toys, an enemy with the shatter spell isn't out of the question, either.
A few notes to your notes, SiuoL;
Adamantine is also the most effective way of dealing with many Golems and their DR/Adamantine.
Alchemical Silver is not limited to Piercing/Slashing weapons. It can totally be applied to Bludgeoning weapons, it just suffers the -1 damage to P/S.
Blightburn can be utilized by Blightburner Kineticists. It's kind of the point of the material appearing opposite the archetype in the same book...
Fire-Forged Steel Spiked gauntlets or a Cestus combined with a Shirt of Immolation on a grapple-specialized Monk or Brawler would pair well.
Noqual is basically Mithral that provides a +2 Save Vs Spells when used in armor for a whole lot more gold. Not particularly worth it to buy, but maybe a cool flavor piece to hand out to players when you GM?
As for Adamantine. I totally agree.
Alchemical Silver is correct. Problem with reading other people's post is that you sometime get mislead.
Blightburn: Yes, that's the point. Too bad no other classes can do that 60ft away.
Fire-Forged Steel, that combo is a bit expensive for my taste, but it's one of the most effective ways to use the material.
Nogual: I would advise all the none spell caster who wears armor to use this. But this post is about weapon so I didn't add that.
A cracked Pale Green Prism (Ioun Stone) gives you +1 circumstance bonus on attack for 4000gp flat that works regardless what weapon you hold. It's a far better choice than spending it on a weapon that you might not get to use. General rules, you only invest damage on weapon, anything else can be done with other items or with enchantments. Bypass DR count as damage in investment terms.
it is competence bonus
Blightburn sickness is a disease. Why not make a suit of armor for Blightburn on an antipaladin and irradiate everyone who gets too close to you. Not hard to get 12 fire resistance as well. Just play a tiefling with the Unscathed trait and some means of getting an additional 5 fire resistance. That said, you're definitely not a team player if nobody wants to be within 60 feet of you....
Also, for fire-forged steel/frost-forged steel, you could always get some cold/fire resistance and make a sheath out of Siccatite, since the damage component of the material is not dependant on the quantity, just what material it is and being in contact with it. Should chill/heat your blade up for you while you're not using it.
what book is caphorite from? a rogue dhampir would love that i bet.
It was reprinted recently in Heroes of the Darklands.