Veteran's Vault - Secret Door Question

[Matthew Pittard]

This has come up a few times (both as a player and now as a DM). The broken secret stone door leading to the torture room. How many DM's have had a player with a powerful enough weapon simply take down the wall? While the area dosnt list the issues with doing this, it is possible right?

[DrSwordopolis]

Sure, if someone wants to spend a thirty minutes with a pickaxe, why not?
The bad guy's going to know the party's coming and adjust tactics accordingly, of course.

[nosig]

DrSwordopolis wrote:

Sure, if someone wants to spend a thirty minutes with a pickaxe, why not?

The bad guy's going to know the party's coming and adjust tactics accordingly, of course.

"thirty minutes with a pickaxe" - really? I don't think so.

Even without magic, busting a hole in a real stone wall with "a pickaxe" or even a sledgehammer is a matter of a few minutes. With something like an Adamantine weapon? well, that would be a matter of YMMV.

With me as the judge? heck, check the book for HP and hardness. and then let the players go to town on the door/wall.

But then it always bothers me when someone says - "sorry, you can do that. Not at my table..." and this sure feels like that.

[Unknown Ediology]

I had players want do to this exact same thing. Use magic, brute force, etc. to force the secret door open.

I informed them of the pertinent information regarding the door (such as material, style, etc), including the fact that it would take a bit of time, as well as make some noise, and they were okay with it.

Naturally, the BBEG adjusted his tactics accordingly, due to the commotion they caused. Thus, they were ambushed the second they entered the room. But the players enjoyed it, and so did I!

So, as nosig mentioned above; if the players have a plausible idea try and roll with it! Sometimes what they want just won't be feasible, but it's fun to work with the players and let them try their approaches.

[Matthew Pittard]

Thats what I did. However with a 4 player party, the good toys didnt make an appearance.

Thankyou for the Clarification and input. I had a level 3 in the group who was just butchering everything so the battle was over very quickly.