[RPG] How exactly Sunder maneuver works

pathfinder-1e

Let's assume you have Arena combat in which stand two combatants threatening each other:

CE Drow Antipaladin 6/Rogue 3 w. Power attack, Improved Sunder, Greater Sunder, Channel Smite feats wielding Adamantine Vicious Bastard Sword +2

LG Human Paladin 1 w. Leather Armor +1 (hardness 4, hit points 25) — poor boy

  1. Drow attacks flat-footed paladin w. PA, Sunder, Channel Smite, hits and rolls for damage 30 + channel smite 10 (paladin fails will save) + sneak attack +10 + vicious 10

    • adamantine ignores hardness less than 20, so after 25 damage out of 30 is enough to destroy armor and excess damage 5 plus channel 10 and sneak 10 and vicious 10 hits our poor paladin which is enough to kill him …
  2. What happens when paladin dons full plate armor +5?

  3. Does channel smite damage and sneak attack damage and vicious damage apply to armor sunder damage does effectively in case of greater sunder feat apply after destroying armor as a real hit point damage? Or they are ineffective while you are making sunder maneuver …?

Best Answer

You already have a basic understanding of how it works. Closer attention to the wording of each description is really all you need.

  1. With Greater Sunder1, after destroying the armor, excess damage hits the wearer; as explained in the feat.
  2. Magic Armor has increased hardness and hit points2.
  3. Channel Smite3, normally, affects undead or living creatures depending on the energy. Vicious4 deals energy damage, but doesn't specify that it is exclusive to the living or undead like Smite does, and would be divided by 2. Sneak Attack damage is kinda weird. There is nothing in the rules that flat out say that objects to not take precision damage, but it is in the rules that objects do not take critical hits. Some creature types that are immune to critical hits can still take precision damage. That would have to be up to your DM (in my opinion).


1Whenever you sunder to destroy a weapon, shield, or suit of armor, any excess damage is applied to the item's wielder.

2Each +1 of enhancement bonus adds 2 to the hardness of armor, a weapon, or a shield, and +10 to the item's hit points.

3If you channel positive energy and you hit an undead creature, that creature takes an amount of additional damage equal to the damage dealt by your channel positive energy ability. If you channel negative energy and you hit a living creature, that creature takes an amount of additional damage equal to the damage dealt by your channel negative energy ability.

4When a vicious weapon strikes an opponent, it creates a flash of disruptive energy that resonates between the opponent and the wielder. This energy deals an extra 2d6 points of damage to the opponent and 1d6 points of damage to the wielder.

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