Armor hitpoints, magic items and a Slime Wave

[iamrpgdm]

I'm DM of a group and at our last session they got a Slime Wave from Defenders of Faith cast on them.

Slime Wave
Conjuration (Summoning)
Level: Clr 7, Drd 7
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: 15-ft.-radius spread
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: No


You create a wave of green slime that begins at the
range you choose and violently spreads to the limit of
the area. The wave splashes and splatters as it passes;
some slime clings to any wall or ceiling. Green slime
devours flesh and organic materials on contact, and
even dissolves metal. Each creature is covered with
one patch of green slime for every 5 feet of its face.
A patch of green slime deals 1d6 points of temporary
Constitution damage per round while it devours flesh.
Against wood or metal, green slime deals 2d6 points of
damage per round, ignoring metal's hardness but not
that of wood. It does not harm stone.
On the first round of contact, the slime can be
scraped off a creature (most likely destroying the
scraping device), but after that it must be frozen,
burned, or cut away (applying damage to the victim as
well). Extreme cold or heat, sunlight, or a remove disease
spell destroys the green slime. Unlike normal green
slime, the slime created by this spell gradually evaporates,
disappearing by the end of the duration.
Material Component: A few drops of stagnant
pond water.

The characters are all around 12th level so they have a fair amount of magic items. We spent 30 minutes or so just in determining saves for all of these, so it was kind of a pain. One thing that we didn't seem to find was hitpoints for armor. There is the list of hardness and hitpoints for substances and iron and mithril for example are 30hp/inch of thickness. How thick would armor be? 1/2 inch(15hp)? 1/4 inch(8hp)? Plate mail is solid pieces of metal and chain isn't so should there also be a difference there as far as thickness or hp is concerned? A small steel shield has 10 hp and a large steel shield has 20 hp, so if armor is treated like a shield except it would be medium, does 15hp sound about right? (Note: Enhancement bonuses give an additional 1 hardness and 1 hp per +1)

What would happen to a Heward's Handy Haversack or the like if they were destroyed. Would the items just be dumped at the current location? There also isn't a listing for leather as a substance. Would it be equivalent to rope?
Any other thoughts or ideas on this?

BTW: Several magic items were destroyed that value wise accounted to about 50,000gp or better. This is a nasty spell.

 

[Pax]

Most attended items aren't damaged unless the character holding/wearing/etc the item rolls a natural 1 on their save, IIRC.

 

[iamrpgdm]

Here's from the SRD.

Unattended nonmagical items never make saving throws. They are considered to have failed their saving throws, so they always are affected by (for instance) a disintegrate spell. An item attended by a combatant (being grasped, touched, or worn) receives a saving throw just as if the combatant herself were making the saving throw.

All of the characters failed their saves except for one. Even the one that saved though I had roll a save for his fullblade. (The wave was a fifteen foot radius and the room was only 30 feet wide so there was no way to completely avoid it.)

 

[Pax]

Here's from the SRD.

Unattended nonmagical items never make saving throws. They are considered to have failed their saving throws, so they always are affected by (for instance) a disintegrate spell. An item attended by a combatant (being grasped, touched, or worn) receives a saving throw just as if the combatant herself were making the saving throw.

All of the characters failed their saves except for one. Even the one that saved though I had roll a save for his fullblade. (The wave was a fifteen foot radius and the room was only 30 feet wide so there was no way to completely avoid it.)

That entry is for when the item itsel is DIRECTLY targetted. When talkign about Area spells, if the character fails their save (I believe only drastically, on a natural 1), then one of their items takes the effects of the AoE spell.

In fact, the passage you described is SPECIFICALLY under the rules for "Striking an Object".

Let me ask you: when the party is engulfed in a fireball[/b], do you obliterate all of their flammable equipment? Incinerate clothes, magical cloaks, boots, backpacks, spellbooks ... ?

Of course not, especially not if they make their save!

On a failed save, ONE item should be affected, and only ONE item.

 

[Destil]

This is a nasty spell.

Hidiously overpowered, really. I'm not so sure it's even balanced if you make it 8th or 9th level, it's just to leathal to large creatures, who have bad reflex saves and don't get their SR.

And to mimic what's been said: Only one attended item per PC can be affected by a spell, and only on a natural 1 roll for the save.

The HHH's contents would most likely be lost in the Astral Plane. Paraphrasing from the Manual of the Planes: "When something has to go somwhere but has noplace to go it usualy ends up on the astral plane"

 

[iamrpgdm]

Thanks for the feedback I found the info on page 150 in the PHB.