What good do they do you? Are they lighter, more effective in combat, and work especially well against lycanthopes?
Thanks!

I know with the shields, they also act as having a mirror readied for reflecting gaze attacks.

They work against some monster who are immune to normal weapons. I don't think they work on enemies that need +2 or better weapons to hit. In any case they are just place holders until you can get magical weapons.

Pool of Radiance doesn't have lycanthropes. ;) They only showed up in Death Knights of Krynn, where there were no silver weapons.

Silver weapons do full damage against wights (which show up in a few places) and half damage against wraiths (which show up once). Probably the greatest use is for silver arrows so you can used ranged attacks on wights.

The silver shield which shows up in Secret, Pools, and Dark Queen will reflect gaze attacks as a mirror.

Unfortunately the Silver shields seem to have no effect in Pool of Radiance, I tested against the Basilisk in the library, and was still turned to stone.