Silversheen and wood / steel weapons

[SuperBidi]

I have a question about Silversheen (and Cold Iron Blanch, too).

Silversheen states that "For the next hour, the weapon or ammunition counts as silver instead of its normal precious material (such as cold iron) for any physical damage it deals.". Does it mean you can't use Silversheen on a wood/steel weapon? It seems like a big issue.

[mrspaghetti]

SuperBidi wrote:

I have a question about Silversheen (and Cold Iron Blanch, too).

Silversheen states that "For the next hour, the weapon or ammunition counts as silver instead of its normal precious material (such as cold iron) for any physical damage it deals.". Does it mean you can't use Silversheen on a wood/steel weapon? It seems like a big issue.

The first sentence says, "You can slather this silvery paste into one melee weapon, one thrown weapon, or 10 pieces of ammunition."

Doesn't limit it to particular materials.

[SuperBidi]

I also think I'll consider that. But the term "normal precious material" is misleading and opens a question if it's not precious material. I would have said "normal material" and it would have worked for everything.

[shroudb]

while i agree in casual language that saying "instead of its normal material" should cover all kinds of materials, it opens "some players" trying to wiggle through with statements like "the original material is not normal, it is special/precious, so i get to keep both" though.

maybe a simply "or" could cover both though "isntead of its normal OR precious"

[SuperBidi]

Instead of its material ?
Even less word count.

[Thod]

Wow - just wow. I did miss the small print about precious material.

@SuperBidi - trying to interpret it as best as I can

Precious is a trait and key-word. There is a whole sub-chapter dedicated to it.

CRB p577 wrote:

Precious Materials

Materials with the precious trait can be substituted for base materials. For example, a hammer’s head could be made of adamantine instead of iron. Items made of a precious material cost more than typical items; not only does precious material cost more, but the crafter must invest more time working with it. In addition, more powerful items require precious materials of greater purity.

CRB p635 wrote:

precious (trait) Valuable materials with special properties have the precious trait. They can be substituted for base materials when you Craft items. 577–579

CRB p452 wrote:

Precious Materials

While not their own damage category, precious materials can modify damage to penetrate a creature’s resistances or take advantage of its weaknesses. For instance, silver weapons are particularly effective against lycanthropes and bypass the resistances to physical damage that most devils have.

Precious materials (CRB only - later books might add materials) are:

Adamantine
Cold-Iron
Darkwood
Dragonhide
Mithral
Orichalcum
Silver

So is the 'precious' mentioned just fluff or actually a key word. It mentions cold iron as example for silver sheen. And in the APG it uses the same phrase but mentions silver.

This makes it clear it is not just fluff but intentional. This still leaves two possible interpretations for me.

a) (restrictive) - the examples mentioned deal with precious materials and therefore your weapon has to be made of a precious material as well

b) (less restrictive) - the mention of 'applied to weapons' doesn't include any restrictions. The example uses precious materials to ensure each weapon only counts as a single material - so adding silversheen on a cold iron weapon will suppress the effect against fey cold iron weakness while slathering cold iron blanche on a silver weapon suppresses lycanthrope weakness against silver.
There isn't anything to suppress with ordinary steel. Therefore steel isn't mentioned.

I have to admit I first went for the more restrictive reading of the rules. But contemplating it I rather see this similar to the magic weapon spell which mentioned 'non magic weapons' until Paizo realized that ruled out a +1 weapon. And they issued an errata to make that clear.

So I would currently allow it on steel but not on wood or leather (silver club, silver whip) as you can't craft these items from these materials. That seems the right balance between interpreting that if you can craft something that way you can substitute it - otherwise not. But I would need to dig deeper to find RAW to back it up.

[BastionofthePants]

There definitely wasn't an intention to limit these items to precious material weapons. A wooden or standard metal weapon would effectively have a precious material type of "none."

If it was cold iron, it is now silver instead. If it was regular wood, it is now silver instead of nothing.