Can I hit weapon in hand using ray spell?

[Drowbane]

Can I destroy weapon in hands of enemy with spells, like Scorching ray or Orb of acid? And if Ranged Sunder applied to arrows, can I Sunder with melee piercing weapon, like Spear?

Thats up to your DM... or you if you're the DM.

However, I'd take the "Frank_the_DM approach" and have your NPCs use it if the party does... Good for the goose and all that.

 

[eamon]

Because the touch AC of an attended object is only well-defined for a melee attack. It is not defined for a ranged attack.

To support that assertion, is a worn object "in melee" for the purposes of a ranged touch attack? That could make sense, but it's just not addressed. Does it have cover from it's wearer? That makes less sense, but might occasionally be justified too.

Again, I think the whole sunder rules should be revised. At the very least, all items should benefit from deflection bonuses and other touch AC bonuses to the full extent the character does, and many items should be reasonably protected by the armor a character is wearing. That's just a start. Again, I say: just don't sunder worn objects at all, the rules aren't fit for actual use .

 

[Lord Slaw]

Sundering with a spell seems a little bit iffy - but at the same time, it kind of makes sense. I'm the kind of DM who's comfortable making a lot of ad hoc calls and sticking with them - I interpret rules loosely at best, since my players were never interested in abusing the rules to their benefits. As such, I'd say call it like you see it.

A bolt of flame (insubstantial but painful) is going to lay the hurt on a living creature, but it's just going to dissipate and burst upon a metal shield. Acid isn't going to strike with substantial force - it's going to splash over and corrode what it hits. If a spell does something akin to a boot to the head, then I'd say you can sunder with it, but if it's just some pure element or magic, then no, it's designed for living things, and any objects it is used to attack are going to catch fire, freeze solid, corrode away, or something similar - it's what the spell is made of that counts, not the actual collision.

So, in short, I think you can aim for objects to damage them, but the sunder rules don't come into effect, unless the spell duplicates some sort of physical effect (none come to mind - CW probably has a few).

But, for a cool alternative, consider a spell-based disarm - target their hand, taking a penalty for a small target, and nail them so hard that their weapon flies right out of their hand. That's totally feasible, I would say, and considerably cooler.