Is sunder _this_ easy?

[danielinthewolvesden]

When the wizard uses the rod to shoot powerfull lightning bolts, <snip>you can bet that one will sunder them.

A metamagic rod isn't wielded- it only needs to be carried. So- it really just looks like a stick. Those giants would have to have a REAL high spellcraft or detect magic up constantly to do this.

The thing is- there is no reason for the NPC's to think different than the PC's. The PC assume they are going to win- so shoudl the NPC's. Thus the PC's rarely Sunder anything (since they want it for loot)- and thus same for the NPC's. Sundering items also means that the PC's aren't going down- they then certainly will kill the giants. OTOH, yes- I can see weapons & maybe sheilds- or indeed if that wizard had some real powerful staff he WAS using to fire off spell after spell.

So- no- the Giants woudln't be doing this

Hi Kieth! Wulfy

 

[Deset Gled]

Isn't it also entirely possible that the PCs have a bit of a reputation by the time they're at a level high enough to be fighting giants? If there are rumors circulating that the ranger has been known to fire hundreds of arrows without running out, the rogue has been seen pulling a 10-foot pole out of the pouch on his belt, and wizards are known to carry magic sticks and staffs that grant them power, I can see a low intelligence creature sundering some specific items without too much problem. Doubly so if they have a leader who is more intelligent than they are and gives them specific orders.

Making the blanket statement that giants are not intelligent to sunder specific items is making too much of a generalization if you ask me. There may be situations where it's cheap, but there are also situations where it makes perfect sense.

Of course, if any characters IMC are so tied to a single item that the can't fight without it, or care so much about money that they won't destroy a magic item even if it's causing them more problems that the NPCs they're fighting, they probably wouldn't survive that long anyway.

 

[micromaximum]

You could just rule that a random number of the giants' attacks happen to be sunders. Most people would probably agree many giants rely on brute strength rather than finess when dealing with foes smaller than themselves and some of their wild swings might end up as inadvertent sunder attempts.

If you're a giant trying to dispatch a relatively small foe you couldn't help but smash some of their equipment when you hit them with your over-sized weapon. I don't think a few sunder attempts would be unfair considering that a giant attack would be pretty rough on everything a character is carrying. Specifically targetting certain items is probably going too far, though. Especially when you consider just how tiny certain objects would be relative to the giants' weapons.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

A metamagic rod isn't wielded- it only needs to be carried. So- it really just looks like a stick. Those giants would have to have a REAL high spellcraft or detect magic up constantly to do this.

Agreed. Unless it glows. Giants may be superstitious of this kind of thing.

(Flavor text from the DMG indicates that when you use a magic item you are obviously focusing on it. Astute giants, such as those with a few cleric levels, might notice this and may even lash out.)

The thing is- there is no reason for the NPC's to think different than the PC's.

Yes there is. NPCs sometimes (but obviously not always) have different motivations than the NPCs. This is probably more true of giants than evil classed characters, of course.

Giants aren't going to find human-sized loot particularly useful, and a fighter is going to cause much less pain to a giant when his bastard sword is lying in three pieces around the battlefield. (Backup weapons tend to be smaller than a fighter's main weapon, so even though the giant probably doesn't know about Weapon Specialization and the like, he does know he's going to be taking less pain, if any, from the fighter.)

 

[dcollins]

A metamagic rod isn't wielded- it only needs to be carried. So- it really just looks like a stick.

Where do you get this idea? It's use-activated, so they need to do something with it. How does it know which spells to improve if there isn't some triggering activity during casting?

 

[Thanee]

The rod has to be wielded, and while it is being used, it would probably be obvious, that it is in some way related to the spellcasting. In what way, however, would be unknown to the giant.

The wielder can cast up to three spells per day that are ...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Old Gumphrey]

The problem, of course, is that you can even elect to sunder carried items (except armor). I'm going to sunder this guy's ring off of his finger...without cutting off his finger, let alone his hand? Yeah, sure. I know 3.x doesn't use much in the way of weapon type vs. materials, but seriously...what the hell are you going to do to a bag of holding with a club? Smash it?

Sunder doesn't come up in my games much at all, but I think when item sundering is tried (if ever) I'll still use an opposed attack roll; someone with greater combat skill will be able to maneuver themselves better, I'd think. Also looking at item caster level and converting it to weapon plusses for hardness/HP; thus a caster level 9 bag of holding (equivalent to a +3 weapon) would have hardness 8 (base 2 + 6 for 3 plus weapon equivalence) and 35 HP (base 5 for 1 inch thickness leather + 30 for 3 plus weapon equivalence); meaning that maybe a PA giant could still smash it in one blow, but he'll be hard pressed to beat the fighter's opposed attack roll. It'd certainly make it about as hard as it would really be to destroy the backpack of someone who is trying to kill you.

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, the whole silliness which is Sunder isn't used in our games either, or only in very rare circumstances. We never had and I doubt we ever will have a PC pick up Improved Sunder.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Vaxalon]

I built a sundering-based character at one point. She was a cleric who had access to repairing spells.

 

[hong]

Yeah, the whole silliness which is Sunder isn't used in our games either, or only in very rare circumstances. We never had and I doubt we ever will have a PC pick up Improved Sunder.

Bye
Thanee

Geez gal, next thing you know, you'll be banning sundering.