D&D/Pathfinder best special material?

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

Okay, so if you had one back up weapon, and it were made from one of the special materials (silver, adamantine, mithril, etc) which would be the one that would be best for getting through DR? I guess I mean, which Damage Reduction is most common?

[Coidzor]

Adamantine at least is useful for getting through material obstacles.

Really though, I'd just spring for the weapon property that lets me change what material it is if it's a backup weapon.

[Tael]

I find Cold Iron is the best material you make a weapon out of for DR, because you can buy things like Silver Sheen for your silver needs. Adamantine is extremely useful for carving your way through anything though.

[tyckspoon]

Adamantine is the most generally useful for its hardness-piercing utility, as well as beating DR on constructs that are generally pretty hard to hurt already (highish HP, abnormally high AC), so it's nice to not have to worry about their DR as well. Silver can be taken care of by keeping a few vials of silversheen around; it's cheap enough at the point where you can seriously consider having more than one relevant weapon.

So.. I guess Cold Iron by default, as that's the only other major DR material. Make your primary weapon adamantine when affordable, have a cold iron backup, apply silversheen to the one with the appropriate damage type or other properties as needed.

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

well plan is to be using archery, so I can use whatever kind of arrows (in effect, I can use any DR piercing material I want, as long as I have an arrow for that)

my backup weapon is a shortsword. I was wondering what I ought to make it out of, should I be without my bow, or out of arrows.

[AslanCross]

It really depends on what you're fighting. Constructs tend to have DR/adamantine. Outsiders tend to have DR/cold iron or silver, plus an alignment component.

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

I have fought everything in this campaign, haha. Just fought demons, on an island before that, fought undead/construct things, before that humans, before that lizardfolk... there is no rhyme or reason, no specific thing the DM favors more for us to kill.

[AslanCross]

If you're really worried about DR/material, there's the Metalline property in Magic Item Compendium. It changes to whichever material you want.

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

yeah, i know about metalline, but being level 7, soon 8... I can't really afford a +3 weapon as a back up. (+1, metalline) besides, Im a cheapskate. I just want to know what people think. *shrug*

[Popertop]

I would go with Adamantine.
Its my favorite metal.

[sonofzeal]

Metalline's a bit of a waste at +2 when you can get Shadow Striking for +3 and beat the DR of everything ever, including nasty ones like "cold iron and good", "epic and evil", or "good and piercing".

[Psyren]

I have a soft spot (irony?) for riverine personally

[Tael]

Sure Striking is also a +1 enhancement and beats any DR/alignment.

[NX_Phoenix]

my backup weapon is a shortsword. I was wondering what I ought to make it out of, should I be without my bow, or out of arrows.

If you have the gold to spare an adamantine backup weapon is a very good buy. For 3000 gold you get the ability to cut through any material with less than 20 hardness, making your backup weapon a nice utility item.

[true_shinken]

I'll add another vote for adamantine short sword as well.

[Gnaeus]

Isn't Starmetal just like adamantine but also gives damage bonus vs. outsiders? If so, Starmetal.

[Paul H]

Hi

Silversheen? Qadira Book Pg 25

Costs extra 750gp. Counts as Silver weapon, immune to rust & acid

Cheers
Paul H

[Chilingsworth]

well plan is to be using archery, so I can use whatever kind of arrows (in effect, I can use any DR piercing material I want, as long as I have an arrow for that)

my backup weapon is a shortsword. I was wondering what I ought to make it out of, should I be without my bow, or out of arrows.

If you're an archer, make your bow a force bow! It's a ranged-only weapon enhancement from the Magic Item Compendium. Not only does it overcome all DR, it does so by turning your shots into force bolts, ignoring incorporeality as well.

EDIT: If you're too low level to afford an expensive main weapon, then aim for this ASAP. Trust me: A "Forcebow with Legs" (i.e. a properly built archer with a forcebow) is very very lethal.