beating on walls

[Piratecat]

I say just give that wall hardness and HP according to PHB P.136. Typical stone wall have hardness of 8 and 15 HP per inch. Thus that wall have HP of 900.

You're using your warhammer (which is quite different than a sledgehammer, btw) two-handed. If you do a minimum of 10 pts, let's say you average 13 points of damage per round. Thus, every round you do 5 points of damage to a 5' x 5' block of stone. If you could swing (and hit) once per round, it will take you 180 swings; eighteen minutes of solid work to demolish one portion of the wall. Add rest breaks and fumbles, and it's probably 25 minutes.

I'd say it's doable, although it'll probably destroy the tool in the process. You could open up roughly 2 walls an hour, and with breaks to avoid subdual damage probably manage to destroy 8 walls in an 8-hour day.

 

[kreynolds]

I'd say it's doable, although it'll probably destroy the tool in the process.

Really? So, do you also have weapon/armor/equipment breakage and wear-n-tear rules that you would like to share with us? Actually, I have a feeling that you just use the lame "fumble" variant rule.

 

[James McMurray]

Not everything has to be grounded in rules. Saying that a hammer will break before 5' of stone is perfectly reasonable and should not provoke an attack of rules-lawyeritis. Otherwise your DM may see fit to remove theproblem by removing the hammer, or worse, the wielder.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I wasn't asked, but...

Do you think that is sufficient enough time for the task I propose?

Also let us one again assume this can be done at all- how big a breach would a person create?

If a person could swing away at the wall constantly without resting and the paladin had a warhammer of his own, this task would take 23 minutes; if the barbarian worked alone, it would take 34 minutes.

I don't think it's possible to work very long without resting - not only is the work exhausting, but using an all-metal hammer will make your hands hurt badly. Still, even if you give 4 minutes of rest to every minute of work (and wear gloves or at least pad your hands with cloth), the job can be finished in under 3 hours.

 

[Crothian]

If you are allowed to break down the wall, just hope that someone knows what they are doing. You don't want to accidently destroy a load bearing wall.

After rereading your post, maybe you do want to destroy a loadbearing wall.

 

[Zhure]

I think your DM is nuts, since stone in D&D worlds gets cut with manual tools all the time. Smacking a sledgehammer against cement I've done, and it's unpleasant work. Against granite it would be even less pleasant, but still well within the realms of feasability.

Since the DM seems to be set against it, maybe you can find an alternative way of cracking through the rock. Damaging spells (especially cold-based) after you've watered the wall might work, as would a few clever summoned monsters.

Hope that helps jog some ideas loose.
Greg

 

[kreynolds]

Not everything has to be grounded in rules. Saying that a hammer will break before 5' of stone is perfectly reasonable and should not provoke an attack of rules-lawyeritis. Otherwise your DM may see fit to remove theproblem by removing the hammer, or worse, the wielder.

You're right, not everything has to be grounded in the rules. But saying that a warhammer will break because you beat a stone wall is just lame. Why? Because there is no basis for that decision (I haven't seen one yet). A DM call like that only proves that your DM sucks and you need to find a new one. Consistency is what I'm talking about, and just plain logic.

If you want to make a hammer/stone wall rule like that, fine. But what's your basis? Have you even given any thought before making said lame ruling? These are the questions that I would ask a DM. Why? Simple. I want to know what the rules are. Not because I want the rules to be a certain way, but so I know how to play in his games. The more I know, the fewer questions I have to ask during the game.

Like I said, unless you have wear-n-tear or weapon/armor/equipment breakage rules, a DM shouldn't waste my time with a baseless ruling like that. Don't get me wrong though, I think rules like that might be kinda cool, I'm just not interested in coming up with any rules 'cause it just doesn't mean that much to me.

 

[James McMurray]

Take a hammer, go pound on a cement building with it for 23 minutes. Then see if you've done more damage to your hammer or the wall (assuming of course you can even manage to beat on it non stop for that long).

 

[kreynolds]

Take a hammer, go pound on a cement building with it for 23 minutes. Then see if you've done more damage to your hammer or the wall (assuming of course you can even manage to beat on it non stop for that long).

I see you completely failed to address my post. Could it be that you have no argument what-so-ever?

 

[Crothian]

Take a hammer, go pound on a cement building with it for 23 minutes. Then see if you've done more damage to your hammer or the wall (assuming of course you can even manage to beat on it non stop for that long).

Cement is different from a stone wall. Cement is much, much better and probably reinforced with steel.

The stone wall is just blocks of stone mortared together, it isn't nearly as strong. A few good hits and a rock will crack, a few more and it will shatter. Once you have one block out, the rest are easier to remove.