Shattering Spree

[Sgt_Shock]

I'm playing a warlock and I've taken interest in the shattering invocation. I understand it is at will, and would like to know the specifics of how it can be used.

Destroying equipment: It says the object gets a will save. What is an object's will save?

Destroying locks: Is open lock ever needed again?

Destroying materials other than metal: Leather? Cloth? That doesn't make much sense to me...

 

[Dandu]

Objects only get a will save if they are attended. Then they use the wielder's base will save, iirc.

 

[Sgt_Shock]

Ah, thanks. Does that mean that nonmagical locks are now not an obstacle for my party anymore?

 

[Noumenon]

What is an object's will save?

2 + 1/2 caster level, for magic items. I think unattended nonmagical objects auto-fail saves.

 

[Dandu]

Ah, thanks. Does that mean that nonmagical locks are now not an obstacle for my party anymore?

Yes.

Also, you can shatter leather. Because it's magic.

 

[Corsair]

Objects only get a will save if they are attended. Then they use the wielder's base will save, iirc.

The weilder/carrier of an attended item makes the save using their total bonus.

From the SRD: (object): The spell can be cast on objects, which receive saving throws only if they are magical or if they are attended (held, worn, grasped, or the like) by a creature resisting the spell, in which case the object uses the creature’s saving throw bonus unless its own bonus is greater.

The bits about magical items are pointless since Shatter can't target magical items.

As for locks, a pad lock, sure. However if the lock is built into the door, your DM may rule that the entire door, lock and all, is a single "object." Also of course a shattered lock can't be re-locked, if that matters to you.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's not like SHatter is the only way of breaking a lock off, anyway.

One game I was in, I had the Acidic Splatter reserve feat and served as the party's lock handler -- by melting the things away. That particular DM was Chaotic Evil and happened to genuinely applaud overcoming obstacles with brute force (when I DM and have him as a player, he likes to use brute force himself, even if there's a smarter/cleaner way to handle the situation), so it worked out.

Some DMs do get more annoyed with this stuff than others, though. I remember another DM, with a player using a Warlock. The Warlock was gleefully shattering all of the doors, which happened to be small/thin/light enough for him to actually do so. DM kept getting more and more upset about it, and arbitrarily started making other doors in the dungeon too big to shatter as a response. And when I say that, it's not a case of "maybe those doors were planned to be a different size beforehand." The DM explicitly said he was changing the doors just so the Warlock would cut it out.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

But if a lock was so much beefier, the Warlock couldn't cut it out!

*ba-dum-bump-TIIIIIIIINNNNNNNG*

(Tank you, tank you, I vill be hir all ze veek! Pliz teep yor waitressez!)

In other news...you all have given me my first real reason to play a Warlock...

 

[Herobizkit]

Aw Danny, come on... you mean to say you haven't mutli-classed a Warlock/Monk yet?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Haven't had the opportunity, really. Generally speaking, I play "filler" PCs- I try to design PCs that fill or supplement roles, rather than trying to be the primary in any given field.

And right now, the current party has 2 Monks.

So I'm playing a Clc of Obad-Hai/Sorc/Geomancer/Mystic Theurge.