Okay, having looked at nightshield, I'm re-evaluating my position on greater resistance and superior resistance. Nightshield is fine as is. Let's bump the duration on greater resistance and superior resistance to 1 hour/level. I'm not going to allow a 24 hour duration for those spells though. That's just too much. I normally don't allow greater and superior resistance into my campaigns at all. I'm just trying to give you guys a little more leeway than usual since this is kind of a tough dungeon.
Favored Souls get Basic + 2 weapon groups plus the weapon group for their deity's favored weapon. In the case of Mayaheine, you get Weapon Group (Exotic Weapons: Heavy Blades) as your bonus weapon group. In this case you bypass the normal prerequisites for Weapon Group (Exotic Weapons).
You can buy potions, scrolls, and wands from other sources at character creation only if you select such items as part of your 12 levels of magic items. Otherwise, such items may become available during play, but are not guaranteed. If you select a consumable item as part of your 12 levels of items, then one or more of your contacts will be able to sell you more of that particular item (I will indicate which contacts).
Wands must be purchased with the full 50 charges.
If you want a flaw from UA, I will have to approve it on case-by-case basis in order to make sure it is actually a flaw and not something that you selected because it will probably never come into play or never affect your character negatively.
I haven't had problems with the durability rules in my campaigns before. And cheap weapons are... well... cheap. I wouldn't expect a normal battle axe to last very long in combat anyway. And I especially wouldn't expect a gnome-sized hand axe to last very long. (Then again, I wouldn't expect a gnome who is limited to using a hand axe to be capable of dealing enough damage to break the weapon.) Also, I did forget to mention this, but critical hits do not count. I use the first damage die roll to determine whether or not hardness was exceeded then bonus damage dice for critical hits are determined afterward. In my RL games, my players usually roll the first damage die with their attack roll then extra dice in the event that they crit. In the case of invisiblecastle rolls, I will just looked at the first die rolled and add the damage modifier.
Does this means stronger characters have a greater chance of breaking weapons? Yes. Is this realistic? Absolutely. Wooden-hafted weapons were historically notorious for breaking in battle. Spears, hafted axes, morningstars, and maces were extremely fragile weapons. This is one of the reasons swords were often the weapon of choice (in addition to their ability to pierce and cut, drawing more grievous wounds).
You can always opt to have a hafted weapon made completely out of steel, although that would increase the cost and weight of the weapon a bit (probably 2-3 times depending on the quantity of wood normally used). I also wouldn't allow it for a lance and other reach weapons. One of the only reasons you can actually wield a lance in one hand is because it's made of wood. It would be entirely too heavy and off-balance if made of steel.
If you want your weapons to last longer, enhance them with magic, have them made of adamantine or mithral. I'll even be a softie and give a bonus masterwork weapons, armor, and shields equal to a +1 to hardness and +5 to hit points.
Also, you won't have to keep track of this. I'll tally damage to weapons and armor during a battle and post the damage after the battle. I'll always give you a warning if a piece of equipment is close to breaking. Of course you can keep your own tally if you want.
Finally, most of you have several weapons anyway. On top of that, after a few battles in this dungeon you will be blistering with weapons. There are so many magic weapons in this dungeon it would choke a camel. That's not to mention the artifact weapons (of which there are a few) that are unbreakable. Should your primary weapon crack and be unusable, you will never be at a loss for a back-up. This is the way people in medieval warfare fought anyway. Those who went into melee often carried three or four weapons. A heavy weapon or polearm for the first swing on a charge, a lighter weapon for when the heavy weapon inevitably got knocked out of their hands or broken (spears and lances were notorious for that latter), and a couple daggers or blackjacks for moments of desperation. Heck, medieval combatants often practiced all manner of martial arts (not necessarily the Asian variety) so that they would be deadly in hand-to-hand combat as well. Once you stick a sword into a guy wearing chain mail it is often difficult to dislodge the sword. Just be thankful I'm not trying to bring in that detailed a level of realism into the game.
