A magus' black blade is immune to the Broken condition (as long as it has a point in its arcane pool). But what happens when it loses ALL its hitpoints? Is it also immune to being destroyed as long as Unbreakable is active? Or can it be destroyed as normal, it just never gains the Broken condition when it has less than half HP?
Unbreakable (Ex): As long as it has at least 1 point in its arcane pool, a black blade is immune to the broken condition. If broken, the black blade is unconscious and powerless until repaired. If destroyed, the black blade can be reforged 1 week later through a special ritual that costs 200 gp per magus level. The ritual takes 24 hours to complete.
Broken: Items that have taken damage in excess of half their total hit points gain the broken condition, meaning they are less effective at their designated task. The broken condition has the following effects, depending upon the item.
Ok, follow-up: how do I determine the HP and hardness of a whip?
The text is quite clear. It even says what happens when it is destroyed.
Yes, but that could be only in case it loses Unbreakable (by running out of arcane pool points) and then becomes destroyed.
Ok, follow-up: how do I determine the HP and hardness of a whip?
The text is quite clear. It even says what happens when it is destroyed.Yes, but that could be only in case it loses Unbreakable (by running out of arcane pool points) and then becomes destroyed.
I see nothing in the Unbreakable text that keeps a black blade from running out of hit points.
What's the whip made out of? Leather has hardness 2 and 5 hp/inch, +2 hardness and +10 HP per +1 enhancement bonus. And the black blade works like a PC- no penalties until it hits 0 HP. It's not immune to destruction, it just doesn't take the normal penalties objects take for being at low HP.
Ok, follow-up: how do I determine the HP and hardness of a whip?
Depends upon the material the whip is made of.
According to RAW, leather has a hardness of 2 and 5 hp/inch of thickness.
Assuming that a leather whip is one inch or less thick -- taking seven hit points in a single attack will ruin it.
I guess what it means is once it loses all its hit points. It "is" broken but you don't receive the penalties.
"Broken" means "less than half hit points, but more than 0" and describes a partially-functional object, hence the penalty to ordinary use. A destroyed or ruined object (with 0 hit points or less) is completely nonfunctional.
The ability is unbreakable (unable to be broken), not indestructible (unable to be destroyed). There is nothing in the ability that renders it immune to being destroyed.
Ok, thanks everyone, I was just hoping I had missed something.
I had originally forgotten that magic weapons get extra HP/hardness, so it seemed strange that they'd bother giving the black blade immunity to broken when the difference between broken and destroyed will be around 2-5 HP for most weapons that qualify. I was also thinking that number wouldn't scale with level. With the extra HP from its enhancement bonus, and the enhancement scaling with level, it's making more sense why the ability would exist.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
faq on this
Great, thanks. (I even googled "'black blade' site:paizo.com/paizo/faq" to check on that, but the snippet it showed was from a different black blade FAQ and I didn't think to scroll down the page.)