[D&D] Round 7

Tue Apr 22 20:55:30 UTC 2008

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Good point of the force to open the door, but I think you read the  
spell as it's base power.  The way I read it, Create Water makes 2  
gallons of water per level.  So one cast of the spell for a level 5  
would make 10 gallons of water.  As you pointed out earlier, one  
gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds.  Since we need to cast this  
spell on either side of the wall that is 80 pounds for each side for a  
total of 160 pounds.  We can simply double the volume of water needed  
to open the door by widening the cylinder for more volume.  If we  
wanted to double the weight needed, which would cost two more create  
water spells at this level, we could make the force needed to open the  
door 320 pounds.  Since there are no external grips, there will need  
to be enough force pushing in on the door as lifting up.  Since all  
the forces must sum to overcome the downward force ( F = ma ) of the  
mass of the door + gravity, we can assume that half the force (80 or  
160 pounds) must be an inward force.  We can either groove the inside  
stone and the door to get stuck if pushed together, or we can come up  
with a more elegant resolution for the problem.

We could add a stone slab above the door and a little bit of slack to  
pick it up in the rope/cable.  The slab would look like this:

+---------------------------+
|  0                            0  |
|  0                            0  |
+--------------------------+

I hope the formatting works for that.  If we run the rope through one  
hole and out the other before it connects to the door, then when this  
slab lifts it will do so one side at a time.  If we make the slab  
longer than the door and add grooves in the wall so that the slab can  
only go up when the ropes pull it sideways, then anyone trying to push  
the door up will need enough force to break the stone.  This means we  
also need to make the movable part of the door as big as the slap to  
add for the extra play in the door.  At this point the person would  
just resort to breaking through the door, as it would be more  
difficult to push it up.  So, let's add this as an additional feature  
to the door.

As for not being able to see the cylinder to put water in, I think I  
can wave my hands and explain that one away.  Since all of our casters  
could see the construction of the door, I think it makes sense that  
they can use their mental powers to envision the container in their  
minds-eye to cast water into them.  Besides, the spell only says we  
can't cast water into a creature, but all other containers are okay.

Let's also make the back side of the door open from inside the crypt.   
That is, the part of the door that faces the inside of the crypt  
should be exposed to us.  This will make it easier to make changes or  
repairs in the future, and we loose nothing as a result.  Basically,  
we can adapt to different threats that the door may face.

One thing that might be a good idea, is trapping the door so that if  
someone hits a tripwire going through the door then it cuts the ropes  
and drops the door on top of them.  If this does not kill them, it  
should stick them under the door until we get there.  We can shape the  
bottom of the door with spikes to make it that much more lethal.   
Giffal, would you like to trap the door like this for us?

We still have two more problems with our Fortification.  First, anyone  
who takes the time could go right through a wall if they wanted.  This  
is the classic safe cracking problem.  No safe is totally secure given  
the right amount of time.  When you buy a safe their security is  
usually measured by how long it will take an attacker to get in, which  
is the same problem we have with our crypt.  The next problem we  
should address is the stained glass windows up top.  As of right now,  
no one has gotten up there from the outside (that we know of).  We are  
growing a small garden of berries up there, and that is where the  
druid and the hunter are sleeping, but they have always gotten up  
there through the inside.  If anyone can think of a way to fortify the  
crypt's roof access, while still allowing the hunter and druid to  
sleep outside, that would be very helpful.  We don't need to do this  
now since we have not been attacked like this yet, but it would be  
helpful to think of a solution for the next time we have a respite in  
town.  Once we solve that problem, we can think of a way to fortify  
the entire crypt so we are notified of an intruder.  As long as the  
crypts defenses are good enough for us to respond in time, we can  
fight off any attack.

Cheers,
Chris

On Apr 19, 2008, at 11:53 PM, Jim McQuillan wrote:
>
> OK, so the door could weigh a lot more because the counterweights  
> would offset it, but it's still a difference of 32 pounds and only  
> 32 pounds of lifting needed to raise it without the water.
>
> Jim McQuillan wrote:
>> One problem with your door design is you would need a door that  
>> weighs less than 32 pounds (the weight of the water created by two  
>> Create Water spells).  That's pretty wimpy stone door... also all  
>> that anyone would have to do to open it is use less than 32 pounds  
>> of lifting force.
>

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Chris Mooney ....................... UNIX Systems Engineer
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