Is it just me, or are the rules for breaking and chopping down doors a little screwed up? Let's look at breaking down a door first. According to the DMG, a strong wooden door has a break DC of 23 if stuck and 25 if locked. Now, since breaking a door down is a simple strength check, any character except for a very high level fighter type is going to have a very tough time making that DC 25 check. Someone with a 20 or 22 strength would only have a 5 or 10% chance of being able to break the door down. A human with the maximum possible natural strength (18) would have literally no chance to break that door down. That just seems to be too difficult for a wooden door.
But then, look at how easy it is to chop that same door down. It has hardness 5 and 20 hit points. Someone with a two-handed weapon could chop through the door in 2 or 3 hits. So this door, which is so strong it cannot be broken down by any ordinary human, can be chopped through in about 15 seconds by one person with an axe.
Does anyone else see this as a problem? And if so, do you think break DCs need to come down, or do door hardnesses and hit points need to go up?
But then, look at how easy it is to chop that same door down. It has hardness 5 and 20 hit points. Someone with a two-handed weapon could chop through the door in 2 or 3 hits. So this door, which is so strong it cannot be broken down by any ordinary human, can be chopped through in about 15 seconds by one person with an axe.
Does anyone else see this as a problem? And if so, do you think break DCs need to come down, or do door hardnesses and hit points need to go up?
