Class and Level Geekery XVIII - Everyone's an Expert

[Seward]

(which takes us back to whether an adamantine dagger could reasonably be supposed to offer a better bonus than a climbing kit).

Not really.

A climbing kit gives you a +2.

A hammer and pitons sets the check to 15.

Using a climbing kit to climb placed pitons makes the check an effective 13.

An adamantine dagger is like a piton that doesn't need a hammer and doesn't take the time (and noise) hammering a piton would take.

It is however, only 1 piton.

For all the "don't fall off the wall while dodging crossbow bolt" type checks, the dagger probably reduces check to a flat 15. Gaining altittude requires hanging onto wall while stabbing dagger higher.

Given that you also have the hole the removed dagger made to provide a little bit of a grip (and while removing dagger you could carve out a larger handhold before sticking it in higher), I'd say most GMs would make it easier than climbing the wall but probably a bit harder than the flat 15 a series of preplaced pitons would give you.