Can A Cat CLose an Open Door?

[ender_wiggin]

Given heavy wooden door is open, does a cat familiar have the muscle mass to close it? In one round?

 

[Fieari]

A cat cannot close any door. This has nothing to do with physical ability and more to do with the fundamental nature of the universe. My cats open doors all the time (as long as the catch isn't in place), and some of those doors could definitly be classified as heavy wooden doors. But they will never, ever, ever close them. I highly suspect that the mere existence of any closed door is seen as an insult to cat kind.

A cat familiar may be able to overcome this inherant nature and close a door.

 

[Poster Bard]

Wouldn't that depend on the condition of the hinges and the latch/locking mechnism, as much as on the size of the door versus the size of the cat? In cases where it was a door that was regularly used and not some time-worn dungeon door, I'd allow a regular size house cat to close a door. But I'd make some kind of deal about it for the effort, just to be sure I had disallowing future actions of that kind in my back pocket for when the door was bigger, older, on bad hinges, etc.

 

[Len]

A cat has STR 3, so it can carry 30 pounds (at 20 feet per action) or drag up to 150 pounds (slowly). So I'd say yes, it could close a heavy wooden door as a move action.

 

[Sammael]

A cat has a Str of 3. A tiny quadruped with Str 3 can carry up to 22.5 lbs. I'd consider a heavy wooden door to weigh around 30 lbs.; since the cat would have no problem dragging up to 112.5 lbs. (according to RAW), it stands to reason that it could push a 30 lbs. - door shut in one round.

 

[Oryan77]

Yeah I'd say it would depend on the hinges. A reasonable sized door, even if it's heavy, could still be closed with slight pressure if the hinges allowed it to swing easily. If a familiar was told to close it, he could if you determined the door was constructed well enough. Then it would also be your decision on if it closes in a round or not. If it swung easily but was a really heavy door, it might take a few pushes until it finally closes.

Cats can open doors, so they could close them too, but of course a real cat doesn't have the intelligence to care about closing doors, but a familiar could be told to.

 

[ender_wiggin]

A cat can carry 22.5 pounds? Hmm....

 

[Izerath]

Try again

A cat cannot close any door. This has nothing to do with physical ability and more to do with the fundamental nature of the universe. My cats open doors all the time (as long as the catch isn't in place), and some of those doors could definitly be classified as heavy wooden doors. But they will never, ever, ever close them. I highly suspect that the mere existence of any closed door is seen as an insult to cat kind.

A cat familiar may be able to overcome this inherant nature and close a door.

Try again. My NORMAL HOUSECAT IN REAL LIFE will not only push open a door that is ajar (rather easy), but with the proper handle she can OPEN a latched door by jumping from a perch, using her front paws to "grab" the handle and then let her momentem carry her into the door enough to jar the latch open. She then simply drops to the floor and pushes open the door.

ALSO, she has CLOSED DOORS! One day when I had the house open and it was rather windy outside, a door blew closed in the room I (and the cat) were in. This intrigued her and she began to push the door from opposite sides back and forth until finally she got the door to close and the latch actually caught! Now, she did lock herself in the room however, which she was not happy about. She tried her door opening trick a few times before she realized it would not work. Since then, she has never closed a door to the point the latch caught, but she WILL push it closed to the point where it is barely ajar.

Apparently my cat likes her privacy!

So, based on a real life factual rebuttal, I'd say a magical and intelligent cat familiar could open and close any door, provided it had sufficient strength to move it. They are after all, thick mediaval doors of solid wood (usually ok or pine). Of couse the latch could make the difference on that ruling, but all in all, I'd say it could happen. It is a fantasy game after all!

 

[mcrow]

I highly doubt that in the real world that a cat can drag 115 lbs or carry 22 lbs, but I know for a fact that a cat can shut a normal sized hinged door. Just have to use common sense here, I don't see the need to go digging up rules on it. If a small child would have trouble closing a door then a cat coulding do it either.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

I too have seen normal house cats open and close heavy wooden doors. Course, the cat who liked to close the doors also liked to immediately start meowing her complaints about being shut in. Insane cat.