Hey there,

I had a question in D&D 3.5 regarding making items. I had this concept for a particular weapon which, while made of cold iron, could be sheathed in silver when necessary. Basically, the issue that came up was that I wanted a weapon useful against a wide range of evil outsiders, rather than just demons or just devils. I know silversheen can do it as a one-shot, but is there a possibility of making such an item? What would be the cost?

I admit I am not very good at making magical items, so if anyone could help me with this I would be exceedingly grateful.

I don't think so, it specifically says in the description of alchemical silver that it cant be used with non-standard metals, so its silversheen or take something like the magical effect Bane for the one you aren't already breaking to add extra damage & get around it that way.

As to conditional special materials I am almost 100% sure that is not allowed, as with the exception of Alchemical Silver, the whole relevant part of the weapon or armour (such as an adamantine arrow head, or a mithral greatsword) has to be made of the substance, & with alchemical silver, it is bonded to the metal in a way that it can't be separated, the fact that it isn't permanently bonded is why silver sheen wears off the weapon.

Metalline. +2 enhancement.

Care to offer some clarification to that Sith? Like source, effect, etc?

Underdark Campaign Setting. Essentially, change a metal weapon into any other kind of metal. Magic Item Compendium updates it to be only the specific DMG metals, I think.

Ah, there you go, so that could work. But at a minimum of 18000gp, it wouldn't be a cheap weapon.

You could just take another tack and go for an item that allows you to cast Bless Weapon. For an item that does this once a day, at CL1, which makes it active for 1 minute, you pay 800gp. You get the good descriptor, which affects the majority of evil outsiders, and critical threats are automatically successful. Each additional time per day costs an extra 800gp. Put it on bracers or a ring for body slot affinities. Sure, it takes a standard action to activate, but if you had the cash, you'd just get a holy weapon (+2 bonus), wouldn't you?

Edit: Sorry, math isn't my strong suit. That's actually 720gp, not 800.

Well I spoke to the dm and basically there ws a house rules ruling that such items exist in a world where the Blood War is being played out all the time. As for bless weapon, I actually did a permanent spell cast on that for approximately 2000 or so gold. Figure spell (1) x spell level (1) x 2,000 gp and it works. For the ability to auto crit against evil, as well as extra damage...2000 gp is not a lot.

Heh. Then you cheated. Bless Weapon has a duration of 1 minute/level, which incurs the x2 duration multiplier for continuous effects.

Well that can be fixed then. There is a REASON I said I was bad at making magical items, heh.