Sword vs Door: Ineffectual Weapon?

[Darklone]

There are some nice fairy tales where swords nicely cut through stone... if adamantinum swords work that way, why bother?

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

There are also a number of fantasy tales where swords take out doors, etc. Kull, for instance, takes down several doors with his sword in the few tales Robert Howard wrote about him.

There are some nice fairy tales where swords nicely cut through stone... if adamantinum swords work that way, why bother?

 

[Aaron L]

The rules are quite clear in that the DM may rule certain weapons 'ineffective' at causing damage to a particular kind of object. The examples given are shoot a door down with arrows or bludgeon a rope in half.

I'm quite comfortable with ruling swords ineffective for chopping down doors. Want to break down a door in my campaigns? Use an axe. Want to hack through a wall? Use a pick.

Swords? cut rope and chop up monsters with em', but don't try to damage the scenery!

Then you just hamstring most of the point of having an adamantine weapon right there. What's the point of having a sword that can cut through steel and then saying that wooden doors and stone walls give it trouble?

 

[frankthedm]

Then you just hamstring most of the point of having an adamantine weapon right there. What's the point of having a sword that can cut through steel and then saying that wooden doors and stone walls give it trouble?

The point it takes an adamantine axe 1/2 the time to go through an obstacle than an adamantine sword because the axe is the right tool for the job.

If you're going for realism, the biggest problem I see is that the sword can actually be damaged a lot by this type of use. Sure, the character would be able to break down a door with a sword if they try hard enough, but they might need to get a new sword afterwards, especially if the door is metal or stone. D+D does a pretty poor job of modeling this.

Actually the tools are in the DM's hands to do an excelent job.

Vulnerability to Certain Attacks: Certain attacks are especially successful against some objects. In such cases, attacks deal double their normal damage and may ignore the object’s hardness.

Am I the only DM who feels being swung at a hard solid object is an attack a sword is vulnerable to?

 

[Felnar]

the reason you'd want a adamantine spoon is it wouldnt wear out.

adamantine is not a lightsaber
although, it is fantasy, so maybe

hardness in D&D is weird
imo, hardness should serve to reduce the amount of collision energy absorbed into the object
a good rule wouldnt let wood staves break iron bars

and no i dont think swords would work well on doors, even axes only work on doors by whittling-out/breaking the locking mechanism

 

[frankthedm]

hardness in D&D is weird
imo, hardness should serve to reduce the amount of collision energy absorbed into the object
a good rule wouldnt let wood staves break iron bars

Ahem...

Ineffective Weapons: Certain weapons just can’t effectively deal damage to certain objects.


Vulnerability to Certain Attacks: Certain attacks are especially successful against some objects. In such cases, attacks deal double their normal damage and may ignore the object’s hardness.

Being swung at a hard solid object is an attack many weapons are vulnerable to IMHO.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The problem isn't necessarly the durability of the weapon, but the durability of the wielder. Ever tried swinging an aluminum baseball bat against a brick wall as hard as you can? It'll hurt.

I think 4E should consider the issue of using weapons against objects a little more than the 3E rules do. Having someone with an adamantine sword cutting through solid rock walls seems a little silly, but that's just me.

I think it's become too easy in 3E to smash through things. Maybe it was too hard in previous editions, but it seems too easy now. We just need a better balance.

 

[Darklone]

Well, years ago I started a thread here that included a barbarian with an adamantinum axe cutting his way faster through a castle wall than 12 soldiers with a ram would break the door...

 

[Rhun]

Am I the only DM who feels being swung at a hard solid object is an attack a sword is vulnerable to?

You most certainly are not. Swords are not made to cut down doors. As you said, my PCs had better try an axe if they want to do this. And I will say this right now...even with a adamantine pick, it is going to take a PC in one of my games a long time to open a usable hole in a 5' thick stone wall.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Well, look at the abilities of each. The barbarian is more impressive than 12 soldiers if he has a few levels on him.

Attacking objects is an add-on rule that the designers probably spent like 2 hours thinking about, and another two hours writing. At least there are some rules this edition. I'll take sucky rules over none.