Destroying Armour!

[Sutek]

Sunder is handled totally differently:

1) Provokes an AoO
2) Make opposed rolls
3) work out consequences.

Oh - there is a step zero...

0) You can use a melee attack with a slashing or bludgeoning weapon to strike a weapon or shield that your opponent is holding. (pg177)

You cannot attack armor. Armor is what the individual is wearing and if you hit the armor, you hit them and just deal damage normally to the person. I suppose you could try to use some variation of the rules for Breaking Objects on page 15, but the point is that armor is built to last and yet ther are times when it's ability to deflect/absorb damage can be reduced by certain blows.

Sundering blows damage weapons based on thier Hardness and Hit Points. Armor has no H/HP so the DR reduction rule is there in place of being able to sunder it.

Think of it this way: You can 't hit the armor anyway without hitting the person wearing it, so you can't specifically target just the armor...

 

[MightyCthulhu]

I beleive there is an optional rule, stating that when an attack equals the parry DV of the target, skip straight to sutek's step 3.

 

[Sutek]

I don't think so, but I'll look again tonight. Sunder only target's an opponent's weapon or shield, I know that. There is an optional rule for weapon breakage on standard blows, because Iron Age stuff regularly snapped until tempering was discovered, but I don't believe it includes armor as part of that optional rule.

Something like a Thief sneaking up and cutting belts or straps would probaly be the best way to "disable" an opponent's armor in a fight or out. I'd rule a normal sneak attack attempt to do it, but that the bit of armor get's size bonus added down to Tiny, making it harder to hit. Cutting it carefully while out of combat (while a guard is sleeping or something) would simply be a couple of skill checks (Move Silently and Sleight of Hand, probably) and then damage dealt as normal to whatever hardness and HP a leather strap has.

Some of this you can extrapolate on your own, but I think, in a fight, it's going to be impossible to hit and damage only armor without making a regular ol' attack at the oppoent wearing it. Damaging armor is a byproduct of a normal strike and impossible to be exclusive from one.

 

[MightyCthulhu]

...There is an optional rule for weapon breakage on standard blows, because Iron Age stuff regularly snapped until tempering was discovered, but I don't believe it includes armor as part of that optional rule...

Isn't that what I said? Don't make me crack open my book and start quoting rules! :lol:

 

[Sutek]

Yeah...goodness knows we wouldn't want you to have to look up rules....