Could Shatter be used to break chunks of a wall?

[Dr. Azkur]

What about chunks of a stone cave?

[jedipotter]

No. The target must be a ''object''. A wall or cave does not count as an object by the rules.

[PaucaTerrorem]

Shatter creates a loud, ringing noise that breaks brittle, nonmagical objects; sunders a single solid, nonmagical object; or damages a crystalline creature.

Used as an area attack, shatter destroys nonmagical objects of crystal, glass, ceramic, or porcelain. All such objects within a 5-foot radius of the point of origin are smashed into dozens of pieces by the spell. Objects weighing more than 1 pound per your level are not affected, but all other objects of the appropriate composition are shattered.

Alternatively, you can target shatter against a single solid object, regardless of composition, weighing up to 10 pounds per caster level. ...

Ask yer DM.

[drack]

It depends on if they're chunks or part of a wall I'd suppose. I tend to let my players do so regardless, but that's just my input as a GM.

[Kane0]

Ask yer DM.

Yep, this.
In theory Uttering bricks in a wall into rubble (or nothingness, depending on DM) sounds fair, though finding similar potions in a cave could prove much more difficult.

[Dr. Azkur]

It depends on if they're chunks or part of a wall I'd suppose. [...]

What exactly is the difference there?

And yes, indeed. DM shall be asked.

[drack]

For instance, if you use sculpt stone to take out the cracks between the chunks you want to shatter from your wall, then technically they are their own items and should work just fine even by raw.

[Curmudgeon]

What exactly is the difference there?
The limit on how big an object you can affect would be bypassed if you could select "chunks" (arbitrarily specified parts of a larger object) and hit each "chunk" with one casting. But instead, you would need to first separate the parts to make separate objects which would each be within the spell limits. That separation step makes the power of this low-level spell reasonable, rather than a slightly weaker Disintegrate. If it's connected to something else, it's not a separate object and thus not a suitable spell target. But if you need to use Sculpt Stone (as drack proposed) or some similar method first to get down to a separate object within the size limit of Shatter, then Shatter is of reasonable power for a level 2 spell. Physical separation makes something a separate object, while "from here to there" does not.

[TuggyNE]

No. The target must be a ''object''. A wall or cave does not count as an object by the rules.

There is a table in Core (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/exploration.htm#tableObjectHardnessAndHitPoints) that pretty clearly contradicts this assertion. Walls are explicitly breakable, as objects, by brute force or by damage, just like handcuffs, treasure chests, or doors.

Exactly how much of the wall counts as a single object is, however, the tricky bit; usually it would be pretty much the entire extent.

[Phelix-Mu]

In theory, if the size category rules for objects corresponded to those of creatures (and I'm pretty sure that they don't for no apparent reason), then you could use a similar breakdown as many spells use for converting creature sizes (such as how many creatures can enter a rope trick, among other spells). This would be a nice rubric for a houserule, anyway, but I'm afraid that expecting the RAW to deliver such incisive conclusions is asking a wee bit too much.

[mabriss lethe]

Am I the only one who read this as "Could Shatner be used to break chunks of wall?"

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