Any rules for digging in dirt and stone?

[Arravis]

Hey, are there any books out there that have rules for digging in stone or dirt? I have some PC's in a hurry to dig a hole in a cliff wall and I'm trying to find out how much they can do in a day. Thanks guys!

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Rule #1: When you find yourself in the bottom of a hole - STOP DIGGING.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Not covered by RAW, nor any books that I am aware of.
The below is something I came up in a previous thread on digging that got lost somewhere in the crash.

Profession (Miner):
This skill gives you the knowledge of digging holes in the ground, shoring up tunnel shafts, and other related subjects.

Digging holes: For this skill check, you can use either INT or STR as a modifier. Each point you surpass the DC reduces the time by 1 hour.

DC 10, excavate 5' cube of dirt in 20 hours
+2 DC for difficult soil or sandstone
+4 DC for Stone or root entangled soil
+6 DC for Granite or Kalichi (a hard clay layer such as found in the Arizona deserts)
+4 DC for improvised implements (Swords, Military Picks, etc..)

And in keeping with Sean Reynolds’s recent rant on avoiding absolutes, +5 DC for untrained use.

Characters with Stone-Cunning get a +4 to their check.

With this, you typical PC swinging a sword at a stone wall will have a DC of 23. A Dwarf who bothered to put points into Prof (Miner) would have a DC of 14..and if he had a miner's pick, that would be DC 10.
Either way, its going to take a number of hours to dig a 5'x5' hole in a cliff-face.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Hey, are there any books out there that have rules for digging in stone or dirt? I have some PC's in a hurry to dig a hole in a cliff wall and I'm trying to find out how much they can do in a day. Thanks guys!

The only existing guidelines that come close are hardness and hp of an object.

Digging holes takes some time, especially if you're digging into a hard surface. Digging into a stone cliff face using nothing but hand tools is a serious time investment; if you're dangling in midair then it's just a nightmare of logistics and effort.

My advice is to figure out how long they actually have to dig said hole, divide that time into [X] units (probably five), then have them make an appropriate skill or ability check (knowledge [architecture], craft [stone], profession [miner] or Strength) against some arbitrary but possible DC. If they get a majority of successes (three of five) then they complete the hole in time. Otherwise, they run out of time and fail to accomplish whatever they were digging the hole for.

Don't be affraid to give big bonuses for creativity. Examples include using a bottle of endless water set to 'gyser' to hydromine the cliffface.

 

[Andras]

1e DMG?

 

[cmanos]

Digging in the dirt? Are you trying to find the places we got hurt??

Stone...I would use the hit points and hardness of stone. So if you are mining, wailing away with your dwarven mining pick, for every 15 points of damage that actually get around the hardness of 8, you make a 1" deep hole in the stone. How big a hole is not described.

 

[cmanos]

With this, you typical PC swinging a sword at a stone wall ...

I seriously hope the DM imposes to hit and damage penalties with that weapon after using it to chop at a stone wall. Swords are made for fleshy things....axes are made for woody things.....picks are made for....stony things...

 

[Arravis]

Thanks for the answers guys. The situation arose that the characters were facing an upcoming sandstorm and they were looking to dig into an earthen (dirt and stone mix) cliffside to create some protection for themselves.