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<blockquote data-quote="Ridley's Cohort" data-source="post: 1652802" data-attributes="member: 545">What is counterintuitive is once you hit the low teens in level, it becomes frighteningly easy to destroy that ring you are wearing on your left hand (the same hand carrying your large shield), smash that necklace around your neck to smithereens, and crack you helm in twain.&nbsp; Heck many characters could accomplish all three in a single round if they so desired.&nbsp; But a called shot to your sword arm is absolutely impossible.I have no particular problem with HPs.&nbsp; I do have a SOD problem when what ought to be very difficult becomes easy and what ought to be somewhat difficult becomes absolutely impossible.In most of the rules, the presumption seems to be that any object in intimate contact with your body gains most of the defensive advantages of your HPs and saving throws.&nbsp; That is why you get to make a saving throw with all your bonuses for a spell effect targetting an item in your hand.&nbsp; That is why you never (rarely) make a saving throw for your Cloak of Resistance at all, even though you might dodge Fireballs and dragon's breathe every day.&nbsp; The fundamental issue is the rules for attacking an object seem to violate the spirit of the rest of the combat rules.&nbsp; At least the fighter gets a half decent chance of winning an opposed check to save his sword, but the AC of your items and their hit points basically do not scale up with level.&nbsp; The attacking an object rules look okay when you are low level, but they are ~90% likely to be destroyed if someone bothers to target them at high level.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ridley's Cohort, post: 1652802, member: 545"] What is counterintuitive is once you hit the low teens in level, it becomes frighteningly easy to destroy that ring you are wearing on your left hand (the same hand carrying your large shield), smash that necklace around your neck to smithereens, and crack you helm in twain. Heck many characters could accomplish all three in a single round if they so desired. But a called shot to your sword arm is absolutely impossible. I have no particular problem with HPs. I do have a SOD problem when what ought to be very difficult becomes easy and what ought to be somewhat difficult becomes absolutely impossible. In most of the rules, the presumption seems to be that any object in intimate contact with your body gains most of the defensive advantages of your HPs and saving throws. That is why you get to make a saving throw with all your bonuses for a spell effect targetting an item in your hand. That is why you never (rarely) make a saving throw for your Cloak of Resistance at all, even though you might dodge Fireballs and dragon's breathe every day. The fundamental issue is the rules for attacking an object seem to violate the spirit of the rest of the combat rules. At least the fighter gets a half decent chance of winning an opposed check to save his sword, but the AC of your items and their hit points basically do not scale up with level. The attacking an object rules look okay when you are low level, but they are ~90% likely to be destroyed if someone bothers to target them at high level. [/QUOTE]

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