Random D&D question

[classicdrogn]

Here is the situation: A short chain is anchored securely to the ceiling and a weight. You shoot a Disintegrate spell at it. What happens next?

a.) One link vanishes, the weight and the rest of the chain fall.
b.) The entire chain vanishes, the weight falls.
c.) The chain and weight vanish.
d.) The chain and weight vanish, along with a chunk of the ceiling ten feet square by whatever depth makes up the difference of the length of the chain plus the weight.
e.) ???
f.) PROFIT!

Extra credit: replace the weight with a container. What happens to the contents in case C?
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[Rajvik]

E dependant upon the needs of the GM
 

[robkelk]

If I was the DM, I'd ask how well the mage aimed. Make a to-hit roll - the better the roll, the farther up your list the result is. (Natural 20, one link vanishes. Natural 1, the chain, the weight, and part of the ceiling vanishes.) Or you can take a 10 and the load falls and breaks...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Ebony]

I believe that it would a) depend on the wizard's intent and b) depend on the DM's willingness for that intent to be realized. In a purely analytical sense, the durability/hardness/hit points of chain do not adhere to a "per link" basis, any more than rope adheres to a "per strand" basis. I believe both depend on the material and the length. That being said, if the wizard wants to disintegrate a single link, I'd probably allow it, with possibly a Spellcraft roll or a ranged touch attack roll for fine control (with appropriate penalties for a called shot). I would not include the weight in the equation, because that is a distinct and separate object, though if the wizard wanted to try that, I'd probably allow it with a suitable metamagic feat that altered the spell's area of effect, or possibly a Spellcraft roll. (Such an act would require a Spellcraft roll every time until a corresponding feat was purchased, reflecting mastery of the idea of using a ray in that fashion.)
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Shepherd]

It probably depends on the edition. I can tell you that in D&D 3.5, Disintegrate could affect "as much as one 10-foot cube of nonliving matter." You can of course choose to disintegrate less.
To hit with the spell requires a ranged touch attack against the object's AC. Offhand I believe the AC of a single link of chain would be 10 - 5 (Dexterity modifier) -2 (inanimate object penalty) + 8 (fine object) = 11 [http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Breaking_and_Entering.
A Wizard of high enough level to cast the spell would probably have a ranged touch attack modifier of around +5 to +10 at a minimum. If the Wizard takes a full round to line up the shot, he may get a +5 to the roll if the DM rules a ranged touch attack counts as a ranged weapon. So he'd really only fail to hit on a roll of 1, which may lead to hilariously bad results.
Once hit, the object gets a Fortitude Save. A non-magical unattended object always fails its Saving Throw. If the chain is magical, it gets a save with a bonus of 2 + (1/2 the creator's caster level). A failed save deals between 22d6 and 40d6 damage (depending on caster level) and almost certainly destroys the link.
A successful save deals 5d6 damage, although I believe this damage would be reduced by the item's hardness (iron & steel have Hardness 10, mithral is Hardness 15, and adamantine is Hardness 20; all before adding any additional Hardness from spells or the item's nature as a magical object). iron, steel, and mithral have 30 hp/inch of thickness while adamantine has 40 hp/inch of thickness; these numbers are of course before any bonus hp from spells or being a magical object. I'd assume the link of chain to be less than one inch thick, so it'd probably have about 10 to 15 hp (not counting magical enhancement, which generally provides a fixed bonus to hp which doesn't account for the object's thickeness).
Interestingly, the PHB specifically states "A damaged object remains fully functional until the object's hit points are reduced to 0, at which point it is destroyed." So if the link of chain is reduced to one single hp, it will apparently keep functioning just fine according to Rules As Written.
Once the link of chain is successfully disintegrated, the object falls. Here are the damage rules for Falling Objects: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/SRD:Falling
The PHB offers no rules for avoiding a falling object, but Heroes of Battle indicates that characters can avoid objects purposefully dropped on them by making a DC 15 Reflex Save (the person dropping the object still has to make an attack roll vs. AC 5 with penalties for range increment and using an improvised weapon; failure means the object lands in a nearby square).
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"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV

[Labster]

Holy shit Shepard, are you The Sage?  Or just an exceptionally talented rules lawyer?
-- ∇×V

[Ebony]

vorticity wrote:

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Holy shit Shepard, are you The Sage?  Or just an exceptionally talented rules lawyer?

He accessed the wiki and SRD. Both D&D and Pathfinder have extensive open-source wikis out there these days.
  
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[robkelk]

All the rules we knew, and we completely forgot about The Wiki Rule...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012