A character's interaction with
objects in an environment is often simple to resolve in the game. The player tells the GM that his or her character is doing something, such as moving a lever, and the GM describes what, if anything, happens.
For example, a character might decide to pull a lever, which might, in turn, raise a portcullis, cause a room to flood with water, or open a secret door in a nearby wall. If the lever is rusted in position, though, a character might need to force it. In such a situation, the GM might call for a Strength check to see whether the character can wrench the lever into place. The GM sets the DC for any such check based on the difficulty of the task.
Using Objects in Combat
You normally interact with an object while doing something else, such as when you draw a sword as part of an attack. When an object requires your action for its use, you take the Use an Object
Actions. This action is also useful when you want to interact with more than one object on your
Turn.
Attacking and damaging objects
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 GM 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
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 Ability Check to break an object. The GM sets the
DC for any such check.
Statistics for Objects
You can assign an
Armor Class and
Hit Points to a destructible object. You can also give it immunities,
Resistances, and
Vulnerabilities to specific
Damage types.
Armor Class. An object's
Armor Class is a measure of how difficult it is to deal
Damage to the object when striking it (because the object has no chance of dodging out of the way). The Object Armor Classes table provides suggested AC values for various substances.
Hit Points. An object's
Hit Points measure how much
Damage it can take before losing its structural integrity. Resilient objects have more hit points than fragile ones.
Large objects also tend to have more hit points than
Small ones, unless breaking a small part of the object is just as effective as breaking the whole thing. The Object Hit Points table provides suggested hit points for fragile and resilient objects that are
Large or smaller.
Huge and Gargantuan Objects. Normal weapons are of little use against many
Huge and
Gargantuan objects, such as a colossal statue, towering column of stone, or massive boulder. That said, one
Torch can burn a Huge tapestry, and an
Earthquake spell can reduce a colossus to rubble.
You can track a Huge or Gargantuan object's
Hit Points, or you can simply decide how long the object can withstand whatever weapon or force is acting against it. If you track hit points for the object, divide it into Large or smaller sections, and track each section's hit points separately. Destroying one of those sections could ruin the entire object. For example, a Gargantuan statue of a human might topple over when one of its Large legs is reduced to 0 hit points.
Objects and Damage Types. Objects are immune to
Poison Damage and
Psychic Damage. You might decide that some damage types are more effective against a particular object or substance than others. For example,
Bludgeoning Damage works well for smashing things but not for cutting through
rope or
leather.
Paper or
cloth objects might be vulnerable to
Fire Damage. A
pick can chip away stone but can't effectively cut down a tree. As always, use your best judgment.
Damage Threshold. Big objects such as castle walls often have extra resilience represented by a damage threshold. An object with a damage threshold has immunity to all damage unless it takes an amount of
Damage from a single
Attack or effect equal to or greater than its damage threshold, in which case it takes damage as normal. Any damage that fails to meet or exceed the object's damage threshold is considered superficial and doesn't reduce the object's
Hit Points.
Object Size References
Size Categories
Space taken up by different-sized creatures.
| Size | Space | Height | Weight |
|---|
| Tiny | 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 ft. | < 2 ft | <10 lbs. |
| Small | 5 by 5 ft. | 2+ to 4 ft | 10+ to 100 lbs. |
| Medium | 5 by 5 ft. | 4+ to 7 ft | 100+ to 250 lbs. |
| Large | 10 by 10 ft. | 7+ to 10 ft | 250+ to 800 lbs. |
| Huge | 15 by 15 ft. | 10+ to 20 ft | 800+ to 4000 lbs. |
| Gargantuan | 20 by 20 ft. or larger | 20+ ft | 4000+ lbs. |
|
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