Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SeshuTokara 07-26-07, 05:03 AM	The DMG ver. 3.5 doesn't state how much an adamantine shield would cost, nor does it mention benefits (other than the 20 hardness, and lots of hp). Can anyone help me with this, or am I just going crazy looking in the wrong place for this information?
Kouk 07-26-07, 05:49 AM	This is in the FAQ, posting the relevant info here for ease: What happens when you make a shield from adamantine or mithral? The adamantine description says you can make a shield from the metal, but there’s no cost given. What is the price for an adamantine shield? What benefits do you get from an adamantine shield? Do you get damage reduction? If so, how much? What if you have an adamantine shield and adamantine armor? Does the damage reduction stack? When you make a shield from mithral, what benefits do you get? If you had a mithral heavy shield, would it have the properties of a light metal shield? (A light shield’s weight lets you carry other items in that hand, although you cannot use weapons with it.) What would the damage rating be for a shield bash with a heavy mithral shield? Also, the mithral heavy shield listed on page 220 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide weighs 5 pounds, less than half of what a heavy steel shield weighs. The text for mithral on page 284 says a mithral item weighs half what a normal item weighs. Which one is correct? An adamantine shield costs an extra 5,000 gp (the same as the extra cost for adamantine light armor). Adamantine armor gives you some damage reduction (how much depends on the kind of armor; see page 283 in the Dungeon Master’s Guide) but an adamantine shield does not. An adamantine shield is always a masterwork shield, so its armor check penalty is reduced by 1 (–0 for a buckler or light shield, –1 for a heavy shield). An adamantine shield also has a hardness of 20 and one third more hit points than normal (6 for a buckler, 13 for a light shield, 26 for a heavy shield). A tower shield is made from wood, so you can’t make one from adamantine. The basic properties of a mithral shield remain unchanged. For example, a mithral heavy shield is still a heavy shield. If you’re size Medium and you shield bash with a heavy mithral shield, you deal 1d4 points of damage (or 1d6 if the shield has a shield spike). You can’t use your shield hand for anything else when you’re using a heavy mithral shield. Any mithral item is masterwork, but the –3 armor check reduction for a mithral item already includes the adjustment for a masterwork item. Any mithral item has a hardness of 15, but it has no extra hit points. In general, mithral items weigh half what their normal counterparts weigh. When you find a specific listing for a mithral shield or armor, however, use the weight listed for it, not what the formula gives you. A mithral chain shirt, for example, weighs only 10 pounds (see page 20 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide), not 12 1/2 pounds (half the normal weight of 25 pounds). So yes, all it does is make it harder to Sunder the shield.
wurwulf 07-26-07, 12:49 PM	I personally would houserule that an adamantine shield would give an extra DR 1/-. After all, if a player is going to spend 5,000 gp on a shield, I think he deserves a little more than "it has more hit points."