4
\$\begingroup\$

The gear Iron spikes description says:

Hammering one of these blunt, wide metal wedges between a door and its frame requires a standard action and adds 5 to the DC of checks to open the door. If nothing but a spike is holding a door shut, the base DC to open it is 15. Spiking a door is noisy; each time you drive in a spike, creatures within 20 squares can make a Perception check with a +5 bonus to hear you.

Let's assume the party tries to lock and prevent opening of door with DC 25 to unlock.

Is it safe to assume following interpretations?

  1. Party uses one spike to increase the DC of the door.

  2. Party uses two spikes to increase the DC of the door.

Bunch of guards tries to get to the party room and tries to bust open the door. The DC they need to beat is 30 for (1) and 35 for (2). They fail but remember they have the key and unlock the door and try to enter the room again. Now the DC is 15 for (1) and 20 for (2).

The main question is - does the DC increase of spikes stack? In my opinion RAW it should but I am not 100% sure about this interpretation. Given the amount of spikes one party can carry, they could easily create door with DC over 50 in one turn of spiking them.

\$\endgroup\$
2
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast "...20 for 2" \$\endgroup\$
    – Adeptus
    Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 3:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KorvinStarmast Thanks for pointing out my mistake, it is indeed supposed to be 15 for 1 spike and 20 for 2 spikes. \$\endgroup\$
    – pppddd
    Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 23:29

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7
\$\begingroup\$

Bonuses from the same source don't stack.

While the bonus is untyped, so it would stack with other bonuses, it does not stack with itself.

\$\endgroup\$
4
  • \$\begingroup\$ I thought untyped bonuses stacked? \$\endgroup\$
    – Frezak
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 20:04
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @frezak they do, by not when it's from the same source. \$\endgroup\$
    – wax eagle
    Commented Apr 5, 2016 at 20:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ @waxeagle so even two different spikes are considered as one source? I could imagine that they would stack say for DC up to 35 or something like that but nailing too many spikes between the door and the frame would eventually break the door. \$\endgroup\$
    – pppddd
    Commented Apr 6, 2016 at 23:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ @pppddd Multiple instances of an item are exactly what the "same source doesn't stack" rule covers. You can't use 5 iron spikes to further increase the DC to open the door, just like you can't use 5 level 3 talent shards to give yourself +5 to a skill for an encounter. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michaellogg
    Commented Apr 7, 2016 at 0:51

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .