Sundering a Magic Weapon

[Madstylz]

If a character has a +7 Sword (Long Sword +1, Keen, Holy, Lawful, Flame Burst), What's it hardness and how many hit points does it have?

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

What's important is the actual enhancement bonus of the weapon (in this case, +1), so your +1 longsword would have a hardness of 11 and 6 hp.

AR

 

[DanMcS]

Isn't that the 3.0 rule? In 3.5, each point of enhancement bonus adds 2 to hardness and 10 to hit points, so it would be hardness 12 and 15 hps.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

What's important is the actual enhancement bonus of the weapon (in this case, +1), so your +1 longsword would have a hardness of 11 and 6 hp.

AR

Ah, 3.0. Where swords were made of tissue paper.

In 3.5, it'd be Hardness 12, HP 15 (see PHB, p. 165; the DMG entry is incorrect). It's +2 Hardness & +10 HP/point of enhancement bonus. This is another reason to get swords made out of mithral or adamantine, and to buff up the enhancement bonus.

Brad

 

[dcollins]

Ah, 3.0. Where swords were made of tissue paper.

Except that they were completely immune to sundering except by a magic weapon of at least the same bonus. Weapons in 3.5 are much more frequently at risk.

 

[hong]

Ah, 3.0. Where swords were made of tissue paper.

This brings a whole new meaning to the term "paper cut".

 

[frankthedm]

The impactalone from a 10 to 20 pound axe should break a sword more often than not. With harness 10 that is not even possible on the first or second blow, hardly tissue paper

 

[Sir ThornCrest]

imp sunder with a two handed sword and 2 handed power attack....x2 str damage + x2 sunder damage.....+5 swords would be broken.....the big guns break weapons so easily now!

Thorncrest

The impactalone from a 10 to 20 pound axe should break a sword more often than not. With harness 10 that is not even possible on the first or second blow, hardly tissue paper

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

The impactalone from a 10 to 20 pound axe should break a sword more often than not. With harness 10 that is not even possible on the first or second blow, hardly tissue paper

It's not that hard to get damage up to where you can sunder in one blow, especially if you outclass your opponent.

Now, having the enhancement bonus was the primary sunder defense in 3.0. But, once your opponent had an equal or higher enhancement bonus, your weapon went down hard and fast.

I much prefer the current version, where a weapon can actually take damage once or twice before falling apart.

Brad

 

[Pinotage]

I think that the 'has to be of equal enhancement bonus' clause certainly saves Sunder from being House Ruled (Allow the total weapon bonus to apply, so in the case at hand, +14 hardness and +70 hp). It's far too easy for a big strong giant to sunder your weapon, only in the majority of cases he won't be able to since he'll be using a mundane club.

Now, if a PC specialised in Sunder, at least you can circumvent the sunder rules by using more creatures with natural attack. Still, I'm not a big fan of how easy it is to sunder weapons - two-handed power attack is normally more than enough to take a blade out in one or two rounds which is far too easy.

Pinotage