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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kizarvexius" data-source="post: 521332" data-attributes="member: 9273">I have some questions about breaking castle walls/gates/portcullis and how to handle it.Here's the (very) basics: The party has taken over a keep that is on the border of two kingdoms.  There is a secret chamber beneath the keep that the party is not aware of yet that holds a powerful magic item. The keep also borders two separate woodland communities. The 'evil,' woods has a centaur/druid who believes that the item can benefit her centaur clan and give them the upper hand in a long-standing war that is occurring with the centaur of the 'good,' woodland. She has the ability to call one large and two medium earth elementals to attempt to break into the keep so her troops (5 trained barbarian Trolls, 15 mercenary wild elven fighters, an elven sorcerer, and a Human Ranger.) can rush in and take the keep. There's more to it, but it's not pertinent to the question.My questions are:1.) The keep walls are 10' thick of stone. The outside of the walls were stone shaped smooth as an apology by a young adult Copper Dragon that has befriended the party's druid and occasionally shows up to cause havoc. I consider this superior masonry for the purposes of the wall type chart in the DMG. This would give the stone the following characteristics: (At 1' thick: Break DC of 35, Hardness of 8, and 90 hit points per 10'X10' section.)  So in my estimation (unless I'm doing it wrong,) is that the 10' thick wall has 90 hit points per 10' section total. So a large earth elemental with it's earth mastery and two slam attacks (2d8 +10 (+1 with mastery) would take a bit (3-6 rounds) to pound through it. Am I doing this correctly? Also, since it's strength is 25, and can be boosted with spells (bull's strength, etc.), the elemental would most likely attempt a direct break against the wall. If he succeeds  in defeating the DC, does that mean he shatters only 1' of wall? If he misses the DC, how much Damage is done to the wall? The damage from one slam? If he has 2 attacks/round, does he get to try beat the break DC each time, or is that a full round action that negates all other attacks? I'm trying to see what would be quicker and if I'm doing it right. If he attempts the break, it would take him 10 rounds if only allowed one try/round. However, just slamming the wall twice per round would bring it down pretty quick anyway. For RP, it would be a better description if layers of wall were to "shatter under the explosive force of the elemental" than if the wall were to gradually crumble. 2.)  The Door problem: The DMG says that a strong wooden door at 2 inches thick has a hardness of 5, 20hit points, and a break DC of 23. The Keep has two 10' tall heavy doors made of oak. The doors are 2' thick. Since the DMG does not clarify an area scale like with stone (10'X10' section,) doing the math makes these doors have 240 hit points. This seems excessive. I would build a keep out of doors if this were the case. Am I doing something wrong? And again, the question is if the earth elemental beats the break DC of the door, does he get through the door, or succeed in breaking 2 inches of thickness of the door? I am considering the door 'locked,' because of the locking bar behind it, which gives a break DC of 25. Well within a large Earth Elemental's ability check. Also, does he get 2 attempts/round or is it a full round action? Striking an object is a standard action, right?3.) The Portcullis problem:  The keep has a portcullis made of iron bars and crossbeams. The bars are 6 inches thick. The DMG states that a 2 inch thickness of iron portcullis has a hardness of 10, 60 hit points, and a locked break DC of 25 to Lift it. This would give my iron portcullis 180 hit points. Again, the question is if the earth elemental beats the break DC of the portcullis, does he lift the portcullis, or just outright fail?  Striking an object is a standard action, right? So two attacks=two attempts?I haven't even explored the two medium elementals helping, but it seems to me that all the elementals would go to the door if it were just a break DC. The stone walls would take too long in the larger scope of things. One last thin, the PC's have been allocated 25 men to help man the keep before the full complement of troop can arrive. The walls each have 4 ballistae and a magically turn able (variation of Tenser's floating disc of old...) catapult in the middle of the courtyard.Any help would be greatly appreciated.-Mike</blockquote>

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