How does sunder work?

[zmanerism]

I am thinking of taking sunder and am unclear if it is done with a combat maneuver or through beating the opponents ac with the attack roll. Some clarification would be great. thank you all much

[northbrb]

it is a combat maneuver, you declare your sunder attempt (assuming you have the improved sunder feat you do not provoke an attack of opportunity) you roll your combat bonus vs their combat defense, if you succeed you deal damage to their weapon.

[zmanerism]

yet in the book trip, disarm and bull rush all mention CDM and sunder never does. Do you think this is just a misprint

[northbrb]

i would say yes, it was just an oversight.

[northbrb]

read what the improved sunder feat says, it refers to it as a combat maneuver check.

[zmanerism]

I guess it would be a question to ask my DM then. But I think you are most likely right. It might be a different though because you are not trying to physically do anything to them like taking a weapon out of their hand or tripping them. You are trying to hit their weapon or armor.

[Castarr4]

The important difference is that AC adds in things like armor and natural armor. If I'm trying to sunder your equipment (armor or weapon), then the fact that you're wearing plate-mail isn't going to help you. Therefore it's versus CMD.

Not to mention that the rules say it is:

PRD wrote:

Determine Success: If your attack roll equals or exceeds the CMD of the target, your maneuver is a success and has the listed effect. Some maneuvers, such as bull rush, have varying levels of success depending on how much your attack roll exceeds the target's CMD. Rolling a natural 20 while attempting a combat maneuver is always a success (except when attempting to escape from bonds), while rolling a natural 1 is always a failure.