Fortified Armor Training and the Broken condition it applies.

[Omikapsi]

I'm going to be running an oracle of Battle in an upcoming PFS game, and wanted some clarification on this feat.

Fortified Armor Training:

Fortified Armor Training (Combat)
You have learned to let your armor bear the brunt of the worst attacks.

Prerequisite: Proficient with armor or shield.

Benefit: If an opponent scores a critical hit against you, you can turn the critical hit into a normal hit. If you do, either your armor or your shield gains the broken condition (your choice).

Firstly, it simply says that it gains the Broken condition, but it says nothing about damage.

Broken Condition:

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.

If the item is a weapon, any attacks made with the item suffer a –2 penalty on attack and damage rolls. Such weapons only score a critical hit on a natural 20 and only deal ×2 damage on a confirmed critical hit.
If the item is a suit of armor or a shield, the bonus it grants to AC is halved, rounding down. Broken armor doubles its armor check penalty on skills.
If the item is a tool needed for a skill, any skill check made with the item takes a –2 penalty.
If the item is a wand or staff, it uses up twice as many charges when used.
If the item does not fit into any of these categories, the broken condition has no effect on its use. Items with the broken condition, regardless of type, are worth 75% of their normal value. If the item is magical, it can only be repaired with a mending or make whole spell cast by a character with a caster level equal to or higher than the item's. Items lose the broken condition if the spell restores the object to half its original hit points or higher. Non-magical items can be repaired in a similar fashion, or through the Craft skill used to create it. Generally speaking, this requires a DC 20 Craft check and 1 hour of work per point of damage to be repaired. Most craftsmen charge one-tenth the item's total cost to repair such damage (more if the item is badly damaged or ruined).
Special Note on Ships: Ships, and sometimes their means of propulsion—are objects, and like any other object, when they take damage in excess of half their hit points, they gain the broken condition. When a ship gains the broken condition, it takes a –2 penalty to AC, on sailing checks, saving throws, and on combat maneuver checks. If a ship or its means of propulsion becomes broken, the ship's maximum speed is halved and the ship can no longer gain the upper hand until repaired. If the ship is in motion and traveling faster than its new maximum speed, it automatically decelerates to its new maximum speed (from Advanced Naval Combat.)

(I've bolded the two relevant sentences in the condition.)

So I have a few questions:
When FAT (Fortified Armor Training) negates a critical hit, does the armor or shield actually take damage? Or does it simply gain the 'Broken' condition. If so, how would the condition be removed?

If FAT causes a shield or piece of armor to take damage as part of acquiring the broken condition, how much damage does it take?
(If I were the GM, I'd state that it took damage equal to half its hit points +1, which is the minimum required to give it the broken condition.)
However, this doesn't account for armor or a shield that has already been damaged. Would it just be taken to below half hit points, or would it take a set amount of damage?

If a broken object has

Mending:

This spell repairs damaged objects, restoring 1d4 hit points to the object. If the object has the broken condition, this condition is removed if the object is restored to at least half its original hit points. All of the pieces of an object must be present for this spell to function. Magic items can be repaired by this spell, but you must have a caster level equal to or higher than that of the object. Magic items that are destroyed (at 0 hit points or less) can be repaired with this spell, but this spell does not restore their magic abilities. This spell does not affect creatures (including constructs). This spell has no effect on objects that have been warped or otherwise transmuted, but it can still repair damage done to such items.

cast on it, and is restored to more than half its hit points, then it loses the broken condition.
Would it be possible to use FAT to negate a critical hit, then cast mending to remove the broken condition from the affected armor or shield?
What would happen if FAT were used again the next round?

*edit* I realize that with a casting time of 10 minutes, Mending could not feasibly be used in combat. However, if sufficient time weren't taken to fully repair the armor before FAT were used again what would happen?

[Troubleshooter]

This is one of the questions about damaging objects I'd like to see answered. There's a lot of effects that grant Broken just because, but don't say anything about hit points. Nor how to repair them.

[Omikapsi]

Anyone able to weigh in on this? It's been a couple of days.

[Omikapsi]

Bumping for a chance at some kind of official attention.

[Foce]

Any chance an answer has surfaced for this? Mythic guardian's sacrificial shield has the same issues, applies broken even if a shield doesn't take damage

The question I could really use and answer to is can a character keep using these skills to block attacks or crits, with broken items. And if so what happens if a broken item suffers the broken condition a second time; is it destroyed or just nothing? In all but a few cases conditions are not accumulative i.e. you cant get more stunned more blinded, but a few do escalate like fear so it's a real rules toss up and I'd love some insight if anyone has some.

[FelisNoctu]

Stumbled across this old thread through a series of strange google searches distantly related to each other, and I'm sure the specific cases have long since passed, but I figured I'd raise this thing from the dead with some attempted green-GMing logic for future peoples.

-----

The Broken condition itself states that an item is considered broken when it has taken damage in excess of half its total hit points. That would lead me, at first, to the assumption that Broken NORMALLY requires an item to have (1/2 - 1) of its HP in order to qualify.

Using Omikapsi's example, Fortified Armor Training states that an item becomes Broken when utilizing the feat's effects. It does not claim that the item takes damage, just that it receives the condition. That leads to two assumptions: either it simply gains the condition, or (given the previous information) it is considered to be automatically dealt enough damage to have gained the condition.

Foce gave a difference example.

Sacrificial Shield:

Sacrificial Shield (Ex): Once per round when you would normally be hit by a weapon attack, you can use your shield to block the attack. You must be using a shield in order to use this ability. Subtract your shield's hardness and hit points from the damage of the attack and apply the remaining damage to your hit points. If the shield takes enough damage to destroy it, it's destroyed. Otherwise, it gains the broken condition, even if the damage was not enough to give it the broken condition under other circumstances. You can expend one use of mythic power when using this ability to negate any damage dealt to the shield, though you still take any damage that exceeds its hardness and hit points. You can choose to negate the damage after the damage is rolled.

Sacrificial Shield SPECIFICALLY states that an item gains the Broken condition even if it wasn't dealt enough damage to normally do so. This leads me to believe that the Broken condition is independent of damage dealt.

-----

Using Sacrificial Shield as a clarification, I would assume that the description given under the Broken condition is considered the normal means of achieving the condition, but not the requirement. The Broken condition may be applied independently of damage to the item, applying all of its effects.

This would lead me to the conclusion that:
1.) An item, through various means, may be given the Broken condition even if it has not taken enough damage to fall below half of its total hitpoints.
2.) If an item DOES fall below half its total hitpoints later, it continues to be broken, as it now qualifies for the Broken condition by normal means.
3.) Mending states that "if the object has the broken condition, this condition is removed if the object is restored to at least half its original hit points", which would still be true. If cast upon an item with the Broken condition, even if the item has no hitpoint damage taken, the Broken condition would be removed.
And,
4.) In the case of Fortified Armor Training, while this has no factual backup and is just in my opinion, using the feat's effects a second time while wearing Broken armor would destroy the item completely. As FAT does not state that the item is being dealt damage, I would go with the conclusion that further breaking an item that's already broken would not be a good thing. The armor is taking critical damage (literally), doing so twice is bad for it.
5.) The case of Sacrificial Shield is a little trickier, as it's stating both that the item takes damage, and that it gains the broken condition. In this case I would personally rule that since it's described as dealing damage to the shield equal to that of the attack's damage minus the shield's hardness, I would treat it as a sunder with the exception that it immediately gains the Broken condition and its penalties regardless of total hitpoints.

-----

Obviously an official word or FAQ would be nice, but that's how I would work through it!