Broken Gun and Mending Cantrip

[Ballistic101]

I've looked for an official response to this and can't find it. It seems to me that the Mending cantrip should be able to repair a broken gun in less time than the gunsmithing feat (10 min vs 1 hr):

Misfire: "When a firearm misfires, it gains the broken condition."

Mending: "If the object has the broken condition, this condition is removed if the object is restored to at least half its original hit points... If the target has at least half of its original HP at the end of Mending, then Broken is removed.

A Projectile weapon has 5 HP. It doesn't say nut it would have either 1 or 2 for the broken condition. A roll of 2, 3, or 4 would give it greater than 50% of it's hitpoints and remove the broken condition.

This is really more for flavor, as I realize this only would apply out of combat. Please point out the flaw in my logic.

[CigarPete]

That's exactly how I use it on my Pistolero/Spellslinger/Myrmidarch. Prepare as a cantrip under Magus, fix my gun when it misfires out of combat.

[Blake's Tiger]

The only caveat is if you have a magic gun: "Magic items can be repaired by this spell, but you must have a caster level equal to or higher than that of the object."

Usually at least 3 times the total enchantment bonus.

[Ivan D'Ifrit]

dot.

[Ascalaphus]

The problem is that the firearm didn't gain the broken condition from damage, so it's dubious if mending can "restore it to at least half its original hit points". And if it doesn't do that, then it doesn't remove the broken condition.

Seen from this perspective: the broken condition doesn't literally mean there are cracks in your gun. Rather, it's gotten jammed or clogged with detritus which makes it less accurate and risks it blowing up because the next explosion can't get out cleanly. What your gun needs is proper cleaning.

Of course that might lead to the question: could I use Prestidigitation to clear a gun? There's no other spell that does it so the "this spell shouldn't do another spell's job" provision doesn't come into play.

[schattenstern]

@Lau:

I can see your argument but if I think this argument trough it gets WIERD:
So you can not repair a broken gun as long it has no damage.

So you misfire, then hit your gun with something that can only deal between 1 and HP of the gun -1 damage and then the mending works?

This does seem quite wrong, that a spell can not fix a problem but would be able to fix it once you have added another problem.

[Ferious Thune]

As far as prestidigitation, I think the spell jury-rig would be enough to keep prestidigitation from working. Jury-rig doesn't permanently fix things, but it does temporarily remove the broken condition. So if it takes a 1st level spell to temporarily fix the gun, then a 0-level cantrip probably can't permanently fix it.