Do spells bypass hardness?

[Sarrah]

Do they?

[kinevon]

Depends on the spell and the damage type.

Got anything more definite to work from?

[Sarrah]

Acid Splash / Burning Hands / Fireball / Magic Missile vs. armor and sword on the ground.

[kinevon]

Energy Attacks: Energy attacks deal half damage to most objects. Divide the damage by 2 before applying the object's hardness. 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.

So, no, hardness applies. Spells do not usually bypass hardness.

[Sarrah]

Thank you.

[SlimGauge]

Magic Missile cannot target objects, only creatures.

[Lincoln Hills]

The best low-level spell for that situation (unattended object) is shatter, which doesn't care about hardness. But that's about all shatter is good for, so you won't see it memorized often.

Much further up there's disintegration, of course.

[Uzukage]

I cast magic missile on the darkness works every time

[BretI]

Yes, Hardness applies to spells that do energy damage.

Note that the part about dealing half damage does not apply to creatures with hardness.

Try to go through a wall, half the damage and then apply hardness. Try and destroy a creature with hardness, apply hardness against the full damage.