D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 weapon material question

[Sanackranib]

I am going to be playing a lev 1 rapier wielder in our upcoming game. Since I am the only one in our group without the 3.5 books (funds don't permit an upgrade yet) I will raise the question here:
what is the best starting material for a rapier? it looks like I will have about 150 gp to spend

 

[Jhyrryl]

Do you know anything about the campaign? If not, I'd go with plain old steel, masterwork if you can afford it, before trying to acquire cold iron or alchemical silver.

 

[Sanackranib]

I know we will be moving arround a lot with some wilderness, sea travel and dungeon crawls. no specifics. and at 320gp a masterwork steel rapier is gonna be out of my price range. I figure that I have about 150 out of 200 gp that I can devote to my items which will mainly be my sword.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

If you want a special material for your rapier go with cold iron.

At double the normal cost of your weapon it's fairly cheap. More significantly, it doesn't come with the damage penalty of alchemical silver. If you were buying a masterwork weapon, the additional cost for magical enhancements in the future might be an issue but since it's not masterwork that wouldn't be an option anyway. (Buy yourself a silver shortsword as a backup weapon if you want to be extra-prepared).

 

[Jhyrryl]

Then my recommendation is to spend 20 gp on a standard rapier, and put the other 130 gp towards useful scrolls, potions, oils, and alchemical substances. But, I'm a big fan of carrying around "save my butt" items. <g> I'll give up a little power on my "used all the time items" like weapons to ensure that when something unexpected or weird happens, I'm prepared for it.

 

[Sanackranib]

E-B thanks for the idea. I may go ahead and buy both cold iron and silver and keep both around until I can manage the funds for a silv-ron version!

 

[Sanackranib]

Then my recommendation is to spend 20 gp on a standard rapier, and put the other 130 gp towards useful scrolls, potions, oils, and alchemical substances. But, I'm a big fan of carrying around "save my butt" items. <g> I'll give up a little power on my "used all the time items" like weapons to ensure that when something unexpected or weird happens, I'm prepared for it.

me too but the DM is not allowing magic items at character creation