Is hardness really this hard?

[Clint]

I'm a DM, and we just finished our weekly session.

So say that you have a wizard who's forte is creating Animated Objects en masse, using a ritual of his own design. I chose Animated Objects over typical golems, thinking that they would be easier for a level five party to fight.

Animated Objects can retain the hardness of their original material, which these do. The MM entry for Animated Objects refers you to PHB rules for hardness. Hardness, as far as I can tell, works similar to the Barbarian DR 1/-, except that it's much higher. For example, Animated Iron objects essentially have DR 10/-, where - means it works everywhere? Am I doing something wrong? You can't have magical enchantments bypass hardness, because then every magical weapon would be sundering every nonmagical one every round. But in the case of Animated Objects, they can ignore a hell of a lot of damage per hit.

This is just a convoluted way of asking whether Hardness works the way that I think it does. Thanks.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

I'm can't quite figure out how you think hardness works, so I cant answer yes or no.

Here's how it works though. Hardness 5/- means if you hit it with an axe for 8 points of damage, it only takes 3. Doesn't matter if it's a +1 weapon or a +5 weapon. It essentially has damage reduction. Since the second number (after the slash) is a "-", that means that magic weapons or silver, etc cannot bypass the Damage reduction/hardness. "-" means there is nothing that will bypass it.

 

[Magus_Jerel]

This is just a convoluted way of asking whether Hardness works the way that I think it does. Thanks.

- um, yep. That IS a good concept of hardness. Don't forget that items/objects halve most energy attacks made against them.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Clint, yes, DR #/- is the same as hardness, except that hardness is a quality that only object have, and DR is a quality that only creatures have.

And that hardness also works on energy damage.

 

[Thanee]

Do spells bypass DR #/- ? I'm not sure about that...

They surely do not bypass Hardness.

Bye
Thanee

 

[AGGEMAM]

Do spells bypass DR #/- ? I'm not sure about that...

Well, they do...

Check the PHB, page 277, definition of Damage Reduction.

 

[Thanee]

So then, there's the difference between damage reduction and hardness.

Bye
Thanee

 

[AGGEMAM]

So then, there's the difference between damage reduction and hardness.

Basically I thought everyone was aware of this difference!

 

[Clint]

Thanks for the help!

Sorry for the original convoluted post. It came at the end of a huge tactical session, and I was pretty tired.

So it seems that creatures with Hardness are just incredibly tough badasses, in terms of not taking damage.

Thanks, everyone!

 

[Macbrea]

Make sure to read the section on energy attacks vs hardness also.

Flaming oil (1d6) poured on a wooden latch (hardness 5). Will never according to 3ed burn it. As fire only does half damage to objects.