Breaking Objects

Epic Path \ Combat Maneuvers \ Broken condition \ Siege Weapons \ Vehicle Combat \ Breaking Objects

Breaking Objects and Attacking Structures

Epic Path replaces the old notion that objects have a hardness and hit points which must be overcome to destroy them. Instead, destroying objects and structures utilizes the Sunder combat maneuver, with some caveats. First, objects have a target DC based on their general material hardness. Second, tougher objects and structures require more than one successful Sunder check to inflict the Broken condition.

This page provides a listing of objects and their Sunder DC's and Durability. However, be aware that Sunder checks made against objects being worn or wielded (i.e. attended objects) always have a target of the wearer's CMD, and require only 1 success to inflict the Broken condition.

A note on "Broken" things

There is no technical difference between "Broken" and "Destroyed". This is largely for simplicity's sake, but also because actually destroying a player-character's prized holy sword is just a cruel, horrible thing to do. Such actions should typically be reserved for major plot points, rather than a lucky die roll by a some random slime monster. However, the idea that equipment can be attacked and broken is interesting. It's a debilitating status condition that takes a fair investment in time to repair, and cannot be repaired at all during combat. Furthermore, it's a debuff that stacks with other debuffs. In order to prevent this from spiraling out of control, with every monster opening with a volley of sunder attacks to loosen up the party, we made the broken condition fairly tame. It's basically a -2 to appropriate things, depending on what gets broken. It's much worse for magic items that aren't weapons, armor or shields, however. When they're broken, they stop providing any benefit until fixed. This was also a strategic decision -- it forces players to spread their best magic around, and use the many body slots available to them, instead of piling everything into one or two really powerful objects. While powerful objects can be really cool, it's just one basket for your eggs, if you know what I mean. Monsters love eggs.

Note that complex objects, such as vehicles and siege weapons also take a cumulative -2 penalty on most actions for each successful Sunder check until the vehicle or siege engine becomes Broken. Once broken, the vehicle or siege engine stops working. For the Sunder DC and Durability of Siege Engines, see the Siege Weapons page. For the Sunder DC and Durability of Vehicles, see the Vehicles page.

Sunder DC

This is the target DC of any Sunder combat maneuver check made against the listed object. Note that, unless a weapon has the Sunder weapon quality, it cannot be used to make Sunder attempts against anything metal or stone. GM's may allow exceptions to this, but generally you wouldn't want to repeatedly bang your beautiful +9 Glitterdoom Shortsword of Spasmodic Awesomeness into a stone block anyway. While you technically can't break your sword this way, you'll also never break that rock. Just get yourself a nice heavy pick, buddy, and maybe a dwarf to go with it, and have at.

Durability

An object's "Durability" number is the number of points of Durability Damage required to inflict the Broken condition.

Note that, in many cases, the durability for some structures is so high that it will take hours of Sunder attempts to break it, or even days. This is realistic, especially in terms of sieges on castles, or tunneling through the earth. Such activities take a long time. GM's are encouraged to allow players to 'take 10' on such rolls, and abstract the time it takes. Or perhaps have a montage.

Dweomermetals and Special Materials

Objects made of special materials can receive a bonus or penalty to their normal Sunder DC. Refer to the Special Materials table, if the object is made of a dweomermetal or specific type of special material.

Object Size

A normal door for a castle designed for sized-medium creatures is probably around 2 inches thick. However, that same door, designed for a castle meant for sized-large creatures might be 6 inches thick. To the sized-large creature, it's an adequate door, but hardly anything special. To a medium creature trying to smash that door, however, it's remarkably resistant against their tiny little axe.

The structures listed below assume the objects described were designed for sized-medium creatures. If they were designed for different sized creatures, refer to the Size Modifiers table to adjust the Sunder DC and Broken At values appropriately.

Objects

A broken object is fairly self-explanatory -- it's broken and no longer does what it was designed to do. In the case of a chest, it is destroyed enough to allow its contents to be removed.

Object	Sunder DC	Durability	Notes
Rope (1" thick)	10	1 success
Wooden Crate/Barrel/Chest	15	2 successes
Reinforced Chest	22	4 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Steel Chest	25	8 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Chain	25	4 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Manacles	25	3 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Masterwork Manacles	30	4 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Iron Bar (1" thick)	30	4 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Block of Stone (1' cube)	25	10 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Standard Furniture	15	2 successes
Sturdy Furniture	22	4 successes
Bottle/Mug/Pitcher	10	1 success

Doors/Windows

A broken door or window is broken enough to allow a character to pass through its shattered remains. The size of this hole through the door or window is equal to the size of the character who broke it (in small-creature, medium-creature, large-creature terms, not 'perfect cutout of the character who did it' terms. You watch too many cartoons.)

