Adamantine price (per cubic ft.)

[Tr011]

Hey guys,

what market price would a cubic ft. of adamantine have? I guess since 1 cubic ft. is 28.3 liters and adamant should have a concentration of 3-5g/cm^3, since 1g/cm^3 equals 1kg/liter and 1kg equals like 2 daggers (1lb each).
One dagger of admantine has a market price of 3302gp, the material costs 1/3 of that.

If I'm correct, one cubic foot should then have a market price of 28.3*3.5*2*3302/3 = 218k gp (using 3.5g/cm^3).

(So if you see a really big piece of adamantine, you can just make about 200k gp cubes worth of adamantine per CL of fabricate)

[Maat Mons]

Stonghold Builder's Guidebook has a table on page 37 giving costs for 10 ft. by 10 ft. sections of walls of various materials.  An adamantine wall, noted as being 6 in. thick, cost 3,000 gp per section.  So, 50 cubic feet of adamanitne costs slightly less than one adamantine dagger. 

[Leviathan]

If adamantine is so hard, presumably it is very difficult to cut it or shape it - only a master craftsman with specialized tools can do so. It may be that unworked adamantine is quite cheap, and the cost of it comes from the labor. A dagger, which needs to be sharp and in a specific shape, would naturally be much more expensive than a wall, which can be in any shape.

Therefore, I think that an estimate based on the price of an adamantine wall will be more accurate than one based on the price of adamantine weapons or armor.

Of course, it could also be that the writers of D&D had no knowledge of economics and made no effort to create consistent prices. In that case, your DM or your group can just pull a figure out of a hat and it will make as much sense as anything else.

[Gazzien]

Stonghold Builder's Guidebook has a table on page 37 giving costs for 10 ft. by 10 ft. sections of walls of various materials.  An adamantine wall, noted as being 6 in. thick, cost 3,000 gp per section.  So, 50 cubic feet of adamanitne costs slightly less than one adamantine dagger.

Probably a bad metric to use...

Adamantine also doesn't change the weight of an armor, so it must have the same density as iron; that is, a cubic foot of cast iron weighs about 450 pounds. So around 450 pounds/cubic foot, then just use the standard XXXgp/lbs conversion from the special materials page.

[SolEiji]

Stonghold Builder's Guidebook has a table on page 37 giving costs for 10 ft. by 10 ft. sections of walls of various materials.  An adamantine wall, noted as being 6 in. thick, cost 3,000 gp per section.  So, 50 cubic feet of adamanitne costs slightly less than one adamantine dagger.

Probably a bad metric to use...

Adamantine also doesn't change the weight of an armor, so it must have the same density as iron; that is, a cubic foot of cast iron weighs about 450 pounds. So around 450 pounds/cubic foot, then just use the standard XXXgp/lbs conversion from the special materials page.

Wouldn't you use less of it though?  it's its both tougher and denser, you could use 1 inch of adamantine where 6 inches of iron would be.

[ketaro]

Wouldn't you use less of it though?  it's its both tougher and denser, you could use 1 inch of adamantine where 6 inches of iron would be.

Yeah but then you're only getting the same benefit as the iron for more money and only gaining less space used.
So you'd want the 6in of adamantine.

[Chemus]

I know that this is an old thread, but myth-weavers' Dragonnel posted the actual answer here. He got the page wrong, as it's on Draconomicon p278, under trade goods. Adamantine is valued at 100gp/lb (only twice that of gold), as is Mithral. Thus, presuming 491lb/ft³ (as steel/iron), that's ~49,100gp/ft³. Darkwood gets you 10x the volume, but 1/20 the weight (red oak ~= 45lb/ft³, and darkwood is half that weight), and 10gp/lb, so not very good.

I was looking for this b/c I noticed that a Dweomerkeeper can cast a rapid-spell metamagic fabricate to create 1ft³ of material using Supernatural Spell. Rapid spell makes 1 round casting into 1 standard action. Fabricate on 1ft³ is 1rd casting, goes to standard action with rapid spell, and thus is available for Dweomerkeeper's cheese. Arcane thesis could help keep the spell level down. A suboptimal build could utilize Trapsmith to get fabricate as a 3rd level spell. Or a Chameleon might jump on that.

The best for this looks like platinum, which produces 1340.45lb/ft³, and 500gp/lb, so 670,225gp per cube. Not bad for a 9th level caster.

Now to move all that weight.

[kitep]

If I understand you correctly (and I might not), you're using Fabricate wrong.  It doesn't create material like gold or adamantium out of thin air.  Instead, it lets you create an item out of raw materials you already have.  So if you already have the adamantium, you can create a suit of armor, or a weapon.  You still make a lot of money, but it's not quite as easy as just poofing it into existence.

[Chemus]

Fabricate's material component is the material to be fabricated. DK's Su Spell lets you cast w/o components, as long as the spell's casting time is 1 standard action. Thus limiting to 1 ft³, and the use of rapid spell, lets fabricate be used without components, producing up to 451lbs of iron/steel/adamantine objects, or 1340lbs of platinum objects, w/ your results varying by your craft skill check.