Reckless adventurers love to kick in doors in the dungeon. Sooner or later it is bound to come up in one of your games. And it is the perfect opportunity for you to demonstrate how unsafe a practice that kicking in doors in the dungeon can be for an explorer in a hostile place.
Techniques in Training Your Delvers
Since we know that is inevitable that at some point a delver is going to believe him or herself stronger than the denizens of the dungeon it is up to us to teach them differently. Some methods that I might suggest are as follows
- The balsa wood door – it looks like a normal door but when kicked it just shatters. And what is behind that door is something that the delvers do not want to meet. Level draining undead work perfectly for this. A nice pack of wights. But other nasty creatures can do just as well. A pack of rust monsters might discourage your fighters from this practice. A hungry band of trolls might also do the trick.
- The door filled with poison gas – this also looks like a normal door. But when kicked it also shatters and releases gas that was inside of the hollow door. This gas could be poison. Or it could be corrosive and might eat away at armor or weapons worn or held by the adventurer.
- Trapped doors – there are lots of nasty traps you can use to discourage this behavior. My buddy Grimtooth has lots of traps for this purpose which you can borrow. I mentioned him in a previous article.
- A kicked door makes a loud sound that echoes through the hallways of the dungeon. And this should certainly bring a random encounter check.
- And what about the dangers of kicking the door itself? Splinters in the eye. Pieces of wood everywhere. And no way to close this door again. This could turn out to be quite perilous if the adventurers need to hole up somewhere for safety and find that they can no longer close and bar the door.
Listening at Doors is a Wise Precaution
It would be wise to listen at doorways before forcing them. And it would be wiser still not to force a door unless the delver must. Many doors in a dungeon may be stuck. Many more will not be. There is no reason to kick the door open if it is not locked and is not stuck. Yet for many adventurers kicking the door is their first choice! By listening at the door one might discover that there are many voices coming from the room in which they are about to enter. But many adventurers do not bother with this either.
Mechanics of Kicking in Doors in the Dungeon
In 1st Edition the door kick is pretty simple. It is based upon strength. The table on page 9 of the Players Handbook explains this in detail. A six sided dice is used and the results are compared to the table to determine success. The adventurer can make as many attempts as desired but each makes noise and may draw the interest from wandering monsters. In 5th Edition the dungeon master will assign a DC and the player will roll a strength check to determine success as per DMG page 103-104.
In Conclusion
There are obviously times when the delvers will have to kick in a door. A failed lock pick check. A door which is barred from the inside. A door which is stuck from age and disuse. These things happen in the dungeon. But kicking in every door must be discouraged. Because it leads the adventurers to feel that they are the most powerful creature in the dungeon. And this leads to bad things. Delvers should always be afraid that creatures lurk nearby that might be more powerful than they are. Without this fear the suspense of the game fades quickly.
