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I think it's interpretation 2.
Just a hint to remember to apply hardness and a clarification that yes, hardness also applies to this acid damage.
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Acid sizzles across the surface of the weapon. When you hit with the weapon, add 1d6 acid damage to the damage dealt.
In addition, on a critical hit, the target’s armor (if any) takes 3d6 acid damage (before applying Hardness); if the target has a shield raised, the shield takes this damage instead.
Damage -= Hardness
if (Damage > 0) Hit Points -= Damage
if (Hit Points < 0) Hit Points = 0
if (Hit Points = 0) Item is destroyed
else if (Hit Points => Broken Threshold) Item is broken
"takes 3d6 acid damage (before applying Hardness)"
if (Damage > 0) Hit Points -= Damage
Damage -= Hardness
if (Hit Points < 0) Hit Points = 0
if (Hit Points = 0) Item is destroyed
else if (Hit Points => Broken Threshold) Item is broken
Remember to subtract Hardness after you roll damage.
Another question I have is what if the creature that is critted has no armor listed in the statblock? Does the extra damage from the crit just do nothing? It seems a little below the utility and damage of the other runes of this level. I'd like to see a clarification on this.
I think masda_gib has it right. Not only does that make more sense imo, since if it meant ignoring hardness then there are much better ways to say it, but also it seems to be how they give reminders/clarifications about hardness in other places as well. Take the Spined Shield or Destructive Block for example, both of which include before / after applying hardness in parenthesis after describing damage dealt to an object with hardness (a shield).
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Another question I have is what if the creature that is critted has no armor listed in the statblock? Does the extra damage from the crit just do nothing? It seems a little below the utility and damage of the other runes of this level. I'd like to see a clarification on this.Acid sizzles across the surface of the weapon. When you hit with the weapon, add 1d6 acid damage to the damage dealt.
In addition, on a critical hit, the target’s armor (if any) takes 3d6 acid damage (before applying Hardness); if the target has a shield raised, the shield takes this damage instead.
Damage -= Hardness
if (Damage > 0) Hit Points -= Damage
if (Hit Points < 0) Hit Points = 0
if (Hit Points = 0) Item is destroyed
else if (Hit Points => Broken Threshold) Item is broken
"takes 3d6 acid damage (before applying Hardness)"
if (Damage > 0) Hit Points -= Damage
Damage -= Hardness
if (Hit Points < 0) Hit Points = 0
if (Hit Points = 0) Item is destroyed
else if (Hit Points => Broken Threshold) Item is broken
Remember to subtract Hardness after you roll damage.
The advantage of the Corrosive rune is that relatively few creatures have acid resistance, so you'll do better damage on average, and it typically stops regeneration effects like Fire damage does.
Flaming is great except for how common fire resistance is, which kinda makes it suck until you can get the Greater rune...Frost's crit effect is tied to a static DC save, which quickly fades into irrelevance.
Shock's crit effect is kinda odd, doing tiny amount of damage to a couple of close foes.
Thundering is great for resistance purposes, but the crit effect is both situational and tied to a static DC.
With that kind of damage, you'd have to crit a creature several times before destroying their armor. By then, they're likely already dead from the normal damage, making the rider ability kind of pointless other than for damaging party treasure.
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With that kind of damage, you'd have to crit a creature several times before destroying their armor. By then, they're likely already dead from the normal damage, making the rider ability kind of pointless other than for damaging party treasure.
Not everyone wears metal armor.
Explorer Cloth or Padded Armor (hardness 1, 4 HP, 3 damage needed for broken) has a 100% chance to be broken on the first critical hit.
Leather Armor or Dragon Hide (Hardness 4, 16 HP, 12 damage needed for broken) has a 37.5% chance to be broken on the first hit and a 98.75% chance to be broken after 2 hits.
It is only metal that last on average >8 hits before it is broken where you hardly have to worry.
Why does it matter?
Explorer Clothing (Cloth) still can take runes. So if you run around with such, then you really don't want to fight against someone with a corrosive rune as the first critical will strip you off all the protection your rune gives.
Even Leather has a good chance to get broken.
I remember our discussion about The Robe of the Archmagi being Explorer Clothing. You really don't want to fight in such nice clothing against someone with a corrosive rune.
With that kind of damage, you'd have to crit a creature several times before destroying their armor. By then, they're likely already dead from the normal damage, making the rider ability kind of pointless other than for damaging party treasure.
Remember broken is a scaling debuff, getting a -3 to ac off is pretty solid in most cases.
10% on one crit with metal armour
60% over two crits with metal armour