paizo.com - Forums: Advice: Permanent "Silversheen"? (2024)

Hi guys,

One of my players at the weekend told me his character had bought a "silversheen weapon". I of course pointed out that silversheen was one-shot and called it up on AoN to prove the point. He OTOH called it up on PFSRD and sure enough, there was something that they called "silversheen" that was a slightly upgraded version of alchemical silver.

I assume this is something that originally had a name that PFSRD could not use; anyone know what that name actually was?

(The source was apparently PC:QGttE which after a bit of digging I assume to mean Qadira Gateway to the East, but I do not have that one.)

EDIT: Never mind, apparently it is Silverhseen on AoN too. Weird.

_
glass.

I found the item further down this page. You might want to search for 'rust' as its faster than searching for 'silver'.
https://www.aonprd.com/SpecialMaterials.aspx

Edit: Apparently you found it before I could reply.

Anyways, whats the problem? Do you not want the player to have this item? It does sound rare, so that would be understandable.

glass wrote:

The source was apparently PC:QGttE which after a bit of digging I assume to mean Qadira Gateway to the East, but I do not have that one.

Yes, it's that book. Original text is:

Qadira, Gateway to the East wrote:

New special material

Silversheen: Blades made of this special metal count as alchemical silver weapons and are immune to rust, including that of rust monsters, the rusting grasp spell, and so on. They are always masterwork weapons—most often scimitars or longswords; the listed price includes the cost of the masterwork bonus.
No aura (nonmagical property); CL —; Craft (alchemy) 5 ranks, Craft (weaponsmithing) 5 ranks; Price +750 gp.

It seems like the usual -1 damage from alchemical silver would apply.

SheepishEidolon wrote:

Qadira, Gateway to the East wrote:

New special material

Silversheen: Blades made of this special metal count as alchemical silver weapons and are immune to rust, including that of rust monsters, the rusting grasp spell, and so on. They are always masterwork weapons—most often scimitars or longswords; the listed price includes the cost of the masterwork bonus.
No aura (nonmagical property); CL —; Craft (alchemy) 5 ranks, Craft (weaponsmithing) 5 ranks; Price +750 gp.

It seems like the usual -1 damage from alchemical silver would apply.

The text doesn't mention the -1 damage, so I don't think it applies.

It uses the craft rules because its an "alchemical item".

Also it does say it counts as alchemical silver, so the -1 penalty is debatable.

OmniMage wrote:

Anyways, whats the problem? Do you not want the player to have this item? It does sound rare, so that would be understandable.

The problem initially was that I was not able to the details anywhere other than PFSRD (which is often suspect). Having resolved that one, the residual problem is that Silversheen is already a thing in the core rules, so their overloading the term is both odd and unnecesarily confusing.

OmniMage wrote:

SheepishEidolon wrote:

It seems like the usual -1 damage from alchemical silver would apply.

The text doesn't mention the -1 damage, so I don't think it applies.

It says they "count as alchemical silver" and doesn't give an exception for the -1 damage, so it applies as written IMNSHO. Although give how costly it is, it probably shouldn't.

FWIW, after a chat with my group's other GMs, we decided that it will ignore the damage penalty in our games. And we renamed it "brightsilver".

_
glass.

zza ni wrote:

it's not a magical item, it's a "New special material" . like cold iron or drakwood

Yeah, I get that. But why 5 ranks in multiple craft skills? Wouldn't it make more sense to give craft DCs instead of requiring skill ranks?

glass wrote:

It says they "count as alchemical silver" and doesn't give an exception for the -1 damage, so it applies as written IMNSHO. Although give how costly it is, it probably shouldn't.

FWIW, after a chat with my group's other GMs, we decided that it will ignore the damage penalty in our games. And we renamed it "brightsilver".

_
glass.

I've always read it as 'count as alchemical silver weapons (for DR purposes)..." and that the -1 damage penalty doesn't apply as it's a pretty pointless material otherwise (Rust just doesn't come into play that often).

It's just a slightly (effectively 450g vs 20g - 180g) more expensive version of alchemical silver that doesn't take the slashing/piercing damage penalty (appropriately enough, as its typical use is 'most often scimitars or longswords') and also happens to be immune to rust, which puts it on top of my list of low level weapon materials if I don't think I'll need cold iron.

OmniMage wrote:

zza ni wrote:

it's not a magical item, it's a "New special material" . like cold iron or drakwood

Yeah, I get that. But why 5 ranks in multiple craft skills? Wouldn't it make more sense to give craft DCs instead of requiring skill ranks?

Having a rank requirement is a level gate. Its saying that only people with enough training (rank) can do it, doesn't matter how much skill you have from magic or otherwise (bonus).

This isn't the first or the last place that uses skill rank gating.

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

glass wrote:

It says they "count as alchemical silver" and doesn't give an exception for the -1 damage, so it applies as written IMNSHO. Although give how costly it is, it probably shouldn't.

I've always read it as 'count as alchemical silver weapons (for DR purposes)..." and that the -1 damage penalty doesn't apply

That italicised bit is not actually there though. Compare with mithral, where which does actually have that text (and therefore no damage penalty).

Taja the Barbarian wrote:

as it's a pretty pointless material otherwise (Rust just doesn't come into play that often).

Well yeah, I alreay said it shouldn't have the -1 penalty at its price, and I have agreed with the other GMs in my local group that we will houserule it to that effect - but we only have to do that because it did not inlude that text in the first place.

_
glass.