SRD Talk:Adamantine

Problem

Just as a note; Doesn't drow forged Adamantine have a weakness to sunlight?--Cypresslyshra 00:51, 29 December 2006 (MST)

That limitation has been removed as of 3.0. —Sledged 11:29, 29 December 2006 (MST)

Curses his 1st edition book* Alright, thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cypresslyshra (talk • contribs) 12:30, 29 December 2006 (MST). Please sign your posts.

FYI, only material released under WotC's game license is posted here. Expansion material or specific settings may expand or contradict this entry. Either way, we don't have a license to them.--Dmilewski 11:33, 29 December 2006 (MST)

I also thought that an adamantine weapon had a +2 to attack and damage rolls, rather than a +1... Cerin616 12:33, 10, january 2008

Nope, and it's just a +1 to attack, not damage. Previous editions had adamantine as a quasi-magical substance, and weapons made from it were effectively the same as magic +1 to +5 weapons. —Sledged (talk) 10:42, 10 January 2008 (MST)

Little Known Errata

Apparently, the Special Edition DMG has the cost for adamantine shields at +2,000 gp. A bit of errata that never made it to the DMG errata doc. —Sledged 20:25, 25 January 2007 (MST)

Weird how that happens... --Green Dragon 22:43, 25 January 2007 (MST)

Adamantine Shield

Does an adamantine shield give a DR? Rowanalpha 12:09, 18 June 2007 (MDT)

No, instead it has the benefit of bypassing DR x/adamantine when you use it to perform a shield bash. With bucklers and tower shields, there's no benefit beyond hardness and hit points. In fact, the SRD tower shield is made from wood. So going strictly by the SRD, you can't have an adamantine tower shield. —Sledged (talk) 12:26, 18 June 2007 (MDT)

Appearance

Very simple question: what does Adamantine look like? MorkaisChosen 09:40, 7 December 2007 (MST)

Barring a description from an official source book, I'd say it has the same appearance as steel. But that's just my take on it. —Sledged (talk) 09:46, 7 December 2007 (MST)

I always pictured it as darker with more of a blueish shine, than steel. Cerin616 12:35 10, january 2008

I believe it's a dark/black metal. Justification: Adamantine dragons are a metallic black, or dark metallic hue. -Anonymous

Adamantine weapons with wooden parts

Can a weapon with wooden parts (a scythe, for instance) be made of adamantium? It doesn't say it clearly in description... --Thiregan 16.12, 13 January 2008 (UTC +2)

It does- "an arrow could be made of adamentium". So, yes. So long as at least part of it is metal (I assume glueing a paperclip to the idem does not count) --Sam Kay 07:27, 13 January 2008 (MST)

The real answer is up to your DM. The materials rules are fairly vague and particularly hand-wavy. --Dmilewski 08:56, 13 January 2008 (MST)

The sentence that reads:

Items without metal parts cannot be made from adamantine.

implicitly states that the only requirement is that the item in question have a metal part. So you can have an adamantine scythe. And since the scythe was specifically mentioned by Thiregan, I'm guessing that he was wondering if the same rules as to what items can be made from mithral apply to adamantine. They both have different stipulations because of the benefits they each provide.

Also, "adamantium" is the fictitious metal in Marvel comics (most notably known as the stuff that coats Wolverine's skeleton). "Adamantine" is the fictitious metal in the d20 system. (Previous editions also had "adamantite" which was a different grade of the same stuff.) —Sledged (talk) 18:27, 13 January 2008 (MST)

It seems really stupid, the whole quarterstaff thing. Telling your players that an adamantine STICK is impossible? Pull the other one! Admittedly, I don't have a satisfying lore explanation for why it's so. 64.46.10.216 00:03, 21 December 2017 (MST)

Size Price Changes

Discussion moved from User talk:Verinoloth#Adamantine Size Price Changes. --Green Dragon 11:56, 19 October 2010 (MDT)

Hello. I was wondering about the pricing practices on large or bigger adamantine weapons. The 3.5 DM guide only lists +3000 gp as price for weapons, meaning that a adamantine dagger and great sword has the same price addition. Logic states that a big weapon would cost more.

How much would you say a for example, a huge Goliath great hammer made of adamantine costs? The weapon has a weight of 120 lb. --Verinoloth 15:56, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

By the book - no price change for size. The GP cost is based on gameplay impact, not material volume. D&D does not make realism a priority. Obviously a GM can always make the cost proportional to item type and size. This sort-of makes sense for game balance since small weapons/shields/armor are less likely to take advantage of the benefits as compared to their base stats. - jhansonxi

HP question

It states that weapons made from Adamantine have 1/3rd more HP than it's steel counterpart. So a weapon with 15 HP would have 20 HP (15 / 3 = 5; 15 + 5 = 20). But in the text, it also states that Adamantine has 40 HP per inch of thickness. Given both of these statements, I have to ask which is correct? Normally I'm sure we assume something like a dagger will be made of this stuff, so we'd probably just assume the 20 since it's less than an inch thick, while shield which can be an inch or more thick would have the 40 HP. But my question comes in the form of a Two-Handed Hafted weapon; Metal striking thing on top and a wooden shaft to hold at the bottom. It's easily conceivable that a sledgehammer - or similar weapons - could be an inch, or even two, in thickness. So if a medium hammer is two inches thick, does that give it 80 HP? Additionally, the wood is far weaker than the metal, so for Sundering purposes, wouldn't we want to try and break the handle - Something of a mere 10 HP? I'm asking because I very much intend on having an Adamantine Bec de Corbin (36" spiked hammer), but I can't tell if it's HP would be 20, 40, 80, or just 10...

Thickness is generally for things like walls and doors. For a weapon it will be 1/3 more hp. Its not accurate but it makes it a lot simpler. Tivanir (talk) 10:45, 17 June 2014 (MDT)

This may be very late in response, but most shields made with metal are either less than a quarter inch thick, and some have wooden backing to make the material absorb a little more shock, carrying a shield that is any thicker than an 1/8th of an inch of metal would be far too heavy. It is D&D but the reason it has those rules is indeed more for the thickness of doors and walls. Most Dms don't worry about the rule that adamantine cannot be made into objects that are made of wood when it comes to the haft of a weapon, in my mind most items that are made of wood can be swapped with a metal variant. Bows are probably the only example where changing to metal is not as viable, unless you find a way to make adamantine springy and feasible to draw, it would probably be similar to the +5-+10 str composite longbow. Your best bet is ask your DM about his thoughts, if you are DM you can adjust the rules in these books at your leisure, as the books are guidelines for the DM and if the rules don't really make sense to you you can make adjustments. - Sakasil