Object	Sunder DC	Durability	Notes
Basic Wood Door	20	4 successes
Sturdy Wood Door	25	5 successes
Reinforced Wood Door	30	8 successes
Iron-Bound Wood Door	35	8 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Cage Door (Iron)	40	8 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Portcullis (Iron)	45	10 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Heavy Portcullis (Iron)	50	20 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Solid Iron Door	45	15 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Reinforced Solid Iron Door	55	20 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Crude Glass Window	12	2 successes
Plate Glass Window	30	4 successes
Barred Window	40	8 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Shutters	As door (see above), but 2 successes easier

Walls

Like doors, broken walls can be passed through by the creature who broke it in the first place, or any other creature of the same size. The walls listed below provide the Sunder DC and Durability per 5 feet of thickness. Walls which are thicker than 5 feet are basically just like having a second 5-foot thick wall directly behind the first. They have the same Sunder DC, but another set of Durability successes equal to the first 5 feet. A way to think of this is that the first 5 feet crumble away revealing even more wall.

Siege weapons which deal damage to an area of effect that successfully break one of the listed walls smash a portion of the wall equal to this area of effect, though only 5 feet into the thickness of the wall.

If a wall is supposed to be thinner than 5 feet thick, such as an interior or residential wall, the Sunder DC is unchanged, but reduce the number of successes necessary by 1/5 per foot less than 5.

Object	Sunder DC	Durability	Notes
Rammed Earth Wall	15	30 successes
Daub and Wattle Wall	18	30 successes
Plaster and Lath Wall	22	30 successes
Beam and Post Wall	25	30 successes
Palisade Wall	30	40 successes
Mud Brick Wall	35	25 successes
Brick Wall	40	30 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Rough Stone Wall	45	50 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Cut Stone Wall - Residential	50	50 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Heavy Cut Stone Wall	55	50 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Military Cut Stone Wall	60	75 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Castle Curtain Wall	65	75 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
-- With Buttresses	+5	+5 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
-- With Ramparts	+10	+20 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Natural Stone	50	200 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Iron Wall	65	80 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Reinforced Iron Wall	75	100 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Iron Curtain Wall	85	175 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
-- With Buttresses	+5	+5 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
-- With Ramparts	+10	+20 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Force Wall	100	1 success

Roofs

Roofs are rarely as thick as walls, but are often supported much better than walls. As a result, they can have fairly high Sunder DC's given their materials, but tend to have a lower Durability.

Object	Sunder DC	Durability	Notes
Thatch	15	2 successes
Cedar Shakes	25	5 successes
Pitch and Gravel	30	5 successes
Tile	33	7 successes
Flagstone	35	8 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Metal-Sheathed (Copper)	40	10 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Metal-Sheathed (Other)	40	10 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon; adjust per Special Materials table.

Floor/Ground

This table describes how hard it would be to essentially destroy the ground in a 5-foot cubic area, based on the type of ground in question. This can be useful if, for example, digging a grave, or attempting to tunnel under a wall. Some characters also have special abilities which let them attack the ground, for varying effects. Also useful if you really want your Epic Path game to feel more like Minecraft.

Object	Sunder DC	Durability	Notes
Sand	15	25 successes
Dirt	17	25 successes
Rocks and Dirt	20	30 successes
Loose Rocks/Scree	35	25 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Stone	50	200 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Ice	45	2 successes
Muddy	20	20 successes
Packed Dirt Road	35	40 successes
Cobblestone Road	40	40 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Stone-Paved Road/Stone Tiles	40	30 successes	requires 'Sunder' weapon
Wooden Planks	25	10 successes	per 1/2-foot of thickness.
Untreated Logs	30	50 successes
Clay/Ceramic Tile Flooring	33	25 successes

Special Materials

Object	Sunder DC Modifier	Durability Modifier	Notes
Adamantine	+5	+5	Solid metal objects only
Ambergold	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Argent	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Basalt (Stone)	+2	+5	Solid stone objects only
Bloodgold	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Bloodsilver	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Cold Iron	-	-	Solid metal objects only
Cuprium-Infused	+5	+5	Solid wood objects only
Dolemetal	+10	+10	Solid metal objects only
Dural (Stone)	+5	+10	Solid stone objects only
Glassteel	+10	+20	Glass (and glass-like) objects only
Gold	-15	-15	Solid metal objects only
Gold-Inlaid	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Ironwood	*	*	Solid wood objects only; hardness and durability as iron
Mithral	-	-20	Solid metal objects only
Mithral	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Olivine (Stone)	+5	+5	Solid stone objects only
Paramount Alloy	+30	+50	Solid metal objects only
Peacemetal	-5	-30	Solid metal objects only
Puremetal	-2	-25	Solid metal objects only
Siegestone (Stone)	+4	+7	Solid stone objects only; anti-magic
Silver	-	-20	Solid metal objects only
Silver Inlaid	-	-	Inlaid on any object
Truemetal	+20	+30	Solid metal objects only

If a structure, such as a door, is reinforced with one of the above materials, assuming it is a material that can be used for reinforcing (typically solid metal), the reinforced structure gains half the bonuses listed in the above table for the special material added, to it's base hardness and durability.

Size Modifiers

Object	Sunder DC Modifier	Durability Modifier
Small or Smaller	-	-2 successes
Medium	-	-
Large	+5	+5 successes
Huge	+10	+10 successes
Gargantuan	+15	+20 successes
Colossal	+20	+50 successes
Titanic	+30	+100 successes