Alchemical Silver — Weapons and Rules by Edition

Silver is worked onto a steel blade or other metal weapon to overcome the protection of creatures vulnerable to it. The prices below come from the older d20 alchemical-silver rules; they must not be used as the purchase prices for every edition. A werewolf illustrates why that distinction matters.

Alchemical Silver — Pathfinder 1e

HP/inch 10; Hardness 8; Cost see table

Alchemical silver item	Additional cost
Ammunition	+2 gp
Light weapon	+20 gp
One-handed weapon, or one head of a double weapon	+90 gp
Two-handed weapon, or both heads of a double weapon	+180 gp

What the Silvering Process Does

A complex process involving metallurgy and alchemy can bond silver to a weapon made of steel so that it bypasses the damage reduction of creatures such as lycanthropes.

On a successful attack with a silvered slashing or piercing weapon, the wielder takes a -1 penalty on the damage roll (with a minimum of 1 point of damage). The alchemical silvering process can’t be applied to nonmetal items, and it doesn’t work on rare metals such as adamantine, cold iron, and mithral.

What Changes by Edition?

D&D 2024: Use the creature’s current stat block rather than the older silver rules. The 2024 Werewolf, for example, does not have the 2014 werewolf’s immunity to ordinary, non-silvered weapon damage. The d20 cost table above is not a 2024 equipment-price list.

D&D 2014: Silvering one weapon or ten pieces of ammunition costs 100 gp. This can matter against the 2014 werewolf, whose immunity covers nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing attacks unless they are silvered. The older d20 penalty of –1 to damage does not apply under these 2014 rules.

D&D 3.5e: The price modifiers in the table also appear in the 3.5e SRD. Its rule imposes a –1 damage penalty on successful attacks with alchemically silvered weapons, while the Pathfinder wording above specifically mentions silvered slashing or piercing weapons. In both editions silver is used to bypass qualifying damage reduction, such as DR 10/silver, rather than fifth-edition damage immunity.

Source Rules

Check the rules for your chosen edition: Pathfinder 1e — Special Materials, D&D 3.5e — Special Materials, and D&D 2014 — Silvered Weapons. Silver does not, by itself, cure lycanthropy or prevent a creature from transmitting a curse; consult the Werewolf entry for each edition’s actual curse and combat rules.

Rules Attribution and Licences

D&D 2024: This reference includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at D&D Beyond SRD, under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. D&D 2014: It also references the System Reference Document 5.1 from the same publisher and CC BY 4.0 licence.

Pathfinder 1e / D&D 3.5e: Original special-material rules are sourced from Pathfinder RPG and the D&D 3.5e System Reference Document under Open Game License 1.0a. The mechanical reference portions are Open Game Content; original narrative and page presentation are not.

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