Fun Uses of Shatter

[SociopathFriend]

Shatter, a 2nd Level spell that deals 3d8 thunder damage to objects in a 10 foot radius from a point you choose (not necessarily see) within 60 feet of you. Non-magical objects will take this damage.

With that said- what are some fun potential uses of this spell? I can think of a few:

1. Disarming an opponent and breaking their weapon
2. Blowing apart a bridge support to collapse it
3. Channeling the might of an ancient hero and destroying every pot you can

[JohnDaBarr]

I one of my campaigns I made a trap using a Glyph of Warding with Shatter on a clay bottle. The bottle had a Shadow in it and the Glyph+Shatter was set to go off if someone touches the bottle. The bottle would break and the Shadow would attack who ever was in sight.

Edit: I really hate they nerfed Glyph of Warding so you can't move objects that have Glyph cast on them....

[sambojin]

Pillars. Temples have them. Dwarven architecture can have them. Aquaducts have them.
Bring the house down, and/or flood/famine a city.

Oh, and doors. Or windows. Or anything really. See a thing that needs to be exploded? Yep. Shatter. It's like the big-boys Knock spell, except it "opens" anything. Mini-disintergrate for non-people or monster stuff :)

[Kane0]

Pillars. Temples have them. Dwarven architecture can have them. Aquaducts have them

Seconding, but also works for support beams of all kinds in buildings, mine shafts, etc.

Its also great for removing fallen logs, clusters of caltrops, doors and other obstacles.

Floors are also often objects and can take the damage, which is great if you target some creatures on the upper level of a multi-storey building. They could take the shatter damage and then fall + prone from the floor under them also being shattered. However if this works for you it can also work against you.

[Myth27]

A group of alchemist fire vials

[OvisCaedo]

One thing you have to ask yourself (or, more likely, ask your DM) is how much HP various objects actually have. Will 3d8 thunder damage even take out a support pillar? The DMG's got some brief guideline suggestions about item HP, with medium "resilient" (barrels and chandeliers being examples of medium objects but not necessarily resilient ones) objects sitting at 18/4d8 average HP. Large ones jump up to 27/5d10. Bigger objects say "yeah I dunno it either doesn't work or you treat it as a bunch of parts, you're the DM, use common sense", which is fair enough.

Anything smaller than that certainly has strong chances of being broken, though! Almost inarguably. But many clever uses you might have to clear with your DM.

[SociopathFriend]

One thing you have to ask yourself (or, more likely, ask your DM) is how much HP various objects actually have. Will 3d8 thunder damage even take out a support pillar? The DMG's got some brief guideline suggestions about item HP, with medium "resilient" (barrels and chandeliers being examples of medium objects but not necessarily resilient ones) objects sitting at 18/4d8 average HP. Large ones jump up to 27/5d10. Bigger objects say "yeah I dunno it either doesn't work or you treat it as a bunch of parts, you're the DM, use common sense", which is fair enough.


IIRC there's a rule in the DMG somewhere about treating bigger objects as smaller ones but I've never DM'd and don't onw the DMG so I dunno for sure.