LibraryOgre
2009-12-28, 04:43 PM
So, I'm dissatisfied with how the cost of special materials works in 3.x and PF. For why, consider a dagger, a gauntlet, and a heavy mace. All are items which are made primarily out of metal, to the point where the non-metal parts are almost incidental (not quite with the gauntlet, but that's actually part of my point).
A dagger is a single piece of metal, with wood and/or leather on the hilt. It weighs about 1 pound, and costs a base of 1gp.
A heavy mace is a single piece of metal, with wood and/or leather on the hilt. It weighs about 4 pounds, and costs a base of 12gp.
A gauntlet is an intricate working of several pieces of metal and leather. It weighs about 1 pound, and costs a base of 2gp.
Each of these... simple and small, simple and heavy, and intricate and small... all cost 3000gp additional to turn it into a weapon made of adamantine. Similar problems exist, IMO, with Masterwork quality items... adding Masterwork to a shirt of Chainmail is the same cost as adding Masterwork to a Chain Shirt, which seems to make little sense to me.
I've been tempted to go with changing all of the GP values into percentages. Instead of paying base cost + 300gp for a masterwork weapon, you pay base cost + 300% for a masterwork weapon. Instead of base cost + 3000gp for adamantine, you pay base cost + 3000% (i.e. about 30 times as much) for it.
Does that sound reasonable? How would you handle this?
A dagger is a single piece of metal, with wood and/or leather on the hilt. It weighs about 1 pound, and costs a base of 1gp.
A heavy mace is a single piece of metal, with wood and/or leather on the hilt. It weighs about 4 pounds, and costs a base of 12gp.
A gauntlet is an intricate working of several pieces of metal and leather. It weighs about 1 pound, and costs a base of 2gp.
Each of these... simple and small, simple and heavy, and intricate and small... all cost 3000gp additional to turn it into a weapon made of adamantine. Similar problems exist, IMO, with Masterwork quality items... adding Masterwork to a shirt of Chainmail is the same cost as adding Masterwork to a Chain Shirt, which seems to make little sense to me.
I've been tempted to go with changing all of the GP values into percentages. Instead of paying base cost + 300gp for a masterwork weapon, you pay base cost + 300% for a masterwork weapon. Instead of base cost + 3000gp for adamantine, you pay base cost + 3000% (i.e. about 30 times as much) for it.
Does that sound reasonable? How would you handle this?