[RPG] When, how and in which order does equipment break

combatdamageequipmentpathfinder-1e

I'm wondering in which situations equipment can break and how this occurs.

Sunder is the first option that I know of, and is also the most obvious one, but if for example a dragon breath weapons a character, does the gear also take damage?
Does energy damage overcome damage reduction on gear? Acid vs. leather armor should be pretty effective as an example. And when this would happen, do I roll saves for the gear as well or do I use the same roll as the character used for himself? Do I roll for each piece of gear separately?

Same for other spells that obviously deals area damage, but when continuing with spells, an acid arrow should also damage gear, because in most cases it needs to eat through gear to deal damage to the body.

Same deal with normal weapons, a two-handed axe to the chest should at least dent the armor a bit, but how does this function in game terms?

I also feel that there most likely is some kind of order in which the gear breaks, like say the shield is first to take damage since you try to block with it, after that maybe the chest armor and such.

This has been bugging me for a little while and I'd appreciate thoughts and answers! 🙂

Best Answer

Equipment takes damage under a variety of circumstances, but most of the circumstances are rare unless a character devotes resources to breaking things

Such a character might...

  • sunder a item held or worn by a foe. The character picks the item to sunder. If the sunder attempt is successful, determine if the item breaks by consulting Damaging Objects. The Damaging Objects section answers many of your questions about, for example, energy damage versus objects and acid versus leather.

  • cast a spell that specifically harms objects, such as the spell shout, but unless a spell says it harms objects--either in the heading or in the description--it doesn't harm objects.

    Note that some spells--for example, fireball and lightning bolt--readily affect unattended objects (i.e. objects not in a creature's possession), but attended objects (i.e. objects in a creature's possession) aren't usually required to make saving throws separate from the character. Instead, the (usually more narratively important) creature makes the saving throw, and, whether the creature survives the spell or not, the gear the creature possesses remains unharmed.

    Also, for example, acid arrow inflicts acid damage to a creature that's the spell's target but that same acid arrow spell doesn't also harm that creature's possessions. Were the caster to target with the spell a piece of gear in the creature's possession, then the piece of gear would take the acid damage instead of the creature.

  • manipulate the environment--usually via spells like burning gaze but sometimes via items (but, strangely, apparently not alchemist's fire)--so that a foe suffers ongoing damage from an environmental effect. Most things don't do this--and it won't happen unless the thing being used says it does happen--, but among effects that do reference the environment rules, catching on fire is by far the most common, and, so you, know

    Those whose clothes or equipment catch fire must make DC 15 Reflex saves for each item. Flammable items that fail take the same amount of damage as the character.

    Emphasis on that tedious task mine.

  • cast enough spells that require saving throws to force a foe on a saving throw to roll--eventually--a 1. This results in an exposed item suffering harm. If an order is needed as to what attended objects take damage before other attended objects, it's reasonable for the DM to start with the magical attacks chart. Using it for unintended purposes, however, is liable to cause hard feelings. Players really don't like their characters' stuff broken, especially with house rules.

KRyan's laid out well the reasons why the game functions this way, but let me add that even the most realistic of table-top role-playing games rarely track wear and tear on a character's gear.1 That minutiae is better suited for video games or unusual RPGs emphasizing the importance of the characters' gear over the importance of the characters.

  1. So much so that even Steven Jackson Games's deeply simulationist GURPS, 3rd Edition made tracking damage to a character's shield a wholly optional rule.
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