To Sunder or not to Sunder?

[Stuvius]

Good Morning Playground!

I have a player in the campaign I am currently running who was able to acquire a Tan Bag of Tricks. He utilizes it frequently in combat to generate a variety of animals that, depending on his die roll, aid or don’t do much to aid, the party. As I prepared for our next session I thought about having an enemy combatant of average to better than average intelligence attempt to destroy the bag via sunder. Is this reasonable? Or am I targeting a valued item unfairly? I truly don’t have any issue with the item or his use of it. It actually creates some humorous situations from time to time. From a role play point of view though, I feel as if enemies would notice him use the bag and attempt to destroy it before he could produce another creature they had to battle. Thoughts?

[FocusWolf413]

If you destroy his bag, he'll be upset because you broke his shinies. A better idea would be disarming/stealing the bag, then running away.

Also, from what you said, it sounds like you're singling him out.

[Hellborn_Blight]

Lots of variables here to consider. Non meta game ones like, "is this Orc smart enough to do that?", "do they even know it's the bag doing it?" and, "why wouldn't I just cut off his arms instead?" come to mind. But really, if the player has a favored trick, it doesn't break the game, and everyone is having fun, why ruin it? I could be alone here, but letting a balanced good time be seems like a no-brainer to me.

[Stuvius]

Lots of variables here to consider. Non meta game ones like, "is this Orc smart enough to do that?", "do they even know it's the bag doing it?" and, "why wouldn't I just cut off his arms instead?" come to mind. But really, if the player has a favored trick, it doesn't break the game, and everyone is having fun, why ruin it? I could be alone here, but letting a balanced good time be seems like a no-brainer to me.

I agree. I am truly not out to ruin his fun. Quite opposite. That is why I posted this. I appreciate the feedback it sounds as if most would interpret it as targeting one player, which I for sure want to avoid.

[goto124]

"why wouldn't I just cut off his arms instead?"

Disarm! :P

[Flickerdart]

Sunder is usually not a useful strategy for enemies - when you're facing down a guy who can cut you down in a few seconds, your efforts should be focused on liberating his head from his shoulders and not breaking his trinkets, unless these are trinkets that will directly lead to your own demise and you're confident you can smash them up in no time. Sundering a sword? Legitimate, since this means the foe is at your mercy (though disarming is probably faster). Sundering a spell component pouch? Also a good idea, since it will prevent a lot of spellcasting (though again not the best move). But sundering a random sack? It's just wasting attacks that could be directed at a real threat.

[bjoern]

Disarm! :P

Ha, remimds me of a player who had never player a P&P RPG before. Was reading the cleric and said.
"Woah!, a cleric can turn someone dead just like that?! I want to be a cleric"

We had a good laugh.

[graeylin]

Modify your sunder: Because the bag is magical, the successful attempt to sunder is instead a disarm. The strings holding the bag are cut, it falls. The bag is knocked out of the player's hand, and flies a few feet away.

You get a laugh, the player gets an antic, and everyone gets a story to tell... Remember when you almost pulled that bear from the bag, but the orc smacked it out of your hand? That was cool.