Shatter spell

[redpandamage]

In my homegame one of my players was about to use shatter on a villain daggermark poisoner but the session ended early.

Shatter wrote:

School evocation [sonic]; Level bard 2, cleric 2, sorcerer/wizard 2

Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M/DF (a chip of mica)
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area or Target 5-ft.-radius spread; or one solid object or one crystalline creature
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Will negates (object); Will negates (object) or Fortitude half; see text; Spell Resistance yes
Shatter creates a loud, ringing noise that breaks brittle, nonmagical objects; sunders a single solid, nonmagical object; or damages a crystalline creature.

Used as an area attack, shatter destroys nonmagical objects of crystal, glass, ceramic, or porcelain. All such unattended objects within a 5-foot radius of the point of origin are smashed into dozens of pieces by the spell. Objects weighing more than 1 pound per your level are not affected, but all other objects of the appropriate composition are shattered.

Alternatively, you can target shatter against a single solid nonmagical object, regardless of composition, weighing up to 10 pounds per caster level. Targeted against a crystalline creature (of any weight), shatter deals 1d6 points of sonic damage per caster level (maximum 10d6), with a Fortitude save for half damage.

If the villain was invisible you wouldn't have line of sight so you couldn't target a specific item right?Said PC is catfolk with scent so he can spend a move action to know the general direction bit even if he new where to aim the burst I don't think it would work because the vials are not unattended correct? I don't want to stop him from using a clever tactic but I also don't want him to easily destroy the encounter with a fairly challenging npc by causing the npc to make several saves or be poisoned 5 times by contact and inhaled poison. Another note is that he tends to use shatter a lot to deal with problems. So to recap what should I do in this situation and what would you do?

[Lost In Limbo]

Core Rulebook wrote:

pp. 174 Core Rulebook -- An item attended by a character (being grasped, touched, or worn) makes saving throws as the character (that is, using the character’s saving throw bonus).

If the vials are on his person, then they're attended and thus safe from the AoE.

Being invisible likewise effectively protects against the targeted version unless the player has some way to get around that (like See Invisibility or Blindsight, scent wouldn't work).