An item can be broken or destroyed if it takes enough damage. Every item has a Hardness value. Each time an item takes damage, reduce any damage the item takes by its Hardness. The rest of the damage reduces the item’s Hit Points. Normally an item takes damage only when a creature is directly Attacking it—commonly targeted items include doors and traps. A creature that attacks you doesn’t normally damage your armor or other gear, even if it hits you. However, the Shield Block reaction can cause your Shield to take damage as you use it to prevent damage to yourself, and some monsters have exceptional abilities that can damage your items.

An item that takes damage can become broken and eventually destroyed. It becomes broken when its Hit Points are equal to or lower than its Broken Threshold (BT); once its Hit Points are reduced to 0, it is destroyed. A broken item has the broken Condition until Repaired above its Broken Threshold. Anything that automatically makes an item broken immediately reduces its Hit Points to its Broken Threshold if the item had more Hit Points than that when the effect occurred. If an item has no Broken Threshold, then it has no relevant changes to its function due to being broken, but it’s still destroyed at 0 Hit Points. A destroyed item can’t be Repaired.

An item’s Hardness, Hit Points, and Broken Threshold usually depend on the Material the item is made of. Information on materials appears in GM Core.

Object Immunities

Inanimate objects and hazards are immune to bleed, death Effects, Disease, Healing, Mental Effects, Nonlethal attacks, Poison, Spirit, Vitality, void, as well as the doomed, drained, fatigued, paralyzed, sickened, and unconscious conditions. Conscious, thinking items are not immune to Mental Effects. Many objects are immune to other conditions, at the GM’s discretion. For instance, a sword can’t move, so it can’t take a penalty to its Speed, but a spinning blade trap might be affected.

Broken

Broken is a Condition that affects objects. An object is broken when damage has reduced its Hit Points below its Broken Threshold. A broken object can’t be used for its normal function, nor does it grant bonuses—with the exception of armor. Broken armor still grants its item bonus to AC, but it also imparts a Status penalty to AC depending on its category: –1 for broken light armor, –2 for broken medium armor, or –3 for broken heavy armor.

A broken item still imposes Penalties and limitations normally incurred by carrying, holding, or wearing it. For example, broken armor would still impose its Dexterity modifier cap, check penalty, and so forth.

If an effect makes an item broken automatically and the item has more HP than its Broken Threshold, that effect also reduces the item’s current HP to the Broken Threshold.