Just break the door down!

[Salamander Napolean]

1>Have the next chamber be filled w/a huge amount of water (or gas or oozes or magma). Then the rooms that they're in will get flooded, and they'll have no way to stop it, b/c they already broke the seal.

2> Increase the time it takes to an unacceptable length (like four and a half days) and then, after they finally bash it down, put another one about twenty feet down the same hallway.

3>Steal their sledgehammers.

 

[Grishnak]

I did a post called Are Pc's always ruining adventures with magic and it seems that you're getting to the same point where players are able to just bypass pretty much everything with their spells, I had a lot of replies stating that stopping spells was wrong and that they should be used but sometimes it's it would be good of the pc's to rely on skills.
Now using sledgehammers might not be the way you want them to get in but do they each carry a hammer?? If they dont they have to return to town and get some, nicely setting them up for some ambushes by the evil party. If they all do have hammers then let them break the door in and have the evil party turn up while they're unprepared, or the evil party has somehow managed to gain entrance elsewhere and have the items the party want.

 

[Belbarrus]

"Next thing you know the party will be looking to sell the doors on the open market."

Hehe, this already happened in a campaign that I play in. The DM introduced a large mithral door that was supposed to keep us out. So the party wizard polymorphed into an Umber Hulk and burrowed the rock away from around the door. We then calculated the volume and then the value of the mithral door. Took it to a large city and sold it


There have been a lot of good suggestions here, but I am looking for a solution that is within 'normal' means. Extradimensional spaces, magic time/space vaults, pocket planes, etc are too 'powerful'. I also like to be able to explain why things are tougher than normal (e.g. "masterwork iron bound door with reinforced hinges")

The problem is that even an 8th level party can have enough means to defeat a lot defensives. Wall of Force? Dispel it (of course if the original caster was level 18+, the party cannot dispel). Stone walls? Polymorph into an Umber Hulk and burrow through. I can prevent Dim Door and TP by having a 'permanent Dimensional Anchor' in the vault. That's not too implausible.

I guess, without resorting to drastic or 'high magic' means, if the party has the time and the tools and the willpower, they should be able get through. As a DM, I dont let story ideas or adventures go to waste; they pop up somewhere else. For example, if the party breaks through the doors to the treasure room, I just shift the storyline; they find a magic item that even Identify or Analyze Dweomer yields nothing. Then the party resumes following the adventure about visiting the sage, the side-quest, etc.


Thanks for the input all

Belbarrus

 

[Belbarrus]

"but do they each carry a hammer?? If they dont they have to return to town and get some"

They dont need to. They have a Bag of Holding with all manner of tools (sledghammers, picks, shovels, battering rams, etc). Of course, the mage grabs a sledghammer, polymorphs into a large humanoid (like an Annis) with enhanced strength AND the sledghammer changes to huge size.


When I first started playing D&D many (many) years ago, the DM had a dungeon with a variety of doors and rooms. The doors had letters which were clues to a puzzle which was the password to enter a treasure vault. I was able to solve the puzzle without having to actually go through all of the doors and rooms and got to the treasure room after only needing to solve half the puzzles. The DM was annoyed that I defeated his puzzle plan so easily, so he destroyed have the treasure (something about acid leaking into the vault over the years... ). So, I know it can be frustrating on both the DMs part and the players part, when your plans get foiled.


Belbarrus

 

[Caliban]

Wall of force can't be dispelled. You have to Disintegrate it.

 

[Gizzard]

Or, when they first encounter the door, they could just batter it down with battering rams and sledghammers and break their way into the vault.

You always grind the party down with economics. Consider what happens if the nearest town is a little hamlet with only couple sledgehammers. And when they're gone:

Party: "We need more hammers."
Shopkeeper: "I will buy some more for you when I travel next to Big Town next week."
Party: "But we want them now!"

The further beauty of this is that the law of supply and demand will cause a sharp spike in the price of hammers. As the party destroys a higher and higher percentage of all of the hammers in the Kingdom against the mithral door, hammers themselves will become among the most prized and expensive items in the Kingdom. Ironic, no?

I suggest you drive this message home by having the Kingdom switch to the "hammer standard" of currency after 75% of the hammers in the Kingdom have been destroyed. The gold and silver in the vault will still be worth something, but only in comparison to the basic currency unit of "one hammer".

Shopkeeper: "You want Plate Mail? OK. How many hammers do you have?"

 

[Gwarok]

I would put something very big, very nasty near the door, and make sure its sleeping and has been sleeping a long time. Something fantastic. Too much noise will wake it, so sneaking in as quietly as possible would be a better solution.

 

[paulewaug]

I think the "magical-diminsional doorway" sounds like the best way to go, IMHO of course.

Since this is a Fantasy world and the characters could be using "Non-real world means" to break in is potentially causing problems, you should use fantastic means to stop the adventure from being "ruined."

Do Not go the way of Adamantine (or any other "valuable material") doors because if I were the player I absolutely would try to get them down and sell them.
They could end up being worth more than the treausre inside the vault.
Although you could make it so that the Adamantine doors Are the treasure...

The dimensional gate doors seem the best way to maintain the integrity of the adventure without seeming to railroad the players.

It's ok to railroad the players, as long as they don't know they are being railroaded

 

[Al'Kelhar]

Have a door guardian who is just too powerful for the 8th level characters to confront if they attempt to damage the door. I had a dwarven-crafted stone door in my last adventure which required a specific key to open. It could have been battered down or chipped away by the PCs, but n the circumstances that'd be downright stupid. For one thing, a bunch of kobolds had tried to do it beforehand, and their smashed and broken skeletons were scattered all about the place, along with their broken and rusted picks, hammers and chisels. The door weighed a tonne or so, and was opened by a Large earth elemental actually trapped inside the door. Any attempt to damage the door or to use magic against it summoned the earth elemental out of the door for 9 rounds, and it would then proceed to batter the "door defilers" into pulp. A Large earth elemental was certainly enough to ruin the day of six 1st and 2nd level characters. The players took the hint from the dead kobolds, and decided to find the key before attempting to smash through the door.

An elder earth elemental should be enough to scare off most parties of 8th level characters. Or an advanced stone golem.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[andargor]

No one mentionned Dimension Door or Ethereal Jaunt, which can ruin the DM's day.

The Stronghold Builder's Guide has rules for preventing extradimensional or ethereal travel and such.

IOC, we decided that the DM can Rule 0 the workings of such spells in order to avoid spoiling the plot for all of us. The DM is fair, so he only does this when absolutely necessary.

Andargor