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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6633340" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Energy attacks already do half damage to objects, by default, and Acid ignores hardness.While I agree with your idea of adding to Hardness with mass/thickness, my suggestion of copper v Alchemical Silver was made with the current rules model in mind.Alchemical Silver is the weapon alloy used for "Silver" weapons, harder than pure or jeweler's silver, but softer than normal weapons grade materials.  That's why "Silver" weapons do less damage.  Unless alloyed specifically to be a weapons grade material, copper would be softer, not harder.Copper coins usually have Nickel and occasionally zinc added for durability.  Even so, they're a far cry from tool or weapons grade material.Brass, traditionally, had lead and tin in the mix.  These days you don't see much lead, with zinc added in its place.  Bronze was copper and tin, no lead.  Modern versions again have a bit of zinc added.  Oddly, Bronze is harder than either copper or tin, and has a higher melting point than either one.  It's one of those alloys that's more than just the sum of its component parts.Wood, in D&D, is all lumped into one standard, ignoring the softness of pine (or the extreme softness of balsa) compared to hardwoods like oak.  Ash and hickory are both good for tool or weapon hafts, being hard, springy and resilient, while other,harder woods like walnut tend to be more brittle.  I think they were considering structural grade wood, like oak, for the most part.Ice is the odd material.  According to the book it has a hardness of zero.  Having landed on it a few times wile learning to ice skate I can assure you that's wrong.  It's also a material that can do damage, of the cold variety.  Acid against it is more likely to be "destroyed" by being frozen than the acid corroding the ice.  Any it did melt would quickly dilute the acid.As for the example of a spear v flesh being compared to a spear v wood or stone:  Flesh doesn't have a Hardness in the game.  Wood has a Hardness rating and Stone has a higher one.  That more or less accounts for the difference you describe.What isn't accounted for is that you can damage a weapon by striking at too hard a material.  You could, in theory, power-attack with a bale of hay and smash through a stone wall.  All without harming o deforming the hay bale.In the real world, blades get dull pounding against armor, shields or other weapons used to block or parry.  D&D makes no provision for things like that.  The complexity of weapon degradation would be an insane addition to play.Thinking about your "Hardness increase with thickness" idea, might I suggest an adjustment?  Increase the Hardness of anything by one point per inch, up to say three extra points, if it's "backed" by something at least as hard.  You could poke a finger straight through a piece of newsprint that was held in the air, but you'd break that finger if you tried that while the paper was laying on a wooden table.That way Ice could have a functional hardness. if its thick enough.</blockquote>

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