Destroying Equipment

[Cuddly]

I'm looking for spells/creatures/abilities/environments that will destroy party treasure. They're a little overwealthed atm, and I need a fair and reasonable way to turn a few of their items useless. Ideally, there would be a spell like disintegrate that'd only work against items.

Other options would be scenarios that would force them to sacrifice items in some manner (lava, extremely cold liquids, acid, etc). They also have many consumables (pots, scrolls, etc) that'd I'd like them to use. Perhaps a marathon encounter of many, many mooks? Enough attrition that they'll dip into their supplies without ever really facing a chance of TPK.

I'm thinking about having a couple destrachans ruin some of their stuff, but I don't like how universally damaging that would be.

Any ideas/thoughts/advice/poorly veiled insults and criticism?

[Farmer42]

You can always throw some advanced rust monsters at them. They'll only take out arms and armor, but then the PCs will have to trade or sell some of their loot to replace it.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Fairest, if you can work it in, have them imprisoned, and a big chunk of their gear divided among the guards.(the rest is in a chest somewhere) The more guards they take out, the more they get back. "You notice the guard outside your cell has Jacob's Flaming Battleaxe". "When you check the corpse, you find a longsword, a chain shirt, and Jon's Amulet of Mighty Fists." If they really try, they get everything back(minus a few wands and the like, but if they don't search thoroughly, they wind up missing a few pieces. If you do this, watch what they miss the most in the beginning, and make sure they get it back.

[Cuddly]

Fairest, if you can work it in, have them imprisoned, and a big chunk of their gear divided among the guards.(the rest is in a chest somewhere) The more guards they take out, the more they get back. "You notice the guard outside your cell has Jacob's Flaming Battleaxe". "When you check the corpse, you find a longsword, a chain shirt, and Jon's Amulet of Mighty Fists." If they really try, they get everything back(minus a few wands and the like, but if they don't search thoroughly, they wind up missing a few pieces. If you do this, watch what they miss the most in the beginning, and make sure they get it back.

I sort of want to move my game along without spending several sessions having them get caught, break free, and then hunt down their equipment (which I know the will spend an inordinate amount of time doing). Their stuff has to be immediately and obviously broke beyond repair. I once had a gnome illusionist a couple levels higher than the party rob them blind, just to screw with them (I let the gnome get gredy and make some tactical blunders), and show off the dangers of a well prepared arcanist. They took that... poorly.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Then why do you think they will take the loss of this stuff any better?

[Cuddly]

Then why do you think they will take the loss of this stuff any better?

Because it'll happen in such a manner as to appear as a necessary function of plot and simply not the DM messing with them just to mess with them?

[Rachel Lorelei]

Just wait. They'll take on slightly tougher creatures with their better loot, gain a level, and then they won't be overwealthed anymore. Problem solved!

[Cuddly]

Just wait. They'll take on slightly tougher creatures with their better loot, gain a level, and then they won't be overwealthed anymore. Problem solved!

This is true. They are very close to a level. I should just have some random encounters involving big things without loot and they'll get their level.

Though I still kinda wanted to be a douche and trash some of their gear. Maybe a sunder-monkey monk. It won't be effective, but it'll be humiliating!

[Voyager_I]

Just wait. They'll take on slightly tougher creatures with their better loot, gain a level, and then they won't be overwealthed anymore. Problem solved!

Seconded. The game isn't broken if the PC's have a little extra loot for half a level, and they will probably get annoyed if you take anything away from them, no matter how well you weave it into the plot. You can't really hide behind the plot, anyways. You Make the plot, after all, and the players all know this. Having Totally Important Events divorce them from some of their shinies might feel a little better than random Rust Monsters, but the fact that you are the root of all these evils is not lost on your players.

[Lord Herman]

Yup, just let them level without giving them any more loot. Players hate losing stuff - it's better not to give them anything new than to take away the things they already have.

[Keld Denar]

Nightwalkers (a form of Nightshade, MM1) have a special disarm attack they can use to crush magic items. They are pretty high CR though. I think there is a construct of some sort with adamantine attacks that sunders. You could also have a strong Black Knight (NONE SHALL PASS!!!) type foe with an adamantine weapon that Improved Sunders as a primary attack. The rules for Sundering non-weapons are really retardedly stupid though, and any level 1 mook with a 2hander and a 14 str can sunder a level 20 PC's magical amulet or cloak or whatever. I'd recommend something other than that.

Rust Monsters/Rust Dragons are perfectly standard monsters, especially in dungeons or the underdark. They pull a party out of their comfort zone and force them to react on their heels, instead of from their normal play mode.

Something to nulify their magic items without removing them is to have areas of magic inhibition that boarders on dead magic zones. A lot of characters become very dependant on thing like Greater Magic Weapon and +stat items.

Other than that, just have em face off against some generally treasureless monsters (like undead or elementals) that have no loot to loot. They'll gain some xp and a little gold and make some good headway on catching up on the WBL curve.

[Kioran]

Depending on how mature your players are, the loss of a little equipment won´t harm them - if you play a by-the-book game, you probably shouldn´t do it, but if your game features some coherent plot that still has high item-turnover (they lose some, but gain a little more - it´s a bit unpredictable really. Found out that it´s a quite nice thing. However, I was surprised when one player valued his "hand of the mage" a lot more than his +3 Magic weapon......).
If you play by the book, your players expect continuity and you probably shouldn´t do it. If you play a game that is about the awesomeness of the characters first and foremost, and the story takes the second seat (4th Ed?), you probably shouldn´t do it.
If you, however, play heavily story driven game, in which a lot of different and unexpected things can happen, you can do this.

[Duke of URL]

I'll second or third the comments about just waiting it out with the durable items -- as long as you don't give them a whole bunch of even more powerful stuff, they'll eventually be balanced by level. In the meantime, you may want to bump up the average CR of opponents to pose a more significant challenge to the players. (It would also grant them XP quicker, unless you take that into account when awarding XP.)

As for consumables, the best bet is to test the party's endurance for a while. Make them go longer between rests, so that they are more reliant on consumables to keep going. It's easy enough to factor into a plot, and effective.

[Deepblue706]

The rules for Sundering non-weapons are really retardedly stupid though, and any level 1 mook with a 2hander and a 14 str can sunder a level 20 PC's magical amulet or cloak or whatever. I'd recommend something other than that.

Well, aren't those the rules that are supposed to allow PCs a chance to fight enemies like Sauron? Might not take out the Ring, but it's a similar premise, no?

I feel that equipment breakage should occur often in games. If you want to simulate people fighting for their lives, I don't think they should care so much about WBL - and I think the NPCs should say "screw killing them for their gear - this game was designed for us to lose! Let's break their swords so they can't kill us, and we'll run away."

My solution for your problem, Cuddly, is to make an order of Radical Monks that focus all their efforts on breaking all weapons and magical equipment (there's a few feats that grant benefits...).

[Person_Man]

Destroying a PC's equipment is the easiest way to get them to hate you as a DM and as a person. Trust me, I've done it before. It's a very bad idea. They'd rather die then lose a coveted magic item, because death is often cheaper. Just hand out less loot for the next few levels until they're balanced out.

If you do decide to destroy their stuff, the Shatter spell works reasonably well, as does anyone with an adamantine weapon and the Combat Brute feat.