Degrading Durability

[sovin_ndore]

I am trying to find any alternate rules that would represent weapons wearing out. Maybe even damage being dealt to them on use or the like. Would anyone have suggestions for rules options that might accomodate that (in lieu of standard sundering mechanics)?

[Flickerdart]

I am not familiar with any such rules, but there are monsters that deal damage to weapons that attack them, so there's that. Between hardness and fractional damage dealt to objects, weapons don't really take much damage even from them.

If you want a homebrew solution, the first question to ask is why you would want this, so that the resultant rule achieves that. Realism? It's very unrealistic for weapons to degrade with any sort of speed, especially given proper maintenance. Better gameplay? Rolling extra dice and then recording an extra number 5+ times per round will get old real fast. Better storytelling? "Bob suddenly had to stop using his father's magic sword because he swung it too many times" doesn't make a good story.

[sovin_ndore]

Honestly, looking at finding ways to make a D&D game feel more like a videogame. I guess that means I am almost exactly trying for a deviation from reality. There are solid spells in place for doing regular maintainance (such as Repair) but weapons are generally pretty immortal unless you have sundermonkey swinging to destory loot.

[Glimbur]

You could just give each weapon a set number of hits, a la Fire Emblem. That might make sense for a very primitive setting where the party fighter wields the thighbone of a dinosaur. I'd have to agree with Flickerdart though; you shouldn't make a change just for the sake of change. How will this improve your game?

[Flickerdart]

Which video game? There's a big difference between say, Fire Emblem (weapons only swing 20-45 times), Elder Scrolls (weapons swing indefinitely, but magic is exhausted after a while), or almost every other game where weapons do not deteriorate at all.

Add to that problems with drawing new weapons (costs an action in 3.5, doesn't in these games), buying new weapons (costs a fortune in 3.5, doesn't in these games), etc, and you have a great recipe for getting everyone to play spellcasters.

[sovin_ndore]

Admittedly this is somewhat an exercise in game design on my part and that is something that I get great enjoyment out of for its own purpose. It is also just one aspect of some more sweeping changes I am making to the system.

This portion is particularly geared towards making crafting and item accquisition a larger and more interesting part of the game. It should provide more incentive for combat bruisers to have opportunity and reason to participate in 'downtime' roleplay... as it will directly affect their combat effectiveness.

[Flickerdart]

This portion is particularly geared towards making crafting and item accquisition a larger and more interesting part of the game. It should provide more incentive for combat bruisers to have opportunity and reason to participate in 'downtime' roleplay... as it will directly affect their combat effectiveness.
Item acquisition is already half of "kill monsters and then take their stuff." Crafting is already one of the most powerful things in the game.

While the "combat bruisers" are forced to grovel at the feet of NPCs just so they can get another sword after the old one broke, spellcasters - the people who actually craft - are unaffected. This is the central problem with your proposed changes - the people who craft items and the people who deplete items are not the same people.

And if you need to strongarm people into roleplay by taking away their gear, you have bigger problems than weapon durability.

[sovin_ndore]

That is something that I also see as a problem. But it should not be an issue in my system as I have already had to address that concern. This setting is nearly magic-less (taking alot of inspiration from Iron Heroes) and what it has as magic is not wizards and fireballs. So crafting and item creation being important is actually a huge periperally related project that I am really trying to avoid getting into. >.<

Serve it to say that the people depleting the weapons and the people expending them can absolutely be the same people, but will not have to be. Probably more analagous to how an artificer with meta-wand feats both creates and expends at extraordinary rate to great effect, but other people may also use wands.

Weaponry is intended to be much more 'burn and replace' and the economy is actually something that I feel I have a pretty good handle on (despite the sweeping changes).

Mostly I was trying to see if someone had previously experimented with any sort of weapon degrading mechanic I could build off of or if I would need to build something from the ground up (which I am certainly not adverse to!).