Targeting Held item with a power

[Bagpuss]

You can attack in such a fashion...but it still follows the rules of sundering. Meaning, it requires a melee attack.

Surely it follows the rules for damaging an item, sundering is just one method of damaging an item.

 

[DiceGolem]

Yes. Though if the power requires a RTA...

Upon manifesting this power, you choose cold, electricity, fire, or sonic. You release a powerful missile of energy of the chosen type at your foe. The missile deals 3d6 points of damage to each creature or object you target, to the maximum of five targets. You cannot hit the same target multiple times with the same manifestation of this power.

Unfortunately no, it's an automatic hit like magic missile. But, an attended or magic item still gets the save for half damage.

 

[BlackFiend]

I don't agree. Attacking with a spell has zero correlation with sundering unless the item/spell/feat/power specifically states that it does. e.g. rolling a 1 for a save on a fireball.

As written, I don't see anything precluding you from targeting a number of your opponent's items with energy missile. Figuring out which energy type ignores hardness is an exercise left to the reader.

The cool thing is...you do not have to agree. But can you cite a rule? This is...after all...a rule forum, for people looking for, well, rules.



The rule states you can only sunder with a melee attack. Anything outside of that...is not a rule. Its a house rule.

I'd love to play your house rule though. I'd take a 1st level Orb of fire spell and become the Bow Sunderer of the Millenium. It already is incredibly easy to sunder a bow...an orb of fire would blast them to pieces every time!

Heck...would you mind making magic missile allowable to target objects? If so...man, talk about instant SUNDER! I'll just ready an action: If the wizard pulls out anything, I'll blast it. Wand. Scroll. Whatever. Its TOAST. Heck...I can do it from 100' away!

TASTY!

The rule stated is pretty stringent on what can sunder and what can't. Too stringent. Requiring a feat to do ranged sunders and all. You at least give that feat away for free! I like that.

 

[BlackFiend]

Bagpuss,
If he/she wasn't targetting a weapon, I would agree. You could follow the rules for breaking items and smashing objects. But ranged attacks are limited there as well, stating that ranged attacks do half damage.

For instance: Lets say you shot off an orb of fire that does 20pts of damage. You are targetting, say, a chair with 10hp.

According to the SMASHING ITEMS rules, the Orb does half damage from being ranged, and another half damage from being fire. I may be incorrect here, but that means that orb only does 5 points of damage instead of 20.

Smashing an Object

Smashing a weapon or shield with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon is accomplished by the sunder special attack. Smashing an object is a lot like sundering a weapon or shield, except that your attack roll is opposed by the object’s AC. Generally, you can smash an object only with a bludgeoning or slashing weapon.

...
Ranged Weapon Damage: Objects take half damage from ranged weapons (unless the weapon is a siege engine or something similar). Divide the damage dealt by 2 before applying the object’s hardness.

...
Energy Attacks: Acid and sonic attacks deal damage to most objects just as they do to creatures; roll damage and apply it normally after a successful hit. Electricity and fire attacks deal half damage to most objects; divide the damage dealt by 2 before applying the hardness. Cold attacks deal one-quarter damage to most objects; divide the damage dealt by 4 before applying the hardness.

 

[Zurai]

The cool thing is...you do not have to agree. But can you cite a rule? This is...after all...a rule forum, for people looking for, well, rules.



The rule states you can only sunder with a melee attack. Anything outside of that...is not a rule. Its a house rule.

That's cool.

Energy Missiles isn't a Sunder attempt. It's a direct damage power that can affect objects.

 

[Bacris]

Bruce Cordell publicly stated on the Psionics forum (back around 2005ish) that being able to target attended objects with Energy Missile was not intended.

 

[Infiniti2000]

The cool thing is...you do not have to agree. But can you cite a rule?

Sure. I'll cite the power description for Energy Missile.

The rule states you can only sunder with a melee attack. Anything outside of that...is not a rule. Its a house rule.

Unfortunately for you, Energy Missile doesn't even use sundering rules.

I'd love to play your house rule though. I'd take a 1st level Orb of fire spell and become the Bow Sunderer of the Millenium. It already is incredibly easy to sunder a bow...an orb of fire would blast them to pieces every time!

You should try reading the remainder of my house rules, such as the banning of the Orb spells and non-psionics.

Heck...would you mind making magic missile allowable to target objects? If so...man, talk about instant SUNDER! I'll just ready an action: If the wizard pulls out anything, I'll blast it. Wand. Scroll. Whatever. Its TOAST. Heck...I can do it from 100' away!

Read the spell description of magic missile which explicitly says it does not damage objects.

 

[Slaved]

I like using melfs acid arrow to destroy peoples stuff! Long Range!!

 

[Kat']

Better destroy people directly and sell the gear, but that's only me... In general, snuff the nonmagical stuff so your enemies get killed easily.

 

[Infiniti2000]

I like using melfs acid arrow to destroy peoples stuff! Long Range!!

That, on the other hand, is not a object-targeted spell and thus follows the rules for ranged weapons because it's a weapon-like spell. You cannot target a creature's items with a ranged weapon.

Blackfiend, does this explain the discrepancy between you and I? Energy missile, despite its name, is a targeted spell (power), not a weapon-like spell (power). I'd be fully on your side, Blackfiend, if energy missile required an attack roll and was not targeted.