Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Terraism" data-source="post: 1645803" data-attributes="member: 278">I spent last night up *way* too late, talking with my DM about sundering items.  We're playing through Maure castle, and when I sundered one of the gnoll's +1 dire flails with an AoO, and then seriously broke him on my turn, he began expressing some concern.  I agree, on many points, though my initial argument was that the system really isn't constructed to work terribly well with obscenely strong characters (34 Strength, in my case.)  Problems with the current system:  <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">It's terribly easy, period.  A greatsword has hardness 10 and 10 hp.  <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Example: A 4th-level human fighter, with a strength of 16 (and no magic, which is how we're working our base examples,) with Weapon Specializiation and a greatsword, is dealing 1d12+6 damage per hit (average 12.5.)  At 4th-level, we consider him to be an "elite soldier," compared to normal folks.  Now, the best-made weapon in the kingdom is a masterwork greatsword (ok, this could turn into a critique on masterwork, too.)  On average, it'd take this character four solid hits to shatter the thing.  This, thinks my DM, is far too few.   </li> </ol></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">As an offshoot of the above example, masterwork items are no harder to break than normal items.  Magical items not much harder than that (assuming you can hurt them at all, that is.)  The best a greatsword can get, currently, is 15 hardness and 15 hp.  Yes, it takes a powerful weapon in it's own right to penetrate the magic, but it's still not terribly hard to shatter.   </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Special materials don't do much, either.  Take adamantine, for example.  An adamantine greatsword has, best we can tell, hardness 20 and 13 HP.  It can also ignore up to 20 points of hardness in something else.  Our fourth level fighter above, with one of these, has a 75% to destroy that masterwork piece in one shot.  Some call this a feature, others a bug.  I think that's extraordinarily easy.  Furthermore, it's no harder for our fourth level fighter to break another adamantine greatsword, either. </li> </ol>Fixes  First off, we'd like masterwork weapons to be much harder to break.  After all, they are worked much better.  Thus, we've ruled that masterwork weapons gain 5 points of both hardness and hp.  Yes, that's *a lot.*  A masterwork greatsword, by this system, has a 15 hardness, and 15 hp.  I'd estimate it'd take our fourth-level fighter about forty solid hits to break it, this way.  Makes the DM happy, and I don't feel it's too terribly unreasonable.  Magic items, by this system, increase both hardness and HP by 2 per +1 enhancement.  Thus, this same, "elite greatsword" would have a hardness of 25 and 25 hp.  Seems much more like an "unbreakable weapon of legend," now, doesn't it?  We're toying with the idea of a +1 enhancement-valued enchantment, "Sturdy," or some such, that increases hardness even more.  Lastly, special materials.  It's a bit confusing exactly how these contribute, as-is, and we still don't like adamantine.  So..  Adamantine: A weapon constructed from adamantine is far stronger than any ordinary weapon.  It has 1/3 again as many hit points, and the hardness increases by 5.  Furthermore, adamantine is known for cutting through other items almost like butter, and thus ignores five points of hardness from everything struck.This way, masterwork adamantine greatswords, say, have 20 hardness and 20 hp (15 * 4/3).  The same hardness as by the core rules, and slightly more hp.  In addition, essentially hitting a normal greatsword with it acts as though the normal sword had hardness 5 and 10 hp.  Not quite butter - but not nearly as brutal as it currently is.  Moreover, adamantine blades don't sunder one another like butter anymore, either. Other special materials could be done similarly, but tastes differ on how to do so.  (I, for one, would have cold iron items actually have *less* hardness... but then, cold iron items are already insanely overpriced.)  Regardless, what're thoughts on this system?  If you're comfortable with how easy sundering is currently, it probably won't do anything for you, but if it's just a bit too easy...</blockquote>

Verification