Question on obdurium

[NullShadow]

I am a little lost on this strange metal. It states that it has hardness 30 and 60hp/inch but otherwise acts like adamantine right? If that is the case, does that mean that it bypasses hardness 20 or hardness 30?

[Grinner]

Good question. I'd say it bypasses hardness 30.

Edit: By a strict reading of the PHB, it would bypass hardness 20.

[tyckspoon]

RAW? 20. Adamantine's ability to bypass hardness is not related to its own hardness, not by the rules or even in layout- there's about a full paragraph and a half between 'adamantine can bypass hardness up to 20' and 'by the way, adamantine itself is hardness 20.' Making a connection between the two is natural, but not supported by the actual text. If something is said to work 'like adamantine except..' it will penetrate exactly hardness 20, no more or less, unless that particular trait is called out in the 'except ...' bits.

[Grinner]

Sometimes, I wish the timestamps would show seconds as well as minutes.

[NullShadow]

Ok my question now is, would it be feasible to allow my players to allow it to bypass hardness 30?

[Eldan]

Hm. I never thought about it, but does that mean that Adamantine can cut other Adamantine without much resistance?

[tyckspoon]

Hm. I never thought about it, but does that mean that Adamantine can cut other Adamantine without much resistance?

No; people often use inexact language when discussing it, because it usually doesn't matter too much, but the actual rule is ignores hardness less than 20, not inclusive to 20.

[TheCountAlucard]

Plus, adamantine stuff is probably going to be enchanted with at least a +1, and doing so ups its hardness and hit points.

[Cieyrin]

No; people often use inexact language when discussing it, because it usually doesn't matter too much, but the actual rule is ignores hardness less than 20, not inclusive to 20.

Yeah, I was about to say...

But here is where you need to include Sense Weakness to drop anything you want to break of 5 points of hardness, meaning you can cleave in twain normal adamantine and up to +2 adamantine. +3 or higher is too hard for even Sense Weakness to help you completely ignore its damage resistance.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Ok my question now is, would it be feasible to allow my players to allow it to bypass hardness 30?

If you want to rule it that way, go right ahead. RAW is less important than what you want to do as a DM, and it seems pretty easy to handwave.