Breaking weapons/shields?

[mgshamster]

How would a PC go about breaking an enemy weapon or shield?

[DivisibleByZero]

Go back in time a decade or maybe a little longer, and play 3.5

[Ninja_Prawn]

You could treat it like the Disarm action in the DMG, but instead of making them drop the weapon, you give it a HP stat and roll damage. Using the DMG rules for object HP, I'd rate weapons as resilient, so 10-20 HP is probably what I'd be looking at. For reference, the Flying Sword has 17 HP.

Fringe benefits: Mending is more useful if weapons break occasionally, and unbreakable magic weapons become a bit more special.

[gfishfunk]

I would not break your PC's weapons or armor without them having a method to fix it.

Giving your PCs a method to break things is not bad - the enemies are built to be destroyed.

Its entirely in the DM's hands. Ideas: you can make a check to break a weapon if you are wielding either a heavy weapon, a versatile weapon in two hands, or a bludgeoning weapon. Give the held item damage resistance (higher for something like a shield).

[No brains]

Some spells that start fires could potentially destroy weapons and shields. The kicker of that is that you need to get the enemy to drop the items first so that they are unattended. You can do that with the command spell, a battlemaster maneuver, or an improvised action that your DM would adjudicate. Once the weapon is on the ground, you just have to hit it hard with fire and hope.

If you could tame a rust monster, that could ruin weapons and shields in a few hits. They're not very tough, but maybe invisibility could keep it alive until it can work.

Lastly, you could use the Hand and Eye of Vecna to disintegrate the Sword of Kas. Since the rules for breaking weapons aren't deeply explored, artifacts can somehow seem MORE breakable.

[Bahamut7]

You have a few choices.

First you need a trigger.


Criticals are useful for this. (20 for the PC and 1 for the NPC)
Attacker misses.
Percentile


Then you have to decide the odds are mechanics yourself. So if you go with Criticals, I would combine it with percentiles. Decide what range (10% for example) and roll that every time a crit is rolled. If the percentile hits the accepted range, the weapon or shield breaks.

If you go with misses, you need to decide how that plays out and how long before a break should happen. For example, the swordsman runs in to slice the mage in half with a great vertical swing, he misses and his sword hits the floor. Otherwise you roll damage to the sword or dock so many HP from the sword. When it hits zero...it breaks.

Whatever you decide, you need to tell the players ahead of time and have the mages have the Mend cantrip on hand or grant it as a bonus spell.

[mgshamster]

You could treat it like the Disarm action in the DMG, but instead of making them drop the weapon, you give it a HP stat and roll damage. Using the DMG rules for object HP, I'd rate weapons as resilient, so 10-20 HP is probably what I'd be looking at. For reference, the Flying Sword has 17 HP.

Ooo, I forgot about disarm. That's always a good choice.

I also like your reasoning for weapon HP.

[Kane0]

A variation of tripping/disarming might work.
If you hit a weapon, reduce its die size by 1 step. A weapon reduced to 1d2 or whatever is broken
If you hit a shield or armor reduce its AC bonus by 1. When its ac bonus reaches 0 it is destroyed.
Mending fixes them up by one step per cast, magic weapons are tougher, etc.

[JackPhoenix]

Rules for attacking and damaging objects are in SRD or DMG p. 246-7.

I would rule that weapons and shields (for the medium and small-sized characters) are resilient tiny (for daggers) to medium (for things like tower shields (and yes, I know tower shield technically isn't its own thing in 5e, but it is possible description for a generic shield) or two-handed weapons) objects, thus 10-18 HP, made of wood, iron or steel most of the time, thus 15 or 19 AC, with the usual object immunity to poison and psychic damage, and propably resistance to piercing damage. I was gonna suggest disadvantage on attack rolls against actively used weapons, but honestly, I think they are tough enough that won't be necessary.... and if someone tries to break a weapon, he's not trying to kill the enemy, so it's fair.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Think of something realistic and do it.

Maybe a giant can break a sword or bend a shield....

A bow wielder could have his bow broken quite easily. Heck, ask someone if you can dry fire their compound.

These things aren't silly expensive. It may be interesting to break a Ranger's bow and force him to use his short sword. He'll probably buy a new bow next town he goes to. Heck, have one as a reward when the big bad guy gets killed.

[Sabeta]

One thing that always strains my suspension of disbelief is when a DM says something like "You get pierced right through the stomache for X Damage", but then pretends my armor is fine afterwords. I've always made sure to keep Mending on my character for that exact reason, and failing that I end up spending large chunks of my treasure hoard on repurchasing gear because I can't have it be damaged. That's just not an option for me.

As for what I would do, just make it realistic. Have your characers just fought through 100+ goblins with no reprieve, clanging against metal and bone? Chances are, the sword is at least chipped and dull, and could use a smithy to put the edge back on it. One thing I always do is have my players purchase whetstones, oil, and rags. As well as brushes, needle and thread, etc. So long as they have proficiency in those tools then they automagically take care of their equipment every morning before adventuring, and very rarely will anything become worn down or damage except when it's about time for an upgrade anyway. If they don't have proficiency, I roll behind the screen to see how well they take care of their stuff each morning, and after a while of that will gain proficiency at least in equipment maintenance.

It takes almost no effort on the players part besides carrying the requisite items, and if everyone is proficient I can safely forget about it since the characters are taking care of business. If they don't, things start breaking.