D&D 4E Should terrain be move vulnerable to damage in 4E?

[Varianor Abroad]

Perhaps it would make sense to assign thinner walls a lower Break DC to bypass hitpoints?

 

[Li Shenron]

At least terrain is now subject to criticals and sneak attacks!

 

[I'm A Banana]

WHen she lost it, several stuff happened

I love you. Let's have babbies.

 

[The Little Raven]

At least terrain is now subject to criticals and sneak attacks!

Well, if I was a wall, I wouldn't be expecting a dagger in my kidney, so a sneak attack would definitely take me off-guard.

 

[Ahglock]

There is one factor though - the huge disparity between in-combat time and out of combat time. In combat, a wall would have to breakable in three rounds or less to have any chance of a dramatic effect. Out of combat, that means you can smash through three walls per minute!

.

Have high hardness walls that at will abilities bump into and per encounter abilities ignore. So out of combat you knock down a wall or two and then you have to rest until the DM says well you got your per encounter abilities back. Do this enough and the DM can start throwing on some fatigue rules.

 

[frankthedm]

At least terrain is now subject to criticals and sneak attacks!

Jury is still out on sneak, but IMHO letting attacks on helpless defenders and inanimate objects automaticly be max damage does not sound like a bad idea at all.

 

[shilsen]

I'm intrigued that apparently nobody has mentioned the effect that adamantine weapons and items had in 3e. Once you have those in the game, terrain, walls and other obstructions start mattering a whole lot less.

 

[frankthedm]

I'm intrigued that apparently nobody has mentioned the effect that adamantine weapons and items had in 3e. Once you have those in the game, terrain, walls and other obstructions start mattering a whole lot less.

It helps, but on the most part it is only 5-8 more damage since metal and magically hardened terrain is not common.

 

[danzig138]

Jury is still out on sneak, but IMHO letting attacks on helpless defenders and inanimate objects automaticly be max damage does not sound like a bad idea at all.

Or a damage bonus based on the success of the attack roll, since you won't always hit a tree just right with an axe.

Concerning the very original post:

The books talk about ignoring hardness and dealing extra damage is the target is attacked by something it would be vulnerable to. There are quite a few Breaks DCs provided as examples, which would be useful for breaking through things. And I've always been of the opinion that reducing the target to 0 hit points destroys the target. That thin pillar doesn't need to be completely destroyed to be broken in half by Thog missing with his giant hammer. As a house rule, you could either use the damage in place in the Strength check, or have the damage add a bonus to the Strength check for the Break DC.

And of course, sometimes, it should be the person hitting the target that breaks before the target does.

 

[IanB]

Having to spend time worrying about and figuring out the effects of area effects on terrain, etc., would seem to be at odds with the stated goal of making combats go faster.