How much time to dig a dungeon

[MoonZar]

Hello,

I need some rules about digging dungeons. I had check in the stronghold builder guide but this was not much help.

I want to know how much time for exemple, this take to dig a 10x10x10 feet square in the rock, and with this time estimation i would need to know how much people have to work on this with no magical assistance.

Thanks you !

 

[Jdvn1]

Well, druids could go pretty fast. They can cast Soften Earth and Stone, Transmute Rock to Mud, and such as well as summon all sorts of animals and Elementals to help them.

I don't think there's a RAW answer to how fast it'd take, but I'd assume 30 seconds, if two druids were really trying.

 

[MoonZar]

Well, druids could go pretty fast. They can cast Soften Earth and Stone, Transmute Rock to Mud, and such as well as summon all sorts of animals and Elementals to help them.

I don't think there's a RAW answer to how fast it'd take, but I'd assume 30 seconds, if two druids were really trying.

I mean with no magical assistance, so this mean with mining mattock and shovel.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Look for a thread on this board from last week, titled something like "Reverse Dungeon."

It's got some info in it.

EDIT:

Ah! Here you are.

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=128044

 

[MoonZar]

Thanks you, some people say good thing. But this doesn't have a clear answer how much time it should take to dig...

I don't think that the stronghold builder guide is much usefull all of this is based about buy room and component.

In the race of stone i found nothing.

Maybe in the dwarf handbook in 2nd edition i could find something.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Thanks you, some people say good thing. But this doesn't have a clear answer how much time it should take to dig...

Well, in that case, I'll do the math for you.

Let's assume that everything I said in that thread is true.

From the 3.5 SRD:

Stone: Hardness 8; 15 HP / Inch

These hit points are for a 5' by 5' section. So, a 5' by 5' by 5' cube of stone has 900 hitpoints.

Buy a couple adamantine picks, and you'll be on your way through raw stone in no time.

A heavy pick isn't a mining tool, it's an instrument of war - and a one-handed one, at that.

A miner's pick would be something more like:

Two-handed Improvised Weapon; 1d10 / 1d12 / x2; 12 lbs.; Piercing

So, we'll assume you've got a normal, human miner: Commoner 1, Strength 10, with a mining pick.

A 5'x5'x5' section of wall has hardness 8, 900 hitpoints.

As a full-round action, he can automatically hit a stationary object. When doing so, he does 1d12 points of damage. On a roll of 1-8, he fails to overcome the hardness. On a roll of 9-12, he does damage.

The expected damage dealt to the wall, then, can be expressed as:

Damage / Round / Miner = Chance to Hit * Average Damage
Change to Hit = 1
Average Damage = Average (0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4) = .833333

Damage / Round / Miner = .833333

Therefore, the time needed to cut through a single 5' cube of stone is:

Time = Hit Points / ((Damage / Round / Miner) * (# of Miners))

A single miner, then, can cut through a single 5' cube of stone in:

Time = 900 / (.83333 * 1) = 1080 rounds = 108 minutes = 1.8 hours

A single half-orc miner (Strength bonus +1) can do the same in 1.2 hours.

Note that this is greater than one hour of constant, backbreaking labor - they are, literally, pounding stone. As such, you might consider them to be swinging every other round, which doubles the time required.

 

[MoonZar]

Hello,

All your calculation are very usefull and this make sense. But i think i'll add more time to this because you have also to add the time to remove the debris that your broke and you have also to add some structure to support the celling to avoid cave in as they say in the Dwarf handbook.

In the Dwarf second edition handbook they say that a normal human miner, dig for 25 cubic foot each days and a dwarf miner dig for 35 cubic foot each day. I think this too much fast.

35x35x35 = 42875
10x10x10 = 1000

That mean that a dwarf could make 42 square of 10x10x10 in one days !!!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

In the Dwarf second edition handbook they say that a normal human miner, dig for 25 cubic foot each days and a dwarf miner dig for 35 cubic foot each day. I think this a little fast.

That mean that a dwarf could make 10 room of 20x20x10 in one days !!!

No no no ... 25 cubic feet is a 5'x5'x1' section. 35 cubic feet is 7'x5'x1'

A 20'x20'x10' is 4,000 cubic feet, meaning it would take a single dwarf ~115 days.

EDIT:

Darn typos making me look like I can't do math ...

 

[MoonZar]

No no no ... 25 cubic feet is a 5'x5'x1' section. 35 cubic feet is 6'x5'x1'

A 20'x20'x10' is 4,000 cubic feet, meaning it would take a single dwarf ~115 days.

Ah thanks you to correct me i was mistaked

 

[Jdvn1]

In the Dwarf second edition handbook they say that a normal human miner, dig for 25 cubic foot each days and a dwarf miner dig for 35 cubic foot each day. I think this a little fast.

That mean that a dwarf could make 10 room of 20x20x10 in one days !!!

... Uh? If a 5x5x5 square takes 2 hours (it should take longer, right?), then a 20x5x5 room takes 8 hours (4 blocks of 5^3). A 20x20x5 room takes 32 hours (16 blocks of 5^3). A 20x20x10 room takes 62 hours (32 blocks of 5^3).

By Patryn's numbers, he recommends one block takes more than 3 hours. That means more than 96 hours for one room. That's four days, nonstop, no sleep.