Quote Originally Posted by Starbuck_II View Post
I don't know, Shatter as a 1st level means you can easily break every weapon as a spell (since few magic weapons).
Using a 1st level spell to sunder a single nonmagical weapon doesn't seem overpowered. At high E6 levels, it would also work against a suit of armor, which might be more effective since now you've got the entangled condition for the rest of the fight.

That's not bad because it's overpowered, it's bad because it's irritating--the player loses a very expensive item (hundreds of gold pieces, at a level where you don't have thousands of gold pieces) and can't really replace it during the adventure. Which creates a disadvantage for fighter-types that spellcasters don't have to worry about, and that sneaky types don't have to worry about much (their armor is much cheaper, losing it doesn't hurt them as much, and they're less likely to be targeted.)So it's a tactic that harms PCs much more than NPCs (NPCs usually don't have to worry about the next fight), and harms full-BAB types more than others.

Does this really get worse when the spell is 1st level? Or is this a problem that is usually contained because there's a narrow band of levels where A) second level spells are in play and B) non-magical armor is still relevant.

Shatter creates a loud, ringing noise that breaks brittle, nonmagical objects; sunders a single solid, nonmagical object; or damages a crystalline creature.

Used as an area attack, shatter destroys nonmagical objects of crystal, glass, ceramic, or porcelain. All such objects within a 5-foot radius of the point of origin are smashed into dozens of pieces by the spell. Objects weighing more than 1 pound per your level are not affected, but all other objects of the appropriate composition are shattered.

Alternatively, you can target shatter against a single solid object, regardless of composition, weighing up to 10 pounds per caster level. Targeted against a crystalline creature (of any weight), shatter deals 1d6 points of sonic damage per caster level (maximum 10d6), with a Fortitude save for half damage.