The problem of sundering

[Jack of Shadows]

I've never seen any player EVER sunder anything in 3.x. Nor have I as a GM or player done so... I've never seen the attraction to sunder. Why destroy something that you can use or sell?

Because it stops said person from continuing to HIT you with it. Also sundering an opponents shield can make it considerably easier to hit and damage them in later rounds. It's a surprisingly good tactic.

Jack

 

[James McMurray]

I've seen sunder happen from the PC side of the screen, usually aimed at a shield and followed by a Sundering Cleave via Combat Brute. It can be a great tactic, although it works best in conjunction with a permanent Arcane Sight so the mage can tell you what you shouldn't destroy.

My biggest problem with sunder is that it makes people say things like "I hate it when my character looses his sword." It's LOSES, not LOOSES!!!!

Ok, pet peeve rage ending now. Thankfully I've got a low con so it never lasts long.

 

[Mark CMG]

So the party fighter's magic sword, that he's spent about half his gold on, gets destroyed.

Walk it off. Rub some dirt on it. Get back in there.

 

[James McMurray]

Walk it off. Rub some dirt on it. Get back in there.

That's great unless your GM is a stickler for CRs, which all assume you have your gear fro your level. TPKs can flow like water when GMs ignore the gear aspect of the CR system.

 

[Mark CMG]

That's great unless your GM is a stickler for CRs, which all assume you have your gear fro your level. TPKs can flow like water when GMs ignore the gear aspect of the CR system.

No excuses.

 

[helium3]

MIC also has gems that attach to your weapons and boost them. These can somewhat help to mitigate the problem, as part of your weapon's power wasn't destroyed. If you've got another weapon handy with the appropriate enhancement bonus you can take a move to get the old one off, another to attach it to the new one, and be at least partially "repaired" in one round.

To attach those gems the weapon usually needs a base enhancement bonus. Oh yeah, and they're way to cheap. But, that's another thread.

 

[James McMurray]

Don't look at me for excuses. Our current party started at 7th level with only NPC gear from the DMG. People are dying left and right. It's annoying, because there's no time to get used to a character and explore it, but I keep making replacements and moving on.

I'm not saying it's inherently a bad thing. Some groups like the added challenge of always being outclassed by creatures they should be able to easily defeat*. What I'm saying is that some GMs don't realize that wealth is a factor, and then wonder why their players can't even handle a "simple" encounter whose EL is lower than their level.

* For the record, I'm not one of those. I don't mind being outclassed, but I think a 5th level party should be able to reliably handle CR 3 encounters. It's very easy to outclass the PCs using the CR system. It's harder to gauge when you're outclassing them if you ignore parts of the CR system.

 

[Razz]

You do realize that the rules on sundering say it can be done to weapons, shields, and items, but not armor, right? In fact, this is probably the main reason why you can't sunder armor.

I just read Sunder and it doesn't say anywhere that you cannot sunder armor. In fact, you can, it states. When sundering weapons or shields, it's an opposed attack roll. When sundering worn or carried objects, you just need to hit its AC.

No where does it state you cannot sunder armor.

Armor is worn so it would be attacked as per worn objects. And then it goes and gives hit points for weapons, shields, and armor. It's implied that armor can be sundered.

 

[James McMurray]

Sundering a Carried or Worn Object: You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender rather than damage it, see Disarm. You can’t sunder armor worn by another character.

If he takes his armor off and lays it on the ground you can beat the hell out of it. If he is wearing it, you're SOL.

 

[Doug McCrae]

If PC's weapons can be irreparably sundered it seems to me the only option for a pragmatic, realistic fighter is never to buy one in the first place. The loss of gold is too great to be worth it and one must rely on Greater Magic Weapon instead. But the big problem with that is it's desperately uncool. Fantasy is full of magic swords. Players of melee characters love em. So to allow sundering as it is in the RAW means detracting a big chunk of coolness and fun from your game.