Sundering a ring?

[Thanee]

I think you read Lord of the Rings one too many times.

You can't sunder rings, or bracers, or headbands, or whatever- not by the rules as written anyway.

That was my first thought, sunder is for attacking weapons, but as written it is for attacking objects, which rings certainly are.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darklone]

Welll....

Remind me to never play in your games Are you trying to kill the fun of your PCs?

Huhm... since I am usually much too generous with magic items (though the players don't seem to trust them... I don't use generic items without drawbacks ), I need to take some away now and then. Usually I do this by giving them charges or failing chances... But why shouldn't a blackguard sunder that holy sword ?

 

[Bobbystopholes]

Darklone, now that I can see happening Guess I should think of the role playing aspect of destorying an item and not expect a DM to sunder everything just because he can!

 

[The Sigil]

A question that came into my mind during the thread about a force shield and a two handed weapon... Someone said you cannot sunder the shield. But why shouldn't it be possible to sunder the ring?

Because you have to cut through the force shield (impossible) to get to the ring?

Now could you please help me with the hardness and damage rules for a ring? Could I e.g. destroy a ring of jumping with a weapon +1?

Nope, you couldn't even do it with an axe +5.

The Ring cannot be unmade, Gimli, son of Gloin, by any craft that we here possess. -- Elrond, LotR (movie)



--The Sigil

 

[Artoomis]

By the rules, you can attack a worn object - the ring would end up with an AC of 23 (no -5 Dex penalty and a +5 bonus for being in the hand) + dex and deflection AC bonuses.

Also, as has been pointed out, according to the DMG, a magic ring has: "an AC of 13, 2 hit points, a hardness of 10, and a break DC of 25."

The rules are pretty clear on this one.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The rules are pretty clear on this one.

I must concede you are right about what the rules say. You must admit it can get pretty silly. A high level fighter can easily annihilate magic items.

Could you sunder someone's armor?

It would make sense for some items. Wands carried in hand comes to mind.

 

[Artoomis]

Why attack magical items?

I must concede you are right about what the rules say. You must admit it can get pretty silly. A high level fighter can easily annihilate magic items.

Could you sunder someone's armor?

It would make sense for some items. Wands carried in hand comes to mind.

Silly?

Perhaps.

Magic items are perishable. That's a fact of D&D. 3e has codified the rules for destroying them.

Yes, you can attack someone's armor. Of course, while you are attempting to break his armor (it's got hardness, etc.) he's killing you, so it may or may not be worth it. More to the point, who wants to destroy the treasure? It's valuable (to PC's and NPC's alike).

It doesn't happen often - kind of like throwing fireballs around blindly and then looking at the resulting slag that used to be magical treasure.

You don't do that very often before you learn it really isn't that great an idea.

 

[Thanee]

Armor, however, should really get some additional hardness, since it's, well, made to withstand damage!

Bye
Thanee

 

['o Skoteinos]

Always when this discussion comes up (or "sundering holy symbols" or somehting like that) I wonder why nobody asks the question:

"If you can sunder my ring, can I sunder your neck?"

Really, if you allow one, IMO, you should allow the other (what's harder about hitting someone's neck than hitting someone's hand?)...and that clearly unbalances the game.

(I'm not going to believe an argument that you sunder the ring (object) without hurting the hand (body part), and that you thus cannot sunder a body part.)

I think you'd best stick to the "you can only sunder weapons".

 

[Artoomis]

Always when this discussion comes up (or "sundering holy symbols" or somehting like that) I wonder why nobody asks the question:

"If you can sunder my ring, can I sunder your neck?"

Really, if you allow one, IMO, you should allow the other (what's harder about hitting someone's neck than hitting someone's hand?)...and that clearly unbalances the game.

(I'm not going to believe an argument that you sunder the ring (object) without hurting the hand (body part), and that you thus cannot sunder a body part.)

I think you'd best stick to the "you can only sunder weapons".

Except, of course, non-optional rules actually exist for attacking objects, even if "attended."