silver weapons costs

[francisca]

The PHB is silent on the cost of silver weapons, other than arrows. What do you guys do for silver weapon pricing?

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Start with the basic question: Who's providing the silver - players or the smith?

Assuming that the players are providing the silver (because realistically few smiths would make a silver-plated longsword "on spec") then the smith would do the silver plating at a fair rate for his time. In this case, it means taking up his forge with silver-plating activities for the best part of a day, and possibly annoying any other customers to whom he had made promises, so, well, (*eyes the PCs' expensive weaponry and bulging purses*) I think we've gotta be talking at least 100gp.

Personally I rule that if a player is using a silver-plated weapon, the last bits of silver plating wear off on any unadjusted "to hit" roll of 13. After this it is necessary to reapply the plating.

[AxeMental]

I don't know where silver weapons are described in the DMG or if they are at all. My impression has always been that the weapon has a percentage of silver included during the preparation of the metal (adding enough to give it the desired properties vs. undead yet not enough to make it weak) kind of like a low gold percentage ring, which has the appearance of gold but is much more durable then pure gold.

Assuming the weapon is part silver (all the way through) which is what I think Big G was talking about, I'd put the price at 3 to 5 times the cost of normal.
And remember silver weapons would be fairly common in a AD&D world were you have undead walking around just about every old cemetary.

Remember also, your average farmer/laborer is making like what 1 gp a week. It would have to make since in those terms as well.

[BonesMcCoy]

Yeah, I like Axe's theory better. Using the PHB arrow as our guide, it seems silver weapons should cost 10 times more than their normal counterpart.

Arrow, normal, single - 2sp
Arrow, silver, single - 1gp (20sp)

[AxeMental]

x10 still seems steep. A dagger 20 gp...ouch!

Anyone ever see how EGG does it as DM?

[Lord Cias]

Yeah, 20 g.p. might be a bit steep, but consider how much silver is actually reqired to make a dagger in addition to labor costs of the smith. Don't forget that a silver dagger (or other silver weapon) is a special request that could not be easily fulfilled by just any smith (a smith accustom to making daggers won't be accustom to working with silver, and those accustom to working with silver won't be experienced in making daggers).

BTW, I seem to recall reading somewhere in the DMG (or perhaps the MM) that silver weapons must be comprised almost entirely of silver, thus making them rather ineffective weapons except against those creatures harmed by silver. I couldn't find it after a quick skim through the DMG, though.

[AxeMental]

I don't think it would take any special training or time to throw in a bunch of silver pieces during the melting process. I also don't think it would cost much. If a dagger wieghs say 3 pds and you only need a dagger to be 1/2 silver thats not alot in silver pieces (and if 20 equal a 1 gp in your game...). I think silver weapons would be a premade weapon found at ANY smith or weapons shop. Remember this is a Dawn of the Dead world with zombies, ghouls, etc. walking around villages. Level of difficulty for monsters hit with silver also suggests silver weapons are within range of low level PCs. The fact that most of the really interesting monsters that can only be hit by silver are coolest in small numbers (lycanthropes for instance) also suggest silver weapons are affordable to low level PCs.

[foster1941]

The Moldvay & Mentzer Basic sets include silver daggers on the standard equipment list (don't remember the price but I think it's around 25 g.p.). IMG arrows and daggers are the only items normally silvered (i.e. that you can buy off the shelf) and to get, say, a silver sword would require hiring both a weaponmaker and a silversmith at standard expert hireling rates.

[AxeMental]

I don't know. What about a simple silver band around a club or staff. That could be cheap even by our standards. Although, this does keep to the x10 equiv. sugg. by the cost of a silver arrow.

One hint might be do you find silver weapons in published modules or only magical ones? It seems that if Gygax wanted PCs to have silver weapons but they weren't standard he would have incl. them in treasure.

[francisca]

Thanks for your feedback, everybody.

I'm of the mind to have both plated and "silverforged" type weapons in my game, both very rare.

I think I'll be asking Gygax over on ENWorld about this.

EDIT:
After sleeping on it, I've decided to say screw it. Who the hell would waste the time and the silver perfecting a way to make a silver sword or dagger (or whatever) which would stand up to the rigors of combat?

It doesn't make sense within the context of the game I am running, so there simply will be no silver weapons, other than silver arrows, which are simply have their heads quickly dipped in silver to make them useful against lycanthropes.