Can you disintegrate a wielded weapon?

[juliaromero]

Can you disintegrate a magic sword that your enemy is trying to kill you with? If not, why not? And if so, is it automatically destroyed if it failes its save (being less than a 10 ft cube ... unless it's a REALLY big sword) and if it makes its save are those 5d6 against the HP directly or does hardness count?

 

[Jdvn1]

yeah, I think you can. Not sure about hardness, but I think it'd ignore it.

 

[Arnwyn]

Yes, you can target the sword. The AC for the ray (method of calculation under the "Sunder" section in the Combat chapter and/or the "Breaking & Entering" section in the Exploration chapter) is 10 + item's size + wielder's Dex. The size will most often be "Small" for any weapon wielded by someone of Medium size, and often it will be "Tiny" or smaller for smaller weapons. The saving throw is the item's saving throw bonus or the wielder's saving throw bonus, whichever is higher.

If the save is failed, it is entirely destroyed.

Yes, hardness always counts when an item takes damage, unless the item specifically has "Vulnerability to Certain Attacks" (which will be explicitly listed under the item or spell description).

 

[gnomebarbarian]

ya you should be able to target anythign with disenagrate. and failing that you could sunder it or throw a nightwalker at em (they like to use a special crush ability on magical weapons and such)

 

[MerakSpielman]

Yes, but more often than not you're better off targetting the sword's wielder. He'll get the same saving throw, but he's easier to hit, and if he poofs you get to keep the sword for yourself.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I agree with Merak - that's the fun in disintegrate - you get to scoop up all the goodies!

 

[UltimaGabe]

But if you're fighting a big strong fighter-type, there's absolutely no chance of him failing the save (except on a natural 1, but if you find yourself depending on those, you're playing the wrong game). And, let's face it- at higher levels, 5-30 damage isn't too much to a big tough fighter (especially with high-level Clerics, or, even worse, Fighters with Fast Healing). A sword, however, is going to have considerably less hit points than said Fighter, and in almost no circumstances can it recover hit points during a battle. Not only that, but it's going to be much easier to his, since it doesn't benefit from +5 Full Plate or a +5 shield or a +5 Amulet of Natural Armor. So, since even a Longsword can have (at most) 58 hit points, a couple well-placed Disintegrates, regardless of whether he makes the save or not, will even destroy a +5 Adamantine sword. True, you don't get it as treasure at the end, but it's going to be much easier to kill than the wielder, and the ex-wielder will (in most cases) be much more harmless without it.

 

[Diirk]

Um, if that adamantine long sword has 20 hardness, 5-30 damage won't do much to the sword, either... You're looking at 6 disintegrates, if you somehow manage to maximize them all !

Ps. You ignore the fighters armour/shield/natural armour bonuses for touch and ranged touch attacks.

 

[kjenks]

In the section on the basic properties of magical items, the SRD says:

The AC, hardness, hit points, and break DC are given for typical examples of some magic items. The AC assumes that the item is unattended and includes a –5 penalty for the item’s effective Dexterity of 0. If a creature holds the item, use the creature’s Dexterity modifier in place of the –5 penalty.