[3.5] Weapon damage

[Malificus]

I'm going to be running a grim fantasy game, and plan on using rules like encumbrance, weather, and whatnot to emphasize the dark nature of everything, when I started wondering.

How does weapon health work? I'll be using bronze weapons (steel exists, but is rare), which has a hardness of 9. Does that mean if Furybringer Deeprage, Barbarian Dwarf hits Mooky McDisposable for 10 damage, that his bronze axe takes damage? How does masterwork or magic affect this?

[Temotei]

Here. That should cover most of your questions.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I am not sure But IIRC hardnessis like DR to objects, if you try to sunder a weapon you have to beat (or ignore) it's hardness to actually damage it.

[Malificus]

So regardless of how hard a character hits with a weapon, it won't break. Someone has to be specifically trying to break his weapon? Furybringer Deeprage won't have to worry about weapon damage no matter how hard he hits people.

[Draz74]

Weapon Health does not come into play unless your weapon actually gets attacked (e.g. by a Sunder attempt or a Disintegrate spell). You do not use Newton's Third Law; hitting someone for 20 damage does not mean your axe took 20 damage too.

Hardness is indeed like DR, except it works against anything that doesn't specifically bypass it (DR works only against physical attacks, not spells).

Masterwork doesn't improve an object's HP or hardness. Magic does. How much magic improves the hardness/HP is stated in a couple (contradictory) places in the rules. The most up-to-date of these rules (Magic Item Compendium) says +2 hardness and +10 Hit Points for every "plus" of a magic weapon or armor.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Yep, trying to break a weapon is a special action called sunder, (you even need a feat to do it if you don't want to provoke AoO's)

[Malificus]

Weapon Health does not come into play unless your weapon actually gets attacked (e.g. by a Sunder attempt or a Disintegrate spell). You do not use Newton's Third Law; hitting someone for 20 damage does not mean your axe took 20 damage too.

Alright, sound good.

hmm... I'd throw in enemies who sunder, but so far the group is a soul-knife, a warlock, and a rogue.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I'm going to be running a grim fantasy game, and plan on using rules like encumbrance, weather, and whatnot to emphasize the dark nature of everything, when I started wondering.

How does weapon health work? I'll be using bronze weapons (steel exists, but is rare), which has a hardness of 9. Does that mean if Furybringer Deeprage, Barbarian Dwarf hits Mooky McDisposable for 10 damage, that his bronze axe takes damage? How does masterwork or magic affect this?

In a word: No.

It's only used when opponents try to sunder your weapon.

However, if you wish to posit that doing more than your weapon's Hardness can damage the blade, that's an awesome houserule. Here's how I'd probably do it

1) You can deal up to your weapon's Hardness without a problem. Doing more damage than that may damage your blade. You may pull your blow if it does more than this 'fragile cap', so you do not risk damage your weapon unnecessarily. Alternately, if there is 'blow through' (i.e. you do more damage than necessary), there is less of a chance of your weapon breaking, even if you bypass the fragile cap.

2) Rolling a Natural 1 can result in a broken weapon. Roll weapon damage, and apply the full amount to the weapon, using Hardness as DR, and unable to pull the blow. Rolling a Natural 1 on a Bow or Crossbow results in a broken bowstring.

3) When hitting something with a Hardness greater than your weapon (such as Plate Mail), a failed attack roll may result in damage being dealt to your weapon

4) Blunt weapons are normally excepted from damage due to excessive damage, as they are designed to dish out massive blunt force trauma. However, if you deal twice the Hardness, you may end up breaking the Haft.

5) Mastercrafted doubles your 'safe zone' before you risk damaging your weapon

6) Magic weapons add a multiplier to your safe zone based on 2+ Enhancement Bonus (or equivalent, if it has enchantments such as Keen). This subsumes, and does not stack with, the doubling from Mastercrafted.

Sound like decent guidelines?

[Dusk Eclipse]

Alright, sound good.

hmm... I'd throw in enemies who sunder, but so far the group is a soul-knife, a warlock, and a rogue.

AFIK you can sunder a mind blade BUT they can reshape them at the next turn... also you might want to consider showing your player this ACF for psychic warrior instead of soul Knife

It is basically the same, except you can actually contribute to the party.

And I talk of the Soul knife uselessness from personal experience

[Malificus]

Oh yeah, in case this is relevant, I'll be using the E6 variant rules.

Sound like decent guidelines?

It has a few more rules than I was originally planning, but yeah, that's about what I had in mind. I might throw it in to vary up enemy drops.

I think I'd keep it at this for simplicity:

1) When you hit with a weapon, it takes damage using its Hardness as DR
1a) Double the hardness for bashing weapons.
1b) +2 Hardness and +10 health per enchantment bonus

2) Crit misses roll damage as normal to see if the weapon takes damage.

3) Bonus damage caused by precision based attacks like sneak attacks, and critical strikes wouldn't count towards damaging the weapon. Same for extra damage from weapon finesse.

4) If you would deal more damage than your weapon's hardness, you may hold back reflexively, as to not damage your weapon.

AFIK you can sunder a mind blade BUT they can reshape them at the next turn... also you might want to consider showing your player this ACF for psychic warrior instead of soul Knife

It is basically the same, except you can actually contribute to the party.

And I talk of the Soul knife uselessness from personal experience

I've brought up how I'm unsure how effective his soul-knife would be, but he seems confident in it. I'll tell him about this.

[Lycanthromancer]

So regardless of how hard a character hits with a weapon, it won't break. Someone has to be specifically trying to break his weapon? Furybringer Deeprage won't have to worry about weapon damage no matter how hard he hits people.

Well, you could always try speaking too loudly.