Help: Evil DM sundered my wand :(

[Eldragon]

Sundering, IMHO, is the biggest Rat-Bastard (tm) thing a DM can do to a PC. Its partially a problem with mechanics and partially a problem party economics. PCs have a strong disincentive to sunder a weapon, where as an evil DM has no such disincentive.

Its a problem with mechanics because quite simply, Sundering is really easy to do. A Fighter has the BaB and STR score to be able to power attack right through the hardness, and still have the BaB left to hit the weapon in question and blow through the small amount of HP the weapon has. Since in 3.5 Every fighter worth his chainmail has power attack + 2H weapon, its especially easy. The problem gets compounded in later levels when Adamantine weapons are pretty much required for melee characters as well. Adamantine ignores hardness.

Players almost never sunder the weapons of NPCs, since they are effectively destroying their own money. If a Party Fights a BBEG carrying a magic sword, that sword is part of their effective loot if they win. In many fights a party will have to expend a good deal of potions, charges, magic items, etc in order to defeat BBEG. Destroying that sword is going to take a good chunk of their reward if they win.

Only once have I seen a party intentionally sunder the magic weapon that the BBEG was wielding, and that was because they were desperate, and the BBEG in question had obviously specialized in its use. Without his weapon, he was nothing.

Mord's Disjunction is rarely used by PCs for the same reasons as above, except that it is a 9th level spell, so it won't come into play until late in the game.

 

[Deset Gled]

Whatever. I think most people allow quickdraw to draw any item roughly the size of a weapon. There is nothing magic about the feat or the weapon that would logically justify a restriction. If you can draw anything from a dagger to a halberd with this feat, you can draw wand.

Hey, if I can't be pedantic in the rules forum, then where?

I am, after all, technically correct. The best kind of correct.

 

[Doug Sundseth]

Sorry, but Quickdraw only works with weapons, not other items.

Since the "Draw or Sheathe a Weapon" action is explicitly used for "weapon-like objects carried in easy reach, such as wands", I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Quick Draw would treat "weapon-like objects" in the same way.

Or, if you don't care which wand you draw (multiple wands with one charge of the same spell each, for instance), just store them in a quiver and draw them like ammunition.

 

[Deset Gled]

Since the "Draw or Sheathe a Weapon" action is explicitly used for "weapon-like objects carried in easy reach, such as wands", I don't think it's a stretch to assume that Quick Draw would treat "weapon-like objects" in the same way.

OTOH, since the Quickdraw is limited to drawing a weapon and does not apply to sheathing one, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that the "Draw of Sheathe a Weapon" action allows many things that Quickdraw doesn't. YMMV.

 

[SteveC]

I think this is a dastardly and also fun trick for a GM to try on you. In response, I suggest the following:

Gloves of Storing or Quickdraw to start with, followed by buying and carrying a bunch of dummy wands with you. Cast your spells with dramatic flourishes of your new "wands" and encourage your opponents to sunder them. An attack against a stick is an attack that doesn't have a chance to hit you, after all. If you have a different "wand" for each of your primary combat spells, and switch between them, your opponents will likely start going for them unless they have some knowledge of magic (i.e., spellcraft, knowledge arcane).

Oh, and also stay out of melee too!

--Steve

 

[Asmor]

I just want to pre-emptively curse you all on behalf of my players, who I predict will be none-too-happy come our next session.

 

[Mistwell]

I think maybe the response to this sort of thing is to up the ante. PCs should start sundering all sorts of stuff on their opponents in response. Get an adamantine item and improved sunder, and start hacking away at the weapons, wands, material component pouches, and other items on their foes. Cast shatter on foes to break all their potion vials. Really mess them up.

Yes, they will briefly fall behind in treasure (though battles will be easier). Until the DM realizes that the party is doomed, and any new characters they roll up equally doomed, and thus the campaign doomed, unless the DM adjusts the non-equipment treasure (like gold) to at least sort of keep up with the general guidelines in the DMG for PCs based on level.

Which will eventually morph the game into a whole lot of sundering going on, and a whole lot of gold being found, and therefore a whole lot of new items being crafted or purchased; or it will return the game back to the mutually assured destruction it was before all that sundering started.

DMs don't have all the power. They have a lot of power, but ultimately there are certain basic things that need to happen for the group to have a successful campaign, and one of them is that the PCs need to be able to at least roughly keep up with the challenges. If the DM does something to change that, like denying treasure or sundering valuable items, then they will eventually need to do something to balance it out in other ways or else their game will go south.

 

[sukael]

OTOH, since the Quickdraw is limited to drawing a weapon and does not apply to sheathing one, I don't think it's a stretch to assume that the "Draw of Sheathe a Weapon" action allows many things that Quickdraw doesn't. YMMV.

Why can't a wand be a weapon? It's just an improvised one, doing less damage than others of about the same size.

 

[Dross]

Sundering isn't smart for NPCs, it's dumb. Kill your opponent, take his stuff is smart. That's why PCs do it.

In my experience it's that PCs want loot but are not so worried about dying so they don't sunder.

NPC's on the other hand, want to "survive" more than they want loot, so they are more inclined to sunder. Or they just want to annoy the PC's.

 

[Darklone]

I think it's a bad idea to sunder a wand.

Disarm it and use it against the dude.