How do you deal with Hardness 20? (Spoilers for The Infernal Syndrome)

[Varthol]

re

+1 Fort? Scroll of Disintigrate

 

[RithTheAwakener]

Since it can't leave the room, buff the (a) Ranger and plink away as it's stuck in the room. Deadly aim, pbs, magic weapon, gravity bow maybe a favored enemy bonus, improved critical.. should add up to ~+12 damage. Crit it twice and you win. For good measure, prevent running out of line of sight with Walls of some such, or just throw the meat shields at it.

Or, a Ranger and a two-handed fighter/barb/ranger should dispatch that creature quite quickly. Then you could have the wizard throwing acid arrows or lightning bolts, since the cage's touch and reflex saves are quite easy to hit.

 

[MerricB]

Since it can't leave the room, buff the (a) Ranger and plink away as it's stuck in the room. Deadly aim, pbs, magic weapon, gravity bow maybe a favored enemy bonus, improved critical.. should add up to ~+12 damage.

Gravity Bow is not core rules.

Animated Objects are immune to critical hits.

Then you could have the wizard throwing acid arrows or lightning bolts, since the cage's touch and reflex saves are quite easy to hit.

Acid arrows are reduced by 20 hardness.
Lightning bolts are reduced by 20 hardness.

Depending on your interpretation of the object rules, you well could be halving all energy/ranged damage first before applying hardness!

 

[Wycen]

I was going to suggest Shatter, but after looking at the spell I don't think it'll work. But how about Chill Metal? Construct bane weapons?

I'm not sure Paizo adventures "force" you to choose particular character builds, but they surely make their encounters challenging to fight or at least read the stats. Though anecdotal evidence tells me...

Currently our group is in the 2nd Carrion Crown adventure and we just finished off a flesh golem dog. Our warrior is the two weapon variety with a 10 STR so he was mostly widdling away. We did have a high STR barbarian but the player apparently is past her "play DnD phase".

Maybe using the scenery is necessary. Barrels of water or pipes are nearby. Maybe cave the room in?

 

[Varthol]

Do you think you could come across a Mace of Smiting (auto-kills constructs on a crit)?

 

[Alzrius]

Adamantine is not weak to any form of energy.

It doesn't need to be "weak" versus any form of energy. You can still use energy damage to hit a creature with hardness 20 (though you'll need to do a lot). From the additional rules:

Energy Attacks: Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects.

So you'll need to deal at least 42 points of damage with an energy attack to have it inflict damage (other than fire, to which that particular monster is immune), but for a party of that level, that shouldn't be impossible.

Animated Objects are immune to critical hits.

There's nothing in either the animated object description or the construct creature type that say they're immune to critical hits.

 

[MerricB]

There's nothing in either the animated object description or the construct creature type that say they're immune to critical hits.

Check the additional rules:
"Immunities: Objects are immune to nonlethal damage and to critical hits. Even animated objects, which are otherwise considered creatures, have these immunities."

 

[N'raac]

The module is The Infernal Syndrome. It's the penultimate encounter (and you *must* defeat it to complete the adventure).

Liebdaga’s Cage CR 8
XP 4,800
Advanced animated object (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 14)
N Medium construct
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception –3

DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 10, flat-footed 21 (+1 Dex, +12 natural, –1 size)
hp 52 (4d10+30)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will –2
Defensive Abilities hardness 20; Immune construct traits, fire

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.; chained
Melee 3 slams +11 (1d8+8 plus 1d6 fire plus grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks constrict (1d8+8 plus 1d6 fire)

TACTICS
During Combat The cage cannot leave this chamber, and remains animated as long as there are visible targets. The cage itself is red hot, and inflicts additional fire damage on each hit. In addition, for every cooling chamber left active, the cage gains 2 points of fast healing—the stats here assume all five cooling chambers are deactivated.
Morale The cage fights until destroyed.

STATISTICS
Str 26, Dex 12, Con —, Int —, Wis 5, Cha 5
Base Atk +4; CMB +13 (+17 grab); CMD 24

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Chained (Ex) Liebdaga’s cage can effectively move at a speed of 30
feet as if under the effects of air walk, as it moves by shifting its
position in the room by lengthening or shortening the chains
that hold it in the room. It cannot leave area F37 at all.

