Shatter Spell Question?

[Aluvial]

A question about how this spell works...

My group was fighting a hill giant with a great club.... They used a pretty interesting tactic by casting Grease on the club, which the giant promptly dropped...

Then I had a guy cast Shatter on the club...

How should I have handled this situation?

What would have been the proper save for the unattended club?

What if the giant had been carrying it?

How much do you think one of those things weighs??

Aluvial

 

[AuraSeer]

Nonmagical, unattended objects do not get saving throws. They automatically fail.

If the giant had been carrying the club, it would count as an attended object. It would have used the giant's Will save of +4.

The greatclub in the PHB is a Large weapon, and weighs 10 pounds. A Hill Giant carries a Huge greatclub. Assuming the Huge version is twice as long as the Large one, it'll have 8 times the volume. That means it weighs 80 pounds.

Since Shatter can only target a single object of up to 10 lbs/level, a caster would need to be at least 8th level to affect the club. If he 7th level or below, the spell would fizzle without effect. Above that level, the club would be destroyed.

 

[Aluvial]

What is with all of those different saving throws in the text?

"Will negates (object); Will negates (object) or Fortitude half (see text)"

Then in the text I can see the Fortitude half against crystaline creatures but what does the other save mean...

Aluvial

 

[Spatzimaus]

The spell has multiple uses. The saves are for each use, in the order listed.

When used as an AE spell to shatter bottles/glass, each object gets a Will save to negate.

When targetted on any one object (like that club) the object gets a Will save to negate.

When targetted on a crystalline creature, the creature makes a Fortitude save for half damage.

Note that unattended, nonmagical items don't get a save, the saves to negate above only apply if it's magical or being held by someone.

It's a great spell. When you start thinking in terms of "hmm, how much does that door weigh?" your DM starts to get nervous.