Magic weapons and Sundering

[rlfhog3]

ive seen it said around the forums that in pathfinder, a magic weapon can only be damaged by an item with an equal or greater enchantment bonus but no matter where I look, I can't seem to find this rule in either of the online databases.

Can someone help me locate this rule or help me understand why, if not actually listed anywhere, it is interpreted in this way.

Thanks for your help.

[LazarX]

Most likely someone is quoting a 3.X rule.

[DM_Blake]

Yep, old rule from old editions. No such thing today. If you're strong enough, you can break a magic weapon with your bare hands, or by hitting it with a brick, or whatever.

[rlfhog3]

Ok, cool. Good to know. I was scratching my head in so many different ways trying to figure this out.

[LazarX]

DM_Blake wrote:

Yep, old rule from old editions. No such thing today. If you're strong enough, you can break a magic weapon with your bare hands, or by hitting it with a brick, or whatever.

You do have to get past hardness to do any damage, and hardness increases with enhancement bonuses.

[StabbittyDoom]

LazarX wrote:

DM_Blake wrote:

Yep, old rule from old editions. No such thing today. If you're strong enough, you can break a magic weapon with your bare hands, or by hitting it with a brick, or whatever.

You do have to get past hardness to do any damage, and hardness increases with enhancement bonuses.

Hit points do as well. +10 HP per +1 of enhancement on top of the +2 hardness per +1.This means a +5 steel weapon is resistant to adamantine sundering, as is a +3 mithral. And both have enough HP to take a hit or two without shattering.

Between +5 and Impervious, you can take a sword made out of paper and make it as tough as unenhanced adamantine (+20 hardness, +100 HP). Though I'm guess that hardness != inflexibility, so it might still be hard to use.

[DM_Blake]

StabbittyDoom wrote:

LazarX wrote:

DM_Blake wrote:

Yep, old rule from old editions. No such thing today. If you're strong enough, you can break a magic weapon with your bare hands, or by hitting it with a brick, or whatever.

You do have to get past hardness to do any damage, and hardness increases with enhancement bonuses.

Hit points do as well. +10 HP per +1 of enhancement on top of the +2 hardness per +1.This means a +5 steel weapon is resistant to adamantine sundering, as is a +3 mithral. And both have enough HP to take a hit or two without shattering.

Between +5 and Impervious, you can take a sword made out of paper and make it as tough as unenhanced adamantine (+20 hardness, +100 HP). Though I'm guess that hardness != inflexibility, so it might still be hard to use.

This is all true, but the OP didn't ask if it's easier to break magical weapons with better ones. He asked if it's required.

It isn't.

[Maezer]

rlfhog3 wrote:

Can someone help me locate this rule or help me understand why, if not actually listed anywhere, it is interpreted in this way.

You can find that ruling on page 468 of the core rulebook if you have the first or second (maybe 3rd) printing. It was errata'd several years after release to be replaced with the hardness and hit points increase stated above.

I believe the same change was made in 3.0 when it went to 3.5, but never propagated the change to the srd, thus paizo copied it over.

[Brevick Axeflail]

Indeed. It's an older Pathfinder rule that got updated in more recent printings.