How long do we have to defeat it? It seems from the "what can you do" nature of the question that you can back off, change spells, re-equip, etc. Meanwhile, the Construct sits in its room, inactive. Assuming the cooling chambers have been destroyed, how fast (if at all) does it heal?

What prevents, for example, the best warrior in the group (which could be any character proficient with all martial weapons) buying a Greatsword? We then return, buff up the warrior (bull's strength +4 STR, Enlarge Person, Prayer, Magic Weapon and any other damage augmenting spells we can lay our hands on - should be plenty at 8th level other than those I've listed). Buff him up defensively as well so he's hard to hit and hard to hurt (fire resistance for sure).

He attacks, the rest of the team uses Aid Another (either to help him hit or protect him from counterattack). If he's remotely hurt, we all back out of the room, heal up and go again. Out of spells? Well, the cage isn't going anywhere - rest up and try again tomorrow.

Looking at the characters' available spells and abilities for appropriate tactics and synergies is also a good start - as you note, a wide variety of different character combinations are possible, even with only the basic rules.

Summon Monster (or Nature's Ally) IV? Bring in a creature like a Rhino (powerful charge 4d6 + 12 averages 26 damage before we buff the rhino) or a bison (Gore attack averages 19 points before buffing)? That's available to a wizard, cleric or druid, or even an 18 CHA bard. Seems like most parties would have at least one of those four options (especially with only the core rules to choose from).

The ability to plan with unlimited time, buff for only one combat a day and regroup to rest as needed is extraordinarily powerful - and highly appropriate against an epic challenge!

No clue how to deal with it? Consider Divination spells!

 

[Kaisoku]

One thing I've been fascinated to see in Pathfinder is how it forces you into having certain characters in the group.

Okay, so was this the real reason for the post?
Considering how generic the first question was, but then your response to answers being regarding a specific situation, it feels a little like you are aiming to soapbox, rather than seek any real help.

If that's not the case, and your post was simply a reaction to the situation, then I apologize. It just felt.. "hinky".. how the thread progressed.

If you don't have the first three, you will NOT be able to deal with the threats in a typical adventure.

"Typical" adventure? That monster of a boss is anything but typical.. You can't build it according to the normal rules for Animated Objects (between fire damage, fast healing, etc).

Besides, the rules for animated objects involved Hardness in 3.5e as well.. this is hardly a Pathfinder thing. Is it upsetting that they didn't take it out? Maybe... but this is literally the first time I've seen an Animated Object with Adamantine hardness, so it's quite a rare situation.

Regarding that specific encounter, it's up the DM to adjudicate if energy damage would affect a specific creature/object. Considering it's "super heated" metal, I'd be inclined to allow Cold damage to at least do full damage, if even bypass hardness, simply because the rapid cooling will cause stress on the metal. Voila, fully within core DM adjudication to allow a Cone of Cold to give this thing a bad day.

What 3e D&D (3.0, 3.5 & Pathfinder) does is emphasize how bad it is to specialize. If you have a lot of options available (casters having scrolls and wands, fighters having alternative weapons and combat styles, etc), then you can be ready for a wider variety of encounters.

But it's rare that you run into something that needs "Macguffin X" to win, and nothing else works, so your pooched if you don't have it.


Lastly, I'd suggest putting up spoilers for any discussion on the encounter or adventure for the creature, because this went from a general "How do you beat hardness" to "How can I kill this specific creature in a printed encounter".
People might be wanting to play the game you are posting detailed information about without warning.

 

[Mr.E_Danger]

Summon Monster (or Nature's Ally) IV? Bring in a creature like a Rhino (powerful charge 4d6 + 12 averages 26 damage before we buff the rhino) or a bison (Gore attack averages 19 points before buffing)?

Depending on your lvl the cleric could easily summon a few monsters in that room. If you get enough creatures flanking and attacking, you should be able to take that thing down. Add in the fact that more creatures means that the cage has to attack them, then your squishier friends should be fine. If the Rogue can get in there and get sneak attack damage; and the fighter power attacks it, you should be able to chip away the hp.

worse comes to worst, you just retreat!