Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Noon May 22, 2015 3:24:25	Like weapons lost when captured, or a shield split in twain by the mighty (critting) swing of an orc? House rule and verboten or simply fair game?
#2 QwertyAzerty May 22, 2015 4:30:16	item destroyed during combat will be describe in the module if it suppose to happen. Like during a fight against Ooze, they are describing that your weapon/armor is breaking slowly as you fight those oozes. YOur orc breaking a shield, unless the module says the orc do that) do not happen (on the other hand, the player cannot sunder ennemies weapon/armor neither). Sunder is not cover by PHB unless as a DM you create a rule using the "improvised action" box, but your player are allowed to do the same as well., but this should be an action by itself not as a bonus effect on a critical hits.   If your PC get capture, yes technically taking the gear would be acceptable and would make sense, but then you need to remember that you cannot remove a magical item from a player, so why would the goblin take the fullplate, the shield but would not tkae the longsword+1?   If you look at the Mulmaster sentencing for illegal spell caster, if you receive a fine to pay, they can take all your gold, but cannot take your weapon and armor, So based on that I would say that the intent is if you take the gear away from the player you shoul dmake it easy to get back if they escape from the jail. (the goblin took your gear away from you but you can see it right there in a little cage and you see the key tied on the goblin guard sleeping in the corner.
#3 Pauper May 22, 2015 7:32:19	There are rules for 'breaking' objects -- they are largely dependent on the DM:   "Characters can also damage objects with their weapons and spells. Objects are immune to poison and psychic damage, but otherwise they can be affected by physical and magical attacks much like creatures can. The DM determines an object's Armor Class and hit points, and might decide that certain objects have resistance or immunity to certain kinds of attacks. (It's hard to cut a rope with a club, for example.) Objects always fail Strength and Dexterity saving throws, and they are immune to effects that require other saves. When an object drops to 0 hit points, it breaks.   "A character can also attempt a Strength check to break an object. The DM sets the DC for any such check." (PH, p.185)   So, if a bad guy throws a fireball at the party, you can certainly decide that any object that would have fewer hit points than the damage done by the fireball breaks (since objects automatically fail the Dexterity saving throw). If the half-orc berserker grapples the fighter, you can have the monster try to break the fighter's shield with a Strength check. There's no real guidance on how many hit points typical objects have, or what the typical DC would be to break an object, but if you choose to set a value, you should use that value consistently (so no ruling that the PCs' chain mail has 10 hit points but the bad guys' chain mail has 100, though it might be reasonable to rule that the PC's leather armor has 10 hp while the bad guy's plate armor has 100.)   Personally, I'd probably hand-wave most of this unless it would add something to the session -- turning AL into a game of 'OK, let's go back to town and replace all the gear the monsters broke in this adventure' doesn't sound like a lot of fun.   tl;dr: The rules for breaking objects are in the PH and are not prohibited from use in AL, but you should have a good reason for using them in AL.   -- Pauper   (Edit: It should also be noted that, according to both the general AL FAQ and the AL Magic Item FAQ, if a permanent magic item breaks, it still counts against the PC's count of permanent magic items. This implies that magic items can be broken, and do not automatically get repaired after being broken. Since you'd most likely use some permutation of the Crafting rules to repair mundane items, but AL doesn't allow PCs to craft magic items, it could be argued that PCs can't repair broken magic items, either.)
#4 Ralif_Redhammer May 22, 2015 8:08:17	I'd trust the DM to adjudicate this fairly. I know I'm pretty sparing with destroying PCs stuff, even when it's in the rules, like with the Grey Ooze.   That being said, in Adventurer’s League play, so far my experience has been that magic items are pretty rare. I’d be pretty honked off if a DM casually trashed someone’s hard-fought-for magic item.
(Reply to #3) QwertyAzerty	Pauper wrote:
#6 Kalani May 22, 2015 10:25:19	In a spirit of fairness, I rule that magic items can only be broken by other magic items (unless otherwise specified in the item's description), and the act of doing so breaks both items.
#7 Kalani May 22, 2015 10:52:53	In respect to breaking/destroying other mundane gear - I would allow it, if it was appropriate to the circumstances or in extreme situations. As a general rule, I would not resort to such punitive action as players are generally unhappy about having their gear and/or treasure lost/destroyed.    As far as an official stance on the issue, the closest I can think of is the following excerpt from the DMing and DM Empowerment article.   Subtracting Rewards: Do reduce awards if circumstances warrant doing so. If a character does something that would anger his or her faction, you may choose not to award renown that the character otherwise would have earned. Similarly, if characters take actions in an adventure that would result in them spending time in jail or on the lam, reduce or eliminate downtime awarded to reflect that fact. Be careful in reducing wealth and magic items, as tempers can run high when that happens. However, if circumstances warrant, NPCs can withhold rewards, and the authorities can fine characters.
#8 RCanine May 24, 2015 0:48:17	Yeah, if the item is easily replacable, I wouldn't have any compunction against breaking something, although I'd only do it for a weapon or armor if a PC did something truly dumb with it. Like, Show A PC recommended doffing a shield to protect his feet from acidic sand; I would have done damage to the item in that case
#9 BRJN May 24, 2015 8:55:23	My HotDQ Paladin jumped into 30 feet of water while wearing Plate Armor.  Because I wanted to catch up to our drowning Rogue.  (I had the foresight to tie a rope around my chestplate first.) If the rescue mission had failed, I was going to untie the rope and doff my armor, figuring to go scuba diving again tomorrow morning and retrieve it.  Due to CONmods, the Rogue got 10 rounds before drowning, I got 30 rounds before drowning; had the Rogue died I had just enough time to get everything off and reach the surface - I did the math.   emphasis placed on the part of my story relevant to this thread.
#10 Enevhar_Aldarion May 24, 2015 18:33:25	In a structured environment like AL play, I would only do damage/destroy a character's gear if there was a specific rule that allowed it, and even then, only in a way that did not seem like I was being a jerk to the player.
#11 Noon May 25, 2015 1:38:22	If the player has no latitude toward the GM adding some amount of unhappy events, the campaign is boned anyway.