Stupid door tricks

[Grog]

A 10th level barbarian with a warhammer and Strength 22 is standing in front of a strong wooden door (hardness 5, hit points 20, break DC 23 as per the 3.5 SRD). The door is locked and he needs to get through it right away. He has two options:

1. He can use his warhammer to try to bash the door open. He needs to roll a 17 or better on 1d20 to do this, which gives him a 20% chance of success per round. After two rounds, he'll have a 36% chance of having gotten through, and after three rounds, he'll have a ~49% chance.

2. He can use his warhammer to bash through the door. Assuming his warhammer is nonmagical and he's swinging it two-handed, he'll do an average of 13.5 points per hit. At two attacks per round, he'll destroy the door in two rounds, guaranteed, even if he rolls minimum damage on every single attack.

Does this seem a little screwy to anyone else? If the barbarian just tries to bash the door open, he only has a 50-50 chance of getting through it after three rounds. But if he uses his hammer to just completely destroy the door (which, in reality, would be much harder and take much longer), he's guaranteed success after only two rounds.

I guess hinges and latches in D&D are all made out of adamantine, or something....

 

[MarkB]

Nope, nothing wrong there. The strength check to open the door leaves the door relatively intact. The bashing destroys it. If you've got a weapon that deals a lot of damage, it is going to be quicker to demolish the door than to jimmy it open. It's also going to be a great deal louder.

 

[Grog]

Nope, nothing wrong there. The strength check to open the door leaves the door relatively intact. The bashing destroys it. If you've got a weapon that deals a lot of damage, it is going to be quicker to demolish the door than to jimmy it open. It's also going to be a great deal louder.

He's not trying to "jimmy" it open, he's trying to bash it open.

 

[Len]

Does this seem a little screwy to anyone else? If the barbarian just tries to bash the door open, he only has a 50-50 chance of getting through it after three rounds. But if he uses his hammer to just completely destroy the door (which, in reality, would be much harder and take much longer), he's guaranteed success after only two rounds.

Or, he could ignore the door and spend a couple of minutes bashing a hole through the stone wall next to it.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I think wood would splinter relatively easily when it is hit with a warhammer swung by a 22 strength barbarian. And he can get a full swing at the door every time.

On the other hand bashing the door open is more about trying to put your shoulder into it and breaking the lock and hinges on the door. Sometimes the barbarian might not be able to get the right sort of leverage (i.e. low Strength check) and as a result can't bust down the door.

So his options are Warhammer (relatively good chance that it will break after 2 rounds, but not guaranteed) or shoulder through it (could be quicker than the warhammer option but likely to take longer, will make less noise).

That's my 2 cents.

Olaf the Stout

 

[ElectricDragon]

Ram, Portable: This iron-shod wooden beam gives you a +2 circumstance bonus on Strength checks made to break open a door and it allows a second person to help you without having to roll, increasing your bonus by 2.

Costs 10 gp and weighs 20 lb. Great normal item for a 20% bonus to opening doors by the "kick in the door" method. Barbarian and friend now need only a 13 or better...

Ciao
Dave

 

[Vurt]

A standard door's AC is like, what, 2? The barbarian should swing that warhammer two-handed and Power Attack for 10. With Strength 22, that's a minimum of 30 damage; the barb should be splintering the door without breaking stride! Well, so long as he has Power Attack...

Cheers,
Vurt

 

[Legildur]

A Barbarian without Power Attack ain't a real barbarian

 

[Festivus]

He's not trying to "jimmy" it open, he's trying to bash it open.

He's just using an unconventional lockpick.

I would liken it to hitting the the door where the hinges or latch is (bash it open) versus swinging away until splinters are left. There are subtle differences

 

[javcs]

He's just using an unconventional lockpick.

I would liken it to hitting the the door where the hinges or latch is (bash it open) versus swinging away until splinters are left. There are subtle differences

Very subtle, yes, shatter the whole door or just the mechanical pieces.

Anyways, the barbarian's attacks, after the first one, could be viewed as landing in the same place, on wood whereas Strength checking the door open would land the majority of the force dealt onto metal. Metals are stronger than wood.