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We all love forges, right? Well I was trying some tests with the forging system in RD, to figure out what the price increase is for each alteration to the weapon. That's not the discovery though. What I discovered is how to make forged iron weapons AS strong as steel weapons, with better hit while simultaneously becoming cheaper overall. Spells like fire can actually become stronger AND cheaper than elfire (in fact... they can be stronger and cheaper than arcfire) biggrin

The point: you should never buy another unforged steel or silver sword/axe/lance/bow in radiant dawn. Don't even think about the el/arc spells. (unless you're worried about weapon experience :/)

Why? I'll show the numbers to prove it. You can take my word for it and go to the bottom to learn how (it'll be in red also), or you can read this entire post to get the concept for yourself.

For every alteration you make to your forge in a single area (mt, hit, crit, etc...), the price of the original weapon increases by these set percentages to with respect to the original price:
1st alteration: 10%
2nd alteration: 40%
3rd alteration: 90%
4th alteration: 160%
5th alteration: 250%
(you can't alter any area by more than 5)

With this in mind, perhaps you'll find it interesting to know that:
using a steel sword/axe/lance/bow weapon costs twice as much as the iron couterpart. Using a silver sword/axe/lance/bow costs THREE times as much as the steel too (and six times as much as the irons, not that it matters).

When you're actually buying the weapons, it doesn't seem that way though. For example, an iron axe costs 400 gold, a steel axe costs 640 gold, and a silver axe costs 1440. These numbers don't mach the cost comparison alone, but these numbers are also ignoring weapon usage.
An iron axe can be used 50 times after all, while steel axes can only be used 40 times, and silver axes only 30.

So: an iron axe costs 400/50 gold to use (8 gold per hit)
a steel axe costs 640/40 gold to use (16 gold per hit)(twice as much as an iron)
a silver axe costs 1440/30 gold to use (48 gold per hit)(thrice as much as a steel)

So basically, upgrading from iron to steel is 100% more expesive for only 3 more damage per hit (in addition to having to use a heavier weapon that has lower hit)

But wait! A forged weapon that has been altered 3 times only costs 90% more! And the damage will be the same! Not to mention, the forge will weigh less and have a higher hit, or the fact that you can use coins for an even better cheaper weapon.

Staying with the axe example:
A forged iron axe with 11 mt (+3 to might) has a hit of 80, a wt of 11, and costs (400*1.9)/50 gold per hit, or 15.2 gold per hit.
A regular steel axe does the same damage, yet it only has a hit of 75, a wt of 15, and costs 640/40 gold per hit, or 16 gold per hit.
So... yep, the forged iron axe is basically a superior weapon that costs less to begin with.

And obviously, the savings from the steel forge vs unforged silver are more extreme:
A forged steel axe with 14 mt (which is again, +3) has a hit of 75, wt of 15, and costs (640*1.9)/40 gold per hit, or 30.4 gold per hit.
A regular silver axe will also have 14 mt, but a hit of 70 in exchange for having a wt that is only 1 point lower. And it costs 1440/30, or 48 gold per hit.
Saving 17.4 gold per hit sounds like a win to me. And it's way more than the 15% from switching to Geico. Also, keep in mind that because the price difference from steel to silver is wider, we can opt to actually make steel weapons Stronger than silver weapons by adding +4 mt instead of +3 (the 160% increase will still be under the price of silver weapons).

While I only used axes for my example, you can cheaper and more effective forges for just about any weapon. Swords/Lances work the same way as axes because the price and mt increase from iron to steel to silver is the same (bows increase at the same rate too, but their mt increases by more making this obsolete). Spells are a different case, however. Since upgrading from fire to elfire only improves mt by 2, and the price spikes to three times a much per hit, and from fire to arcfire (el/arc-tomes can't be forged anyway) increases mt by 4 and costs FIVE TIMES as much per use, you can actually make forged spells that are stronger, cheaper, lighter, and have higher hit all at once. Daggers are also unique. A forged iron dagger is more expensive than a steel dagger, but a forged steel dagger can be MUCH cheaper than a silver dagger (assuming steel daggers can be forged, I can't remember right now).

Here's the how, for those who skipped:
For forged iron/steel swords/axes/lances:
Increase the mt of the forge by 3. You now have a forged iron/steel weapon that is just as strong as a non-forged steel/silver weapon, but that is also cheaper, and with a higher hit. For forged steel weapons, you may increase the mt by 4 instead of 3 for a forge that is both stronger and cheaper than a silver weapon. You could also increase the hit once and an iron will be just as expensive as a steel while being further improved in hit.

For forged fire/wind/thunder/light tomes (note that the price change percentages for light are slightly different although the effects are the same):
You can increase the mt of the forge to make it as strong as the el-version tome while MUCH cheaper, increase mt by 3 to make it stronger and cheaper (by a smaller amount), increase mt by 4 to make it as strong as the arc-version tome while MUCH cheaper than the arc (and even more powerful then el-tomes while only slightly cheaper), or even increase it by the maximum 5, to be stronger and cheaper than arc-tomes (although they will now be more expensive than the el-tomes). Really, tome forges are exploitable. The elthunder tome is surprisingly cheap however, so a forged thunder tome can't really outdo it while being cheaper :/

For forged steel daggers (assuming they're forgable):
Increase the mt 3 for a much cheaper dagger. Increase it by 4-5 for a stonger dagger that is STILL much cheaper (seriously, the price difference between steel and silver daggers is insane) than silver daggers.

For Wind Edges/Javelins/Hand Axes:
Increase the mt by 3 for MUCH cheaper, equally strong (and with higher hit) Storm Sword/Short Spear/Short Axe. Increasing mt by 4-5 will make it stronger and CHEAPER (though not by as much). (note that the savings are less for hand axes, more for javelins, and even more for wind edges, since for whatever reason, the price increases aren't uniform for the 1-2 range weapons...).

Just keep in mind that iron blades/greatlances/poleaxes, while they can't be forged, are already stronger and cheaper than steel swords/lances/axes to begin with (and the same applies for steel to silver).

So to those who thought that forges were better in exchange for being more expensive, unless you stick to bottom-of-the-barrel weapons, that's not the case.

There's basically no reason NOT to use forges for some weapons for any reason other than weapon rank gains/tome animations/weapon shapes (the latter two being pretty weak excuses :/)

I hope you found this enlightening and useful (even if too long).

Wow, thank you! I'll keep your tips in mind, FD!

Dude i know Bows are so God damned Expensive!

You my friend are a genius.

That is absolutely brilliant. It makes me realize that for all my borderline-obsession, I'm still not a Fire Emblem guru.

That said, I probably won't use it. I usually liquidate some elixirs and such and forge the most powerful weapon/tome possible. I then give this to whoever can make the most use out of it (i.e. Pre-Ragnell Ike) or someone who needs the help now to get really good later (i.e. Edward before his stats start to spike). This gives my units increased survivability, allowing me to divide them more without risk, which allows for a faster victory. This means more bonus experience, which is helpful for doing stuff like Shinon with EVERY STAT CAPPED! (It surprised me too).

But yeah, I'm usually a bit reckless with item liquidation, as I'm too Dutch to allow myself to use things like elixirs anyway, so I actually have the money to, you know, spend an arm and a leg on weapons. But hey, having Soren run around as a level 20 Archsage with a +5 magic +15 crit +25 hit Fire tome? Priceless.