Value of Adamantine?

[laiyna]

Still the question what the value of the adamantine ore would be stays open. But I did some research and that is that good quility iron ore will give 60% loss of materials, so from 10 lbs iron ore you keep 4 lbs iron you can work with.

My best guess is that adamatine is much more valuable, so 90 to 95% loss of materials duing polutions makes still a very good mineing ore.

In case your group got 1 bag of holding full of adamatine ore (250 lbs) this would give them about 25 lbs of pure adamantine, (what was valued at 500 gp the lbs but in case you still need to extract it you can say that it got about half the value) whats good for about 6250 gp. Still a nice amount of cash. But not very over powerd.

The biggest advantage is that they got the materials to make items with it. Whats often the biggest dificulty for this type of weapons.

Lai

 

[CRGreathouse]

The Sigil, you forget that gain its properties it has to 'baked' in magic intensive 'streams' for years (somewhere between 25 and 100 years).

The raw material is essentially worthless without access to such areas.

And futhermore, once anything has been shaped into any form and 'baked' this way, it cannot be re-shaped without losing its properties, and therefore has to be re-'baked'.

CRGreathouse whips out his Rule 0 pen.

 

[AGGEMAM]

CRGreathouse whips out his Rule 0 pen.

Actually, I think that is exactly what TSR did.

 

[The Sigil]

Still the question what the value of the adamantine ore would be stays open. But I did some research and that is that good quility iron ore will give 60% loss of materials, so from 10 lbs iron ore you keep 4 lbs iron you can work with.<snip>

Oops! Good catch, laiyna!

So I need to adjust the value of the ore by multiplying value listed by the percentage of pure metal (I will call "adamantium") that you feel can be recovered therefrom.

Adamantium is mixed with iron to make adamantine.

A pound of adamantium would therefore still be worth 5,000 gp. Adamantite's value would depend upon its relative purity... "10%" adamantite (which is 10% adamantium) would be worth 500 gp per pound.

So, new "findings:"

1.) "ADAMANTIUM" is the pure metal that is alloyed with iron to create adamantine. Both adamantium and iron are softer than adamantine alloy (bronze is harder than copper and tin IIRC, so this is not unreasonable).

2.) "ADAMANTIUM" is worth 5,000 gp per pound.

3.) "ADAMANTITE" is not worth 5,000 gp per pound; rather it is worth 5,000 gp per pound times the percentage of purity (percentage of adamantium found in a particular specimen).

BTW, "whips out Rule 0 pen" is hilarious... and essentially what I did myself.

So, this isn't a DEFINITIVE answer since it is piling guesswork upon guesswork (% of ore recoverable, 2:1 alloy mix, and so forth), but in my mind it makes a - well, not realistic, but - good verisimilitude of a solution.

Hopefully someone else can come along and help us keep polishing the model.

--The Sigil

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

"ADAMANTIUM" is worth 5,000 gp per pound.
So much for the room full of adamantium statues. Followed by Animate Object traps.

 

[AGGEMAM]

I'll just add a quote:

Drow of the Underdark, chapter 7, Drow Craftswork, page 88.

Clothing and Weaponry

Drow weapons and armor are usually crafted from a dark, flexible metal known as adamantine, an alloy of adamantite.<snip>
Drow craftsmen, armorers, and wizards have developed careful processes to expose the materials from which these items are made to a specific combination of radiations and enchanted materials, and to handle the raw material in exacting, largely seret ways.
This process takes a long time, and hence is ongoing: the adamantite ore that will be used in the adamantine alloy of a drow buckler may spend a year or more "baking" in the cold, hard radiations of a guarded, highly-prized natural cyst-cavern, in the heart of what was once a lava flow.<snip>
It is important to note that the locations of high-radiation areas in the Underdark force most drow communities to be stationary. Thus, they are relatively easy prey for rival drow, monsters and other subterran races. This has forced the drow to develop strong fighting magic, good training and tactics, to survive.

 

[The Sigil]

I'll just add a quote:

Thanks, Aggemam. Your quote tends to reinforce my belief.. that indeed, the "adamantine" in question was DROW adamantine. Presumably dwarves and others who work adamantine may have different methods. Either way, it's nice to have the quote.

FWIW, I looked up the weight of rock (granite, quartz, limestone, pumice, shale) and compared to the weight of iron. Depending on the rock, it's roughly one-half to one-fourth the weight of iron. From that I can give a range of weights for adamantite (ore) - adamantium weighs as much as lighter rock and half as much as heavier rock.... here is a revised summary of points.

1.) "ADAMANTITE" is the raw ore.

2.) "ADAMANTIUM" is the pure metal extracted from the ore. It is softer than the alloy adamantine but has a very high melting point - say, 1500 F (higher than that of steel).

3.) "ADAMANTINE" is the alloy, consisting of 1/3 adamantium and 2/3 iron (perhaps with trace amounts of lead or tin or carbon or whatever else - the proportions of trace elements should be the carefully-guarded secret). Its melting point is still higher than adamantium.

4.) Adamantine (the alloy) weighs about 375 pounds per cubic foot.

5.) Adamantium (the pure metal) weighs about 125 pounds per cubic foot (iron weighs about 500 pounds per cubic foot) and is worth about 5,000 gp per pound.

6.) Adamantite (the ore) weighs between 125 pounds and 250 pounds per cubic foot (rock tends to weigh about 1/4 to 1/2 as much as iron... or about one to two times the weight of pure adamantium, depending on the rock). Its high-end value per pound is 5,000 gp times the purity of the ore (an ore that is 10% adamantium would be worth about 500 gp per pound), for light rocks and low-end value per pound is 2,500 gp times the purity of the ore (for heavy rocks).

7.) Adamantine should be worth at least 1,700 gp per pound (1/3 of 5,000 gp/pound, rounded) based on the value of the material only... you could argue that it should be more based on the utility inherent in the crafted item or less based on the fact that it's extremely hard to re-work... harder to re-work than adamantite, so adamantite is more valuable to make a new item. I would suggest that these are more or less balanced and that the value remain around 1,700 gp per pound.

8.) Armor made of Adamantine should be ten times as expensive as the SRD and DMG suggest.

Colorwise, I would suggest that adamantite be given the sheen/shininess of burnished silver (very shiny) but is a darker color - closer to the deep gray of graphite. That's a matter of personal taste only - YMMV.

If anyone cares by this point. I intend to adopt this for use in my own campaign, that's for sure. But then, it's not surprising, since I was the one making all the guesses so of course I believe me.

--The Sigil