Has anyone here played with adamantine weapons? If so, what has your experience been like?
I’ve been looking into them and noticed that they guarantee a critical hit on every attack. For an uncommon item, this feels a bit overpowered to me. Have you found this to be the case in your games, or does it balance out in practice?
This weapon or piece of ammunition is made of adamantine, one of the hardest substances in existence. Whenever this weapon or piece of ammunition hits an object, the hit is a Critical Hit.
It only guarantees critical hits against objects, as creatures and objects are mutually exclusive, it does very little outside of trying to break down a flimsy wall, chopping down a tree. Maybe it could help in the situation of trying to break a wooden bridge or that type of activity, but generally speaking an Adamantine weapon's benefit is not often felt in battle. There are a couple of spells where perhaps it might come into effect, breaking down a wall of stone, for example.
It's also worth pointing out that things can have a property called a Damage Threshold, where they don't take any damage at all from a hit that deals less than a specified number of points of damage. This can technically occur with both creatures and objects, but it's a lot more commonly used with objects. So, when you need to destroy an object that has a Damage Threshold, a single hit that does a lot of damage is much more effective than multiple hits that deal lower amounts of damage, and that's easier to achieve with an automatic critical.
I can not for the life of me understand how people keep misreading this. Is there some youtuber or other content creator out there spreading this idea?
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Mother and Cat Herder. Playing TTRPGs since 1989 (She/Her)
I can not for the life of me understand how people keep misreading this. Is there some youtuber or other content creator out there spreading this idea?
Possibly, though I think for people who are less familiar with the specifics of D&D rules, it's easy to overlook the fact that "objects" are a distinct thing from "creatures" and not a more general term.
I can not for the life of me understand how people keep misreading this. Is there some youtuber or other content creator out there spreading this idea?
Possibly, though I think for people who are less familiar with the specifics of D&D rules, it's easy to overlook the fact that "objects" are a distinct thing from "creatures" and not a more general term.
I guess, it just seems weird that the question keeps popping up.
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Mother and Cat Herder. Playing TTRPGs since 1989 (She/Her)
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Hi everyone,
Has anyone here played with adamantine weapons? If so, what has your experience been like?
I’ve been looking into them and noticed that they guarantee a critical hit on every attack. For an uncommon item, this feels a bit overpowered to me. Have you found this to be the case in your games, or does it balance out in practice?
This topic was recently asked here Adamantine Weapons and Crafting Them: Did anyone playtest this? and Adamantine and Silver Weapons, 2024 - Rules & Game Mechanics.
It affects only objects, no creatures.
I think you misread the description
https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/9228341-adamantine-weapon
It only guarantees critical hits against objects, as creatures and objects are mutually exclusive, it does very little outside of trying to break down a flimsy wall, chopping down a tree. Maybe it could help in the situation of trying to break a wooden bridge or that type of activity, but generally speaking an Adamantine weapon's benefit is not often felt in battle. There are a couple of spells where perhaps it might come into effect, breaking down a wall of stone, for example.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/2619200-wall-of-stone
It's also worth pointing out that things can have a property called a Damage Threshold, where they don't take any damage at all from a hit that deals less than a specified number of points of damage. This can technically occur with both creatures and objects, but it's a lot more commonly used with objects. So, when you need to destroy an object that has a Damage Threshold, a single hit that does a lot of damage is much more effective than multiple hits that deal lower amounts of damage, and that's easier to achieve with an automatic critical.
pronouns: he/she/they
I can not for the life of me understand how people keep misreading this. Is there some youtuber or other content creator out there spreading this idea?
Mother and Cat Herder. Playing TTRPGs since 1989 (She/Her)
Thank you for clarifying this!
Possibly, though I think for people who are less familiar with the specifics of D&D rules, it's easy to overlook the fact that "objects" are a distinct thing from "creatures" and not a more general term.
pronouns: he/she/they
I guess, it just seems weird that the question keeps popping up.
Mother and Cat Herder. Playing TTRPGs since 1989 (She/Her)