The cost of low-grade silver weapon is 40gp + 4 per bulk.
You could treat the shield boss in different ways since it's bulk is listed as "-" which is negligible. But I believe this is done because the Devs felt it didn't need to increase the shield bulk that it was attaching to without thinking about what it meant for prices of special materials.
I would probably treat the shield boss as either 1 bulk or bulk L.
Meaning the price would either be 44 gold or 40 gold + 40 copper.
*Assumes Light items are 1/10 of 1 Bulk, thus 1/10th of 4gp (400 copper) is 40 copper (or 4 silver).
At medium levels, the difference between 40gp and 44gp isn't really important, but at the level you might want to first acquire it, it could be a big deal.
Edit: My post got eaten when editing!
I found rule text here that says minimum of 1 bulk for calculating cost.
So the answer is 44gp.
Cold iron (standard grade) weapons are 880gp + 88gp per bulk.
Warhammer is 1 bulk, so 960 gp would be correct, not sure why they have an extra 8gp there.
I think you're looking at the wrong place for the rules, weapons have a separate entry for pricing (as does armor).
I think you're looking at generic object made of materials rules.
Here's a link to a generic page that links you to the specific rules for silver weapons/armor/shileld.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Weapons made of special materials are often criticized for being way more expensive than their practical combat value is worth.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The main issue is that you have to pay to keep them since they’re DRM locked or some s@~* to not work with higher level runes. Fix that and specific material weapons are basically fine. Until then they’re worse than doing nothing unless your campaign is oops literally all demons, and (for silver) vastly worse than the salve.
The Consumables are so cheap, and of course allow you to adapt, that yeah, unless there's a recurring theme or I suppose acquires a boss's weapon (maybe just as a backup?), they'll always remain below other options. It's not like I wouldn't want one, it's that gold's tightly constrained.
Not only that, but since the grade of the special material limits what level of runes you can place on your weapon, it forces you to upgrade the material as well as the runes.
It's almost never worth it unless the campaign is strongly themed around an enemy with one specific weakness.
And even then the consumables are so cheap by comparison is still might never be worth it.
The new consumables – Transmuting Ingots – are even cheaper than the old silver salve and cold iron blanch.
If you know in advance that you'll be fighting something where silver/cold iron is useful, then the old salves/blanchs are fine due to their duration, but otherwise I'd recommend always buying a few of those whetstones, as they're also easier to apply (just 1 action, 1 hand) in combat.
Cold iron (standard grade) weapons are 880gp + 88gp per bulk.
Warhammer is 1 bulk, so 960 gp would be correct, not sure why they have an extra 8gp there.
880 +88 = 968, so it's correct.
The new consumables – Transmuting Ingots – are even cheaper than the old silver salve and cold iron blanch.
If you know in advance that you'll be fighting something where silver/cold iron is useful, then the old salves/blanchs are fine due to their duration, but otherwise I'd recommend always buying a few of those whetstones, as they're also easier to apply (just 1 action, 1 hand) in combat.
lol I forgot transmuting ingots also did cold iron. Cold iron weapons were already kinda mogged by blanch but now blanch is mogged, even harder. Look at that price difference, I don’t care if the higher level blanch can be prebuffed, it ain’t worth that much gold. Prebuff something else.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The new consumables – Transmuting Ingots – are even cheaper than the old silver salve and cold iron blanch.
If you know in advance that you'll be fighting something where silver/cold iron is useful, then the old salves/blanchs are fine due to their duration, but otherwise I'd recommend always buying a few of those whetstones, as they're also easier to apply (just 1 action, 1 hand) in combat.
880 +88 = 968, so it's correct.Cold iron (standard grade) weapons are 880gp + 88gp per bulk.
Warhammer is 1 bulk, so 960 gp would be correct, not sure why they have an extra 8gp there.
I realized later that when I typed it into a calculator I typed in 80 instead of 88, so I just goofed and got 960 erroneously.
lol I forgot transmuting ingots also did cold iron. Cold iron weapons were already kinda mogged by blanch but now blanch is mogged, even harder. Look at that price difference, I don’t care if the higher level blanch can be prebuffed, it ain’t worth that much gold. Prebuff something else.The new consumables – Transmuting Ingots – are even cheaper than the old silver salve and cold iron blanch.
If you know in advance that you'll be fighting something where silver/cold iron is useful, then the old salves/blanchs are fine due to their duration, but otherwise I'd recommend always buying a few of those whetstones, as they're also easier to apply (just 1 action, 1 hand) in combat.
Silver salve is still pretty good because it's one hour buff.
The cold-iron blanch isn't great because the high level version are expensive, even with the extra duration (which you may not need).
The new transmuting ingots definitely poach the lunch.
I think the benefit of special material weapons (SMW) over consumables is reliability and action / hand economy. You may not have time / fore-warning to pre-buff, or if you do you may be using a consumable in a case where it is no benefit and loosing the opportunity to apply some other buff. With a SMW you could just use that other pre-buff. You don't need any time or free hands, it's just there all the time.
Yeah, it's mostly a benefit when you know you will be facing a themed series of enemies. You don't buy an SMW at random. But (for example) my holy sanctified thaumaturge bought a silver weapon after almost getting done in by a devil, and had a good time on a certain level of a certain dungeon. He'd have had an awkward time using consumables to anything but pre-buff, since he fights sword an board (shield implement).
