Caryatid Column Question - Shatter Weapons (Ex)


Rules Questions


The Caryatid Column Shatter Weapons (Ex) feat reads:

Whenever a character strikes a caryatid column with a weapon (magical or nonmagical), the weapon takes 3d6 points of damage. Apply the weapon’s hardness normally. Weapons that take any amount of damage in excess of their hardness gain the broken condition.

Question:

Does this mean that weapons can only become "broken" and will not be "destroyed"? Or, is the weapon destroyed when it reaches 0 HP.

With a hardness of 10 for non-magical, It seems like it is very likely for a party to end up with destroyed weapons very quickly, maybe after a single strike. Seems very harsh especially at the beginning of a Tier 1-2 scenario.

Thanks!

Sovereign Court

Let's run it through an example.

Non-magical Longsword: hardness 10, hit points 5
3d6 damage, let's say it rolls 11. If it deals any less it doesn't even hurt the weapon, which should happen 50% of the time on 3d6.

Longsword has taken 1 damage, and now has the broken condition. Which among other things is -2 to attack and damage.

Normally, an item has to take 50% of it's hp in damage before it gains the broken condition. So basically, that's all it means by the language. Still destroyed at 0 hp... But that is what make whole is for.


Hopefully the party might have looted a few extra weapons to use in that case.

Liberty's Edge

Caryatid columns are CR 3 monsters, so a hard encounter for level 1 characters. After level 2 most melee combatants have a magic weapon.
Several spells and powers can temporarily enchant a weapon, increasing its hardness and hit points.
It all depends on the time you have to prepare. If you have the time to memorize new spells and someone that can cast Magic weapon, at least one weapon can become very resistant to the Caryatid columns power for a short time.

There is the long and boring option too if you have the time: attacking the Caryatid column until the weapon gets the broken condition, take one or more full retreat until you get out of the area (caryatid columns usually are place guardians), and then use Mending to repair the weapon. It will require 10 minutes each time, but as long as the weapon isn't destroyed you will have no problem repairing it.

If your party is made only by martial builds it becomes more difficult. Destroying it at range with arrows and bullets slings is possible, but will require a large number of attacks with DR 5/-.


Keep in mind to repair magic items you have to have a caster level equal to the item's CL. A +1 weapon has CL3, meaning you can't use this strategy unless you are level 3+ unless you intentionally downgrade to just a normal weapon.

Also, never attack them as a monk/brawler/unarmed/natural attack character if you have a mean gm.

Liberty's Edge

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I just got a weird image in my mind: a barbarian rage-slinging.

A sling adds the strength bonus of the user and a barbarian isn't forced to into melee when raging.

As usual, a large static bonus to damage matters more than a larger dice. And breaking ammunitions has no negative effect.

A barbarian doing 1d4+6 will require 11 hits on average. A bit too many rounds of rage at a low level.

Again, magic is the best way. Acid splash has no spell resistance, and you can cast it an unlimited number of times (or at least until you get a swollen throat).


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I mean, also to be fair, a mithral or even adamantine weapon also works pretty perfectly, and the APs that have Caryatids in them (Mummy's Mask and War for the Crown as far as I know) all have one of each item in the "hard to miss loot" drops from before the columns. Adamantine is impossible to be affected (hardness 20>18) and rolling a 15 on 3d6 happens only 9.26% of the time, meaning its fairly unlikely it will happen twice before you can kill it (although those AP's also have 2 columns in the same encounter).

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