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<blockquote data-quote="AuraSeer" data-source="post: 960102" data-attributes="member: 1331">The easiest way to foil sledgehammers is to make the door really tough. Plate it in adamantine, or apply magical or alchemical treatments to increase its hardness. Applying rule 0, you can say that sledgehammers and crowbars don't do any hit point damage to the door at all. (Make sure you do the same to all sides of the vault, so they don't just go through a wall instead.)Don't make the door totally invulnerable, though. You don't want to force the PCs to follow your script; that's called railroading, and it's not fun for the players. Just make the other options more expensive and less convenient than your preferred way.If one of the PCs has skill in stonecarving or engineering, you could give them an actual estimate for busting through. Say something like, &quot;You could probably break in, but it would require a lot of work. A dozen dwarven engineers could tunnel through in six months or so, if they had adamantine tools and some heavy drilling equipment.&quot; The players probably won't spend that much time and money, but the option is there if they're really determined. (Note that finding skilled engineers, and equipping them appropriately, could be a couple of interesting quests.)Similarly, they could go and try to hire a powerful spellcaster to disintegrate a passageway into the vault. High-level characters don't work cheap, though. The PCs might need to do a few fetch-the-McGuffin quests in order to get the mage's help.If your plans absolutely require the PCs to get the key before they open this door, turn it into something other than a door. Magic teleporters and gateways come to mind. Maybe it could be a permanent, immobile variant of Leomund's secret chest; the contents are stored somewhere inaccessible on another plane, and cannot be retrieved without the key.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AuraSeer, post: 960102, member: 1331"] The easiest way to foil sledgehammers is to make the door really tough. Plate it in adamantine, or apply magical or alchemical treatments to increase its hardness. Applying rule 0, you can say that sledgehammers and crowbars don't do any hit point damage to the door at all. (Make sure you do the same to all sides of the vault, so they don't just go through a wall instead.) Don't make the door totally invulnerable, though. You don't want to [u]force[/u] the PCs to follow your script; that's called railroading, and it's not fun for the players. Just make the other options more expensive and less convenient than your preferred way. If one of the PCs has skill in stonecarving or engineering, you could give them an actual estimate for busting through. Say something like, "You could probably break in, but it would require a lot of work. A dozen dwarven engineers could tunnel through in six months or so, if they had adamantine tools and some heavy drilling equipment." The players probably won't spend that much time and money, but the option is there if they're really determined. (Note that finding skilled engineers, and equipping them appropriately, could be a couple of interesting quests.) Similarly, they could go and try to hire a powerful spellcaster to [i]disintegrate[/i] a passageway into the vault. High-level characters don't work cheap, though. The PCs might need to do a few fetch-the-McGuffin quests in order to get the mage's help. If your plans absolutely require the PCs to get the key before they open this door, turn it into something other than a door. Magic teleporters and gateways come to mind. Maybe it could be a permanent, immobile variant of [i]Leomund's secret chest[/i]; the contents are stored somewhere inaccessible on another plane, and cannot be retrieved without the key. [/QUOTE]

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