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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GQuail" data-source="post: 3263324" data-attributes="member: 30709">I checked my 1E PHB & DMG and could find no utterance of such a rule: do you know where it's mentioned?  In 3.X, the DMG specifically lists the caster level and aura type of all minor artifacts, and as I recall Detect Magic explicitly calls out the type of aura of an artifact in the top level of magic item aura types. In my own 3.X game, the recent arrival of an Orb of Dragonkind and part of the Regalia of Evil was reinforced by it's uber aura, a clear sign that it was above the items the rest of the party have found.  (Though of course, spells to obscure such a thing are easilly arranged for the DM who wants to do things this way, and as you say artifacts can break the rules by their nature)As a DM myself, I think you're being a bit unfair on him.  I think some of the vital difference that's coming up in this thread is "unbreakable, full stop" versus "so hard to break you can't manage it in time".  A magically reinforced door might have X hardness and Y hit points so the party, with the weapons and spells they have, can't crack it: but in theory, it's doable.  But an adventure which just says "nothing will crack this door" is cutting off that avenue completely.  Worse still, if the party return to the site again a few levels later, none of their increased powers help: but if the quantified door slams down on the party, then they get the satisfaction of breezeing through it this time, a quantification of their progress.You accuse him of seeing the situation as "the solution I want to use is unviable, so I'm going to be a pest": but ironically, the adventure designer could be accused of the inverse.  The kind of problem that only has one solution (like the previously listed "jump into the flames" example) is no fun to some players because they enjoy the flexibility of the problem solving aspect of D&D, and artificially limiting them with unbreakable doors stops them doing that.  Remember, we're talking here about pre-made adventures - I think it's one thing for me to scribble in my notes "the party can't break the door down", but it's another to sell an adventure with no alternative whatsoever for anything other than The Solution.  On the contrary, most guides to adventure and encounter design often mention the importance of having different ways to bypass obstacles and progress plots as an important part of crafting popular adventures: if civvies like me can put effort into that, I would rather the pros did as well.  ;-)  Of course, you may like these adventures, and that's fine: I will confess that the Tomb of Horrors is still a laugh for even me.  ;-)  I just don't think it's fair to imply that the only reason to call something cheating is because they're bad players is fair, because sometimes the blame has to land on the DM or adventure writer.That's a different question, because unless odd situations come to pass, the unbreakable door will not obstruct the players progress.  The gist of the OPs complaint way back on page one, as I understood it, was that a problem in an adventure could only be passed by one route and actively bypassed normal solutions.  A sword which is unbreakable also breaks the lack of absolutes, but it's unlikely to hinder or kill PCs: the unbreakable door in the trapped room might be the last thing some characters see, and could leave a foul taste in some peoples mouths.Plenty of GMs fudge a dice roll from time to time, or insert items or powers that don't quite fit mechanics for whatever reason.  Anyone who homebrews a monster, spell or whatever is arguably doing the same thing as we're talking about here: inventing something new rather than use the core rules.  The difference is motivation, and I would argue that the  motivation for making an unbreakable door or room with magic elemental energy that can only be resisted by one item that's only in another part of the dungeon is most likely railroading, or at least will end up feeling like that to players who find their cold resistance or metal melting spells don't work this time because, and, that's why. Of course, most of the above is all objective playstyle stuff, so at the end of the day, who cares?  If you like more Gygaxian "cheating" adventures, then go for it, and I'm sure there's hordes of players who would laugh off the death of another character to a fiendish trap whilst the surviving characters vowed revenge.  But I don't think it's a good thing for published adventures to be running with, especialy in D20 when there are so many guidelines to building most things.</blockquote>

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