can a ranged attack be used to hit a weapon held by a Pc and damage it ,like trying a sunder?
Normally, no. There is a Ranged Sunder feat in CW that allows you to make the attempt, but piercing weapons still deal half damage, before hardness.
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can a ranged attack be used to hit a weapon held by a Pc and damage it ,like trying a sunder?Normally, no. There is a Ranged Sunder feat in CW that allows you to make the attempt, but piercing weapons still deal half damage, before hardness.
What if a monster uses a special ability like a ranged energy attack say a spittle of fire targeting the weapon held by the pc would it be like attacking an object . the only rules I can find are in Phb page 165 .Well here is what I want to do in combat . Use a range energy attack against the Pc s weapon while he is holding it. Is this legal ????
As DM, you make it legal. No Star Wars pun intended. If you decided this is a fair extension of the rules, whether in mechanical application or simply in spirit of the game, you can say "It's legal in my game" and no one can stop you. They might whine, argue, and put forth reasons why they think it shouldn't be so, but they can't stop you. Well, they could stop you by stopping playing with you, but that's another story.
On to the mechanics of the question at hand.
Due to the fact that ranged weapons are both A: half-damage against objects and B: average damage output, making ranged sunder a feat is really kind of harsh, as the move is almost tactically worthless (windowpanes and ropes, thats about it). I'm considering in my games allowing ranged sunder as a valid option, but having the feat eliminates the half-damage effect rather than making the manuver possible.
However, if we allow it to be used by anyone, casters get a big boost. At level one it's not so bad, as magic missle can't target objects, and there really aren't any other spells of worth to deal damage to an object. Ray of Frost is right out, and acid splash is minimal, but a couple could eat through an axe haft.
At level 3 (or 4 for you sorcs) Melf comes into play. Because of how acid interacts with hardness, this spell would be an amazingly good spell to use against enemy weapons. Which makes sense to me; its what I'd do if I could. A raging barbarian will just get madder if you shoot him, but melt his greataxe away, and now he has to provoke to hit you with fists (which still hurt, but hey, not as much as a greataxe!).
Now, on the side of fairness, this will get really good for casters, when they hit Disintegrate. But lets look at the counterweights, shall we? Disintegrate is a fortitude based effect, but the people you would want to do it to have good fortitude (barbarians, fighters, paladins, rangers, buffed clerics). As for other spells, they still interact with hardness, which means cold sucks, electricity and fire are passingly ok, and only acid and sonic really rock the socks. There are very few targeted sonic spells, even in splatbooks. So it's really only acid to worry about.
Finally, it would still be an opposed attack roll, as sunder. Whether a spell counts as a light weapon or not, thats up to you, but consider that in an opposed attack roll between a fighter and mage, the fighter wins. The mage has poor base attack and decent dexterity, and maybe weapon focus (ray) past level 3. The fighter has good base attack, good strength (or dex, if thats his thing), and a healthy combination of mundane (feats) and magical (weapon enhancement) bonuses to keep his attack bonus high.
Consider, at level 3, when the mage gets Melf's Acid Arrow, the mage has a base attack of 1, likely a dexterity of 16 (we'll assume a reasonable spread from a 25 point buy optimized towards this idea) and weapon focus (ray), for a total attack bonus of +5.
The fighter has base attack of +3, a Strength of 16, weapon focus (whatever), and a masterwork weapon. This gives him a bonus of +8, before any sorts of weapon size or hardness comes into play. Already the fighter is at an advantage. And the gap will simply grow over time, as the fighters base attack doubles relative to the mage, and he continues to increase both his ability score but magic bonuses to his weapon, something the mage simply can not do.
So yeah, I'd say give it a go. Just ask yourself "would I be pissed if my players did it back to my creatures?" That should answer any lingering doubts.