What happens to a destroyed Pact Weapon?

Question

Ned is a Hexblade Warlock. He found a magical net+1 and made it his pact weapon via his Pact of the Blade feature:

You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon.

Note that pact weapons can be ranged, and ranged pact weapons can be summoned or dismissed as normal.

You can also use Pact of the Blade to bond with a magic weapon, turning it into your pact weapon. This magic weapon doesn’t have to be a melee weapon, so you could use the feature on a +1 longbow, for instance. Once the bond is formed, the magic weapon appears whenever you call your pact weapon to you, and you can’t change the magic weapon’s form when it appears.

However, nets can be destroyed:

Dealing 5 slashing damage to the net (AC 10) also frees the creature without harming it, ending the effect and destroying the net.

Now Ned has become rather fond of his net, and would prefer to be able to continue using it after it has been so ruthlessly slashed by the angry goblins of the mountain caves. He knows that it's possible to mend broken items, and is willing to spend time and money (or find a wizard to cast mending) to fix his net if possible. But if destroying Ned's beloved net means that it's no longer his pact weapon, all that effort is for nothing - besides, repairing a destroyed magical net may or may not preserve the net's magic.

I couldn't find any official rulings about what happens to destroyed pact weapons. This question is about pact weapons in general: a net is just a convenient example that can be easily destroyed.

Is a destroyed pact weapon still a pact weapon?

Answer 1

Yes, it’s still your pact weapon

The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it.

None of those things happened? It’s still your pact weapon.

Answer 2

The weak case for no

For the record, I agree with the answers stating that a broken pact weapon is still your pact weapon until you do one of the three specific things that ends that status. That is certainly RAW.

However, as in any enterprise where the categories are imaginary, D&D has a general 'Ship of Theseus' problem. Would it still be your pact weapon if it was disintegrated and no longer existed? Is it still your pact weapon if it is no longer a weapon? How much does something have to change in order for the rules that previously affected it to no longer apply? Here we leave RAW and enter the murky world of RAI. If you, or you DM, is looking for a no answer, this is the thoroughly unofficial way to proceed. Or, perhaps you are looking for the best case for no, simply to see how much stronger the case for yes is.

First, recognize the conditions that allow it to be your pact weapon:

You can transform one magic weapon into your pact weapon by performing a special ritual while you hold the weapon.

In order to be the target of your ability, it has to be one item, magic, and a weapon.

Then, accept as RAI the Crawford principle of

No longer being a valid target trumps condition carryover.

This implies that if your magic weapon ceases to be one item, ceases to be magic, or ceases to be a weapon, then it is no longer your pact weapon, since it no longer meets the conditions that were needed to make it one in the first place. Depending on your interpretation, it could permanently cease to be your pact weapon, or its status as your pact weapon could merely be 'suppressed'.

Finally, accept the still debatably RAI premise that a magic item, once broken, is no longer magical, which follows from the Perkins premise of

If a magic item breaks, it ceases to function

As you have already noted, nets can be destroyed. Once Ned's magic net is destroyed, it ceases to be magical. Thus it is no longer a valid target for his ability that makes it his pact weapon. It temporarily ceases to be his pact weapon until its magic is restored or he permanently eliminates it as a pact weapon by one of the three RAW processes.

Answer 3

Yes, unfortunately

As part of the Pact of the Blade feature:

The weapon ceases being your pact weapon if you die, if you perform the 1-hour ritual on a different weapon, or if you use a 1-hour ritual to break your bond to it.

Breaking is not a disqualifier. If you break your phone, it does not cease to be your phone.

But there's more to the story

You used a specific magic item, a Net +1. Because it is a specific magic item, if it breaks, it usually stays broken and non-magical (varies from DM to DM). However, you can also just use a normal net with similar results:

You can use your action to create a pact weapon in your empty hand. You can choose the form that this melee weapon takes each time you create it. You are proficient with it while you wield it. This weapon counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.

So you can create the net over and over again. Even if it breaks one fight, you can recreate it the next.

Admittedly, not a +1, but still "magical". If you still need that +1, take the "Improved Pact Weapon" invocation and get +1.