I think I recall seeing a rule somewhere that stated you could upgrade a mundane item into one made of precious materials, but I can't seem to find that rule now.
Is my brain being funny, or is it somewhere to be found?
Well - you can at least upgrade an item already crafted from a precious material:
After creating an item with a precious material, you can use Craft to improve its grade, paying the Price difference and providing a sufficient amount of the precious material.
I'd in most cases let a player upgrade an existing mundane item to be crafted from a precious material.
I mean, why not I guess? Can you figure out some way to game "paying the Price difference and providing a sufficient amount of the precious material" to get a discount? IMO it's equivalent to crafting a whole new item but I guess you wouldn't have to transfer runes? Or are you looking to upgrade a steel named weapon into the same weapon except silver/cold iron/etc.?
Base magical armor weapons are free; you only need to pay for the runes.
So if I start with a base magical weapon, then upgrade the precious material after the fact, I save on the cost of the armor or weapon itself.
Whereas if I start by purchasing a precious material weapon (magical or not), then I have to pay for the base weapon, the precious material, and the runes.
So it's about saving a little bit of gold, which can matter on a limited budget like when using the Lump Sum option during character creation.
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I allow it. It's a magical world. It should work.
Hardly a scheme as it is unlikely to save you more than a few dozen gold.
Example: Let's say I buy a traditional, mundane longsword made out of steel (1gp). I then buy a +1 potency rune (35gp) and a striking rune (65gp) to put on it. I then give it an standard grade adamantine coating (1,540gp).
In total it costs 1,641gp.
Alternatively, I could buy a +1 striking longsword as a basic magic weapon (100gp). I then buy a +1 potency rune (35gp) and a striking rune (65gp) to put on it. I then give it an standard grade adamantine coating (1,540gp).
In total it costs 1,640gp.
I've saved 1gp.
If I'm not permitted to upgrade from standard materials to precious materials, then I must buy the adamantine longsword, transfer the runes, and then sell the old longsword.
Oh I see. I finally looked up the costs. You're looking to get your magic weapons silvered practically for free...
What? No. Buying basic magical armor and weapons precludes precious materials. (If it could come with precious materials as an option, it wouldn't be "basic" anymore.)
The only thing I'd be saving on is the base armor or weapon cost itself, not the precious material cost. (And if the GM allows me to add precious materials to an existing armor or weapon, then I won't have to buy a whole separate suit of armor or weapon, I just upgrade the armor or weapon I already have by paying the difference.)
At best that saves 550gp with a Clockwork Macuahuitl or 90gp with an Exquisite Sword Cane. The first is rare, and so isn't the normal standard anyways, and the latter was published in an adventure and is widely acknowledged by the developers to have been a mistake; so we can pretty much ignore those outliers (as no competent GM would allow for that anyways).
Most other weapons, it's 25gp or less. For armor, it's 35gp or less. So if you wanted two weapons and a suit of armor, and happened to have 230gp upfront for the +1 runes, AND were getting the most expensive common items, you could save as much as 85gp (O-Yoroi armor and a pair of alchemical crossbows, for example) over the next guy who spent 315gp.
Are you hoping to silver a weapon you've gained from an ancestry, background, feat, or class feature and saving the base price of that free gear?
So I guess I'll ask again, in which /specific scenario/ are you hoping to benefit from this?
The specific scenario is this: I'm working on building a new character using Lump Sum starting funds.
I have enough gold to get items A, B, and C. I'd also like to get item D, since it would serve to better round out my character concept, but I'm falling just a few gold short.
Items A and B are a cold iron weapon and a silver weapon, respectively (both low grade).
If you can upgrade from mundane materials to precious materials, then I can save on the cost of the base weapon by paying just for the runes. (I'll be paying the precious material components no matter what.) This will leave me just enough starting funds to also get item D.
If you cannot upgrade from basic materials to preciousmaterials, however, then I must also pay for the base weapon and thus will not be able to begin play with item D.
Surprisingly, this is a scenario in which I frequently find myself in as of late (trying to squeeze value out of every single coin whilst keeping within the rules).
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I'm confused on this topic, because in my mind there shouldn't be a cost savings regardless of how you do it, but the published numbers might indicate that you could achieve a savings.
Like I think you should be able to take your non-special material weapon, and make it function as a special material weapon from a narrative perspective because maybe the weapon is sentimental to you.
But in my mind there shouldn't be a cost difference between buying a completely basic silver spear and putting runes on it, and buying a spear with (or without) runes, except for the cost of a whatever it is to have a silver base weapon, vs a non-silver base weapon.
And if there is a price difference....I would just consider it bad numbers.
Wait, so if I bought a standard-grade adamantine longsword, say, I wouldn't need to pay for the longsword? Just the precious material costs based on the bulk of the longsword? (1,540gp vs 1,541gp)
Where is that stated in the rules?
I've got a few characters that might need some minor adjustments it seems.
Huh. And I've been tacking on base weapon and ammo cost this entire time.
Is this different from past editions? I'm surprised I missed it.
It was the same in legacy PF2, IIRC. It was different in PF1, where the material cost was an addition, and I think its easy to remember that.
In this case "adamantine weapon" is a level 11 item, so the base price of the weapon itself is just subsumed into that, kind of like how a +1 striking weapon is 100g unless the weapon itself is of a higher item level than the runes.
The cost does include additional for bulk, though, so a greatsword will cost more than a dagger.
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Huh. And I've been tacking on base weapon and ammo cost this entire time.
Is this different from past editions? I'm surprised I missed it.
I been doing that too. That is good to know.