Cost of Silver Ammunition

[dcollins]

In the 3.5 SRD, it lists "Alchemical Silver" ammunition cost as +2 gp. Is this per arrow or per batch? For example, do 10 silver bolts cost 21 gp or only 3 gp?

 

[UltimaGabe]

I believe it's per arrow.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

All costs regarding ammunition are per shot.

That's generally why it gets really expensive to be an archer.

 

[dcollins]

All costs regarding ammunition are per shot.
That's generally why it gets really expensive to be an archer.

I can't agree with that. Ammunition in the PHB is listed in batches of 10 or 20. Magic ammunition in the DMG is listed in batches of 50 for a fixed price.

Hence my question about alchemical silver: I agree that it should be worth at least 2 gp/shot, but the precedent elsewhere means it really should be specified as such.

 

[Old Nick]

I can't agree with that. Ammunition in the PHB is listed in batches of 10 or 20. Magic ammunition in the DMG is listed in batches of 50 for a fixed price.

Hence my question about alchemical silver: I agree that it should be worth at least 2 gp/shot, but the precedent elsewhere means it really should be specified as such.

I totally agree that it could be clearer, but since it's 20gp to silver a dagger, 2gp per arrowhead seems about right in terms of the amount of silver used. Whether it's also about right in terms of game utility ...

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I can't agree with that. Ammunition in the PHB is listed in batches of 10 or 20. Magic ammunition in the DMG is listed in batches of 50 for a fixed price.

Hence my question about alchemical silver: I agree that it should be worth at least 2 gp/shot, but the precedent elsewhere means it really should be specified as such.

Fine, then. I'll reword what I said previously, but leave the meaning unchanged.

All "special" costs for ammunition are per shot. Masterwork, alchemical silver, adamantite, mithral, etc.

SRD

You can’t add the masterwork quality to a weapon after it is created; it must be crafted as a masterwork weapon (see the Craft skill). The masterwork quality adds 300 gp to the cost of a normal weapon (or 6 gp to the cost of a single unit of ammunition).

The costs in the PHB are presented for groups of 20 units of ammunition for convenience's sake - otherwise, it would just read Arrow: 5 cp.

A Masterwork arrow, then, costs 7.05 gp. A group of 50 costs, according to the magic weapons table, 350 gp as a base price - it ignores the 2.5 gp necessary to purchase normal arrows.

Thus, the cost of enhancing a single arrow to +1 is (350 + 2000) / 50, or 47 gp.