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D&D 5E – Weights of Materials

4 Comments Posted by Ronny on December 6, 2016

weights-cubic

Weights of Materials

“Wow – we got this great new thing. What does it weigh?”

Metal	Weight per cubic foot	Weapon or Armor weight*
Adamantine	400 lb.	Same as steel
Brass	550 lb.	Same as steel
Bronze	550 lb.	Same as steel
Cold Iron	500 lb.	Same as steel
Copper	550 lb.	Same as steel
Electrum	900 lb.	Twice that of steel
Gold	1,200 lb.	2 1/2 times that of steel
Iron	500 lb.	Same as steel
Lead	700 lb.	1 1/2 times that of steel
Mithral	250 lb.	Half that of steel
Platinum	1,350 lb.	Three times that of steel
Silver	650 lb.	Same as steel
Steel	500 lb.	PHB metal weapons and armor are steel
Tin	450 lb.	Same as steel

Material	Weight per cubic foot	Weapon or Armor weight*
Acid	90 lb.	Same as steel
Alcohol	50 lb.
Brick	100 lb.	One quarter that of steel
Cereal	40 lb.
Clay	150 lb.	One third that of steel
Coal	80 lb.
Earth, Dry	90 lb.
Earth, Mud	110 lb.
Fat	60 lb.
Flour	30 lb.
Glass	150 lb.	One third that of steel
Granite	170 lb.	One third that of steel
Graphite	130 lb.	One third that of steel
Gravel	100 lb.
Hay	20 lb.
Leather	60 lb.
Lye	100 lb.
Marble	170 lb.	One third that of steel
Masonry, Rubble	140 lb.
Mortar	100 lb.
Oil	60 lb.
Paper	40 lb.	One tenth that of steel
Pitch	60 lb.
Plaster	140 lb.
Pumice	40 lb.
Rubber	90 lb.	One third that of steel
Sand, Dry	100 lb.
Sand, Wet	120 lb.
Sandstone	150 lb.	One third that of steel
Slate	180 lb.	One third that of steel
Snow, Freshly Fallen	10 lb.
Snow, Wet	50 lb.	One tenth that of steel
Soap Stone	170 lb.	One third that of steel
Soda Ash	70 lb.
Sodium	60 lb.
Sulphur	120 lb.
Tar	70 lb.
Water	60 lb.
Water, Ice	50 lb.	One tenth that of steel
Wood – Green	50 lb.	One tenth that of steel
Wood – Dry	30 lb.	One tenth that of steel
Wool	80 lb.	One tenth that of steel

* To calculate the weight a piece of armor or a weapon would be if made of one of these meterals, look up the weight of that item in the PHB (Player’s Handbook). Then find the material in the above table and look under the “Weapon or Armor weight” column. If it says “Same as steel” then it will weigh the same as the one in the PHB. Otherwise change the weight as indicated.

There are 1,728 cubic inches in a cubic foot. We can round that off to 2,000.

To make a quick estimate of the weight of an item, it is often easer to work in cubic inches than it is to work in cubic feet. Divide the weight per cubic foot for the material (in the table above) by 2,000. Then multiply the resulting fraction by the number of cubic inches of material in the item. Round this down to an even pound.

For metals, you can get the value of the item by multiplying the weight of the item by the metal’s value per pound (here).