arcane lock

[Hyper-Man]

Re: arcane lock

 

My understanding of the AL spell is that it does not protect the door, it simply makes it more difficult to burst open. What AL does, in terms, is keeps any lock on the door locked and adds another, to beef up security. It does not toughen the door itself.

 

Basically you take a door. You can get through it (assuming you can't just open it), in Hero terms by either;

 

1. Doing enough damage to get 3 Body through its 4 defence (say - I'm making the numbers up), which would destroy it, OR

 

2. Making a strength check against the strength of the door, which we can assume is (for this purpose) 10. You roll STR, door rolls STR, if you get a higher BODY total the door bursts open (but is not destroyed - well maybe some damage to the lock and hinges, or the doorframe, but still, basically, an intact door. Back at university I lost the key to my room in the first week and got in and out all year by popping the lock with a little shoulder pressure.

 

Now AL, to my reading, doesn't do a thing about 1. above, but increases the door's strength for purposes of popping it open.

 

I base this on the DnD rules which allow you to, for example, force open a chest without (necessarily) damaging it, and certainly without destroying it.

 

Hero tends to use Body delivered as the main method to determine if you get through something, but this is more like, I suppose, arm wrestling the inanimate: if you win, it yields.

 

That was a bit long winded and confusing, but the conclusion that i bumble towars is that TK does work for the effect....almost.

 

I say almost because the strength of the LOCKED door PLUS a bonus is used by the AL to determine the strength you have to beat. TK on its own would not prevent you opening the lock on the door, and thus reducing the strength you need to exceed tot he strength of the TK alone.

 

You'd need a minor linked transform to keep the lock shut, and if you are using transform anyway.....

 

I'll have to remember that when our (D&D3.5) party encounters a door or chest protected by an Arcane Lock spell. We'll just send our axe-welding barbarbian to destroy it and not even bother trying to open it.

[Sean Waters]

Re: arcane lock

 

I'll have to remember that when our (D&D3.5) party encounters a door or chest protected by an Arcane Lock spell. We'll just send our axe-welding barbarbian to destroy it and not even bother trying to open it.

 

Often the safer option

[Dust Raven]

Re: arcane lock

 

Dust Raven,

 

how can Telekinesis be used to protect a door or object from taking damage?

Oh, now that I've read that description...

 

You can't build this in Hero System because it involves an absolute effect (cannot open). However, you can fudge it with a Transform Door to Wall that looks like a Door (or lid to sealed container), but then you run back into the problem of the caster still being able to walk through it/open it.

 

Maybe EDM to universe where only I can open it?

[Dust Raven]

Re: arcane lock

 

Actually, rethinking things, you could use TK to hold it closed. The description of the spell says you have to break it to open it, but the mechanics say you can still force it open. If you also wanted to make it harder to break, you could as an Aid DEF with a really slow fade rate.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: arcane lock

 

One other thing about the Personal Immunity on FW/Entangle issue, if I may: It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable, as I've said. No, you can't make attacks through it without Indirect on the attack (or something similar), but it is seen in nature that spiders don't get Entangled in their own webs.

 

I'll have to remember that when our (D&D3.5) party encounters a door or chest protected by an Arcane Lock spell. We'll just send our axe-welding barbarbian to destroy it and not even bother trying to open it.

Depends on:

- How much time you're willing to take.

- How much noise you're willing to make.

- Whether the intact door is important: it'll be obvious that you went through the door, you won't be able to close the door behind you, the owner of the door might be upset, etc.

- What the door is made of vs. what the barbarian's axe is made of.

[Sean Waters]

Re: arcane lock

 

One other thing about the Personal Immunity on FW/Entangle issue, if I may: It seems to me to be perfectly reasonable, as I've said. No, you can't make attacks through it without Indirect on the attack (or something similar), but it is seen in nature that spiders don't get Entangled in their own webs.

 

.................

 

Good point, but I might counter with the observation that spiders walk over their webs, not wrap them round themselves or try to pass through them.