I think the benefit of special material weapons (SMW) over consumables is reliability and action / hand economy. You may not have time / fore-warning to pre-buff, or if you do you may be using a consumable in a case where it is no benefit and loosing the opportunity to apply some other buff. With a SMW you could just use that other pre-buff. You don't need any time or free hands, it's just there all the time.
You're not wrong, those are the benefits. But it's really only worthwhile (on the expense side) if the campaign has a strong theme that you'll be fighting enemies with the same weakness consistently.
quote]Yeah, it's mostly a benefit when you know you will be facing a themed series of enemies. You don't buy an SMW at random. But (for example) my holy sanctified thaumaturge bought a silver weapon after almost getting done in by a devil, and had a good time on a certain level of a certain dungeon. He'd have had an awkward time using consumables to anything but pre-buff, since he fights sword an board (shield implement).
I agree you shouldn't be a special material weapon at random, but that's exactly what many people coming from other systems or older editions are doing. They haven't thought through implications of price, they're just used to other systems where the penalty for using special materials was meaningless and think they should always use a special material.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Even if the campaign has a strong theme, that only applies to Cold Iron and Silver weapons. There is just no possibility that a Duskwood weapon will ever be worth its price, and the same is largely true for all other special materials. The campaign/GM will make sure you find a SMW before facing off a Nosferatu or Jiang-Shi, but voluntarily investing in such a weapon because you suspect it might come up is just a huge waste of gold.
I mean, if your campaign is focused around hunting Nosferatu (for some reason) it probably makes sense to invest in a Duskwood weapon.
My whole point of say strongly themed was trying to say "You're going to benefit form the special material in at least X% of fights". Where X is probably around 50%.
I mean, if your campaign is focused around hunting Nosferatu (for some reason) it probably makes sense to invest in a Duskwood weapon.
My whole point of say strongly themed was trying to say "You're going to benefit form the special material in at least X% of fights". Where X is probably around 50%.
If the campaign is focused around that and you know about it in advance. I was in a campaign with a lot of vampires once but the setup didn't telegraph that at all (because it's a mystery). By time we learn that, it was too late to go acquire new mid-level weapons.
You could do it in PF1 because backup weapons were more viable there and the effects of some materials were a lot stronger, but PF2 made most of them too expensive for what they do outside of some specific edge cases (like Spore War).
Adamantine is one where I see PF1 players often surprised by just how much worse it is in PF2 in terms of function, and it got significantly more expensive on top of that.
Yeah, I see a lot of players get surprised.
Primarily because it's just generally a bad idea to invest in special materials.
In PF1 special materials were relative cheap by the time you reached a certain level.
The grades of special mats in PF2 that limit your runes really creates the issue.
It's not just the limit on runes, it's their general "uselessness" apart from rarely-encountered resistances/weaknesses.
For example, adamantine shields are not the best shields to block with, far from it even, as they're significantly weaker than Sturdy Shields, yet have roughly the same cost. Other materials like Duskwood & Dawnsilver do little more than reduce the bulk a little, yet you've gotta sell your kidneys to afford them.
In several games I play it has become something of the norm to include special materials in a weapon (& armor) up to the item's level upon acquiring them, e.g. if you start at level 5 and select a +1 Striking weapon as your 4th-level starting treasure item, you can make it a cold iron, silver, or sisterstone weapon (level 2).
The grades of special mats in PF2 that limit your runes really creates the issue.
Yeah. Go out of your way to get a special cold iron weapon? Cool. Unfortunately now it's time for +3 runes and getting that on your fancy sword requires upgrading the material which will more than double the cost. Hard to justify that when you could get a rune for someone else at the same time instead.
It's only really ever worth it in edge case campaigns where it's coming up all the time.
(And ammunition is even worse and basically never worth actually buying.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Special material consumables have also gotten much better making long term investments into special materials an even riskier investment. Those one or two combats you have where you face a creature with a weakness can likely be covered by Silversalve, Alloy Orbs, Cold Iron Blanch, or my favourite the Transmuting Ingot whetstone which can cover cold iron, silver, or adamantine.
Usually I find special material weapons cool as a GM to give out as rewards rather then actively pursue as a player.
Yeah. Go out of your way to get a special cold iron weapon? Cool. Unfortunately now it's time for +3 runes and getting that on your fancy sword requires upgrading the material which will more than double the cost. Hard to justify that when you could get a rune for someone else at the same time instead.
Hard to justify indeed! I once had a party withold my character's fair share of treasure just because I said I wanted an adamantine sword. They argued that allowing it would set the whole party back when compared to spending the money on other options.
Yeah. Go out of your way to get a special cold iron weapon? Cool. Unfortunately now it's time for +3 runes and getting that on your fancy sword requires upgrading the material which will more than double the cost. Hard to justify that when you could get a rune for someone else at the same time instead.Hard to justify indeed! I once had a party withold my character's fair share of treasure just because I said I wanted an adamantine sword. They argued that allowing it would set the whole party back when compared to spending the money on other options.
Well it depends on how the GM runs the game (specifically how they handle treasure and keeping people approximately on WBL)...but yes they could be right.
Yeah. Go out of your way to get a special cold iron weapon? Cool. Unfortunately now it's time for +3 runes and getting that on your fancy sword requires upgrading the material which will more than double the cost. Hard to justify that when you could get a rune for someone else at the same time instead.Hard to justify indeed! I once had a party withold my character's fair share of treasure just because I said I wanted an adamantine sword. They argued that allowing it would set the whole party back when compared to spending the money on other options.
lmao based party