Sword +1 immune to grey ooze?

[Ki_Ryn]

If you hit a grey ooze with a sword and fail the save, the weapon takes 1d6 acid damage. A longsword +1 has a hardness of 7. Is it effectively immune to this acid effect, or are weapons supposed to be considered "vulnerable" to grey ooze acid (or all acid?) and so not get their hardness subtracted from the damage?

[Kierato]

DM's call on this one, there is no clear answer that I can see.

[Russ Taylor]

Even a normal steel sword has a hardness of 10, a +1 sword has a hardness of 12. It's wood with a hardness of 5.

It's reasonable to rule that acid ignores some or all of metal hardness, especially since hardness doesn't really enter into how acids work in the real world (reactivity to the acid does).

[Gorbacz]

To quote ze rulebook:

"Some energy types might be particularly effective against certain objects, subject to GM discretion. For example, fire might do full damage against parchment, cloth, and other objects that burn easily. Sonic might do full damage against glass and crystal objects."

[Heymitch]

I would rule that metal or wooden objects are vulnerable (x 1.5 damage) to the gray ooze's acid. That would mean that even a normal longsword could strike the ooze without damage (1d6 x 1.5 = max 9 damage vs. 10 hardness).

However, if the weapon were grabbed by the ooze and remained in contact for a full round, it would take 18 points of acid damage (12 points/round x 1.5), so a +1 sword would take 6 hit points of damage per round of contact.

[Rickmeister]

As an example: Green slime:

"Against wood or metal, green slime deals 2d6 points of damage per round, ignoring metal’s hardness but not that of wood. It does not harm stone."

It's not ooze, but it specifically states that it ignores,which makes me believe ooze doesn't.

[Xraal]

But a magical weapon is also immune to damage from anything that is less magical than itself.

Back in 3.5 there was a HD progression thing for monsters, where their HD were translated to an effective magical "value" for the purposes of overcoming magical +'s to hit and to damage magical weapons.

Is there something similar for monsters in Pathfinder?

If no, then all magical stuffs are immune to monster non-magical attacks. Hardness doesn't even matter, they are just plain immune.

[Kierato]

Xraal wrote:

But a magical weapon is also immune to damage from anything that is less magical than itself.

Back in 3.5 there was a HD progression thing for monsters, where their HD were translated to an effective magical "value" for the purposes of overcoming magical +'s to hit and to damage magical weapons.

Is there something similar for monsters in Pathfinder?

If no, then all magical stuffs are immune to monster non-magical attacks. Hardness doesn't even matter, they are just plain immune.

This only applies to "weapon" (including natural attack) damage, not energy damage (like the oozes acid).

[Ki_Ryn]

The green slime quote does seems to make it clear that oozes don't ignore the hardness of metal. So a grey ooze might affect a weapon with wood 1 time in 6 (inflicting trivial damage) and has no chance of harming a metal weapon. That makes the ability not worth the ink it's printed with and it will thus be ignored (or changed) in my future games.

Thanks for the help all.

[Lathiira]

Also note acid bypasses hardness.

[ghettowedge]

Lathiira wrote:

Also note acid bypasses hardness.

In 3.5 it does, but I can't find a similar passage for Pathfinder.

[Lathiira]

ghettowedge wrote:

Lathiira wrote:

Also note acid bypasses hardness.

In 3.5 it does, but I can't find a similar passage for Pathfinder.

I sit corrected. I thought that passage was still in there, but couldn't find it.

[omegaman03]

I think it more likely that the Green Slime and the Grey Ooze had different writers that forgot to consult and so did not make sure the wording was similar. I would probably rule they work the same or very similar. If using the RAW produces a null effect of the creatures attack, then it seems likely that the interpretation is wrong, or the text is wrong.

I would check the CR of the creatures, if they are similar, then the abilities should probably be similar. If they are 2+ removed from each other (CR wise), then perhaps it is just designed that way.

:) But then, I houserule a LOT of stuff.