Silvered Weapons. WTF

[Derek Raines]

While reading the PHB, I came across the most ridiculous piece of information: coating a single weapon is 500 gp (no matter the size) while you can silver-coat an apparently random number of projectiles for the same price.

I did some calculation and, assuming a sp to weight about 12 grams of silver (about a half dollar), it costs about 4 gp worth of silver to coat a longsword with a 90cm by 3cm blade with a 1mm film of silver. That leaves oh, about 496 gp in salary for the smith.

Now, the melting point of silver is way below that of iron or cast iron so the process can't be all that complicated as far as getting the silver on the sword is concerned, and requires less complicated equipment than iron to melt and work with.

Considering that plate armour can be had for a mere 50 gp - and plate armour is a complex and time-consuming piece of work - and a magical sword can be had for 360 gp, I have a hard time imagining what sort of incredibly complex process a smith has to know to put a layer of silver onto a sword so that his time would be worth 496 gp.

[gamedave]

Uhh, fantasy game, not reality. Game prices are for game balance, not "realism".

But if you want realism, fine. Working silver is easier than working iron, because it is a softer metal with a low melting point. However, that is the reason why in real life no one ever made an actual silver weapon for battlefield (as opposed to purely decorative) use. Silver is a soft metal that cannot easily retain an edge, is easily dented and bent, and isn't as flexible as weapon-grade iron or steel (watch a slow-motion video of a sword impacting a target - it looks like rubber it flexes so much). So, realistically, silver is all but useless for weapons.

Now, you can coat a weapon with silver - but coating one metal with another is actually a very complex process that would be beyond most pseudo-medieval metal-workers, much less applying a coating that would stay adhered during combat conditions, much less a silver coating that retained an edge and wouldn't be worn off by use and routine sharpening, much less an alchemically pure form of silver that harms creatures vulnerable to silver. A "silver-coated weapon" is an inherently fantastic idea, that could easily require rare skills and valuable alchemical reagents to create.

[Derek Raines]

I realize it is fantasy and not reality. It was just their attempt to explain its price in realistic terms that caught me as odd.

And yes, it would require some sort of silver alloy to keep its edge. But honestly, the process can't be MORE complicated then enchanting a weapon with magic, could it?

[gamedave]

Mar 2, 2009 12:21:16 GMT -5 Derek Raines said:

I realize it is fantasy and not reality. It was just their attempt to explain its price in realistic terms that caught me as odd.

From the PHB, page 220:

This cost represents not only the price of the silver, but the time and expertise needed to add silver to a weapon without making it less effective.

I'm not really sure what your objection here is. They want to price silvered weapons at 500 gp for game balance reasons,
and want to forestall exactly the objection that you made, that it would not take anywhere near 500 gp worth of silver to coat a weapon, so they explain you are paying for the time and expertise of the smith to "add silver to a weapon without making it less effective." I could continue from my previous post and add more details as to why, but the simple fact is an effective silver or "silvered" is inherently fantastical.

Mar 2, 2009 12:21:16 GMT -5 Derek Raines said:

And yes, it would require some sort of silver alloy to keep its edge. But honestly, the process can't be MORE complicated then enchanting a weapon with magic, could it?

Again, without diving into the details, the idea of an effective silver or "silvered" weapon simply is inherently fantastical, just as much as a magical weapon. At that point, comparing two inherently fantastical ideas, there's no particular reason why it couldn't be more complicated than enchanting a weapon with magic. In fact, essentially, you would be enchanting the weapon with magic, even if that's not how it's explained in game terms.

Finally, the whole "silvered weapon" concept and its rules is simply done for game balance. Since no creatures have DR anymore, unlike in 3.x, you don't need a silvered weapon to fight any creatures; silvered weapons just give you bonus damage against certain creatures (such as lycanthropes). That being the case, the designers want to retain some flavor, so that silvered weapons are unusual, but not particularly difficult to obtain for moderately experienced heroes. A mid-Heroic tier character can easily have his main weapon, or a stash of ammunition, silvered if he really wants to, while at the same time silvering is expensive enough that not every character will have silvered weapons. This gives the game balance and the flavor to lycanthrope encounters that the designers are seeking, with an entirely plausible (in a game like D&D) justification.