So, you just failed your "unlock the door" check and you're desperate to see what's on the other side of the door. Could it be a cache of weapons? Could it be a cache of armor? Could it just be some cash? You may never know because the dice refuse to cooperate.
But the one thing about table top role playing games is that game masters LOVE creativity. And if you use your noodle to circumvent the locking mechanism in some unusual way, they'll probably make sure that whatever is on the other side of the door is equal in impressiveness to the solution you used to solve their problem.
Thus, here is a list of ways to get around a pesky locked door that you can consider given the stats of your character, dungeon environment, type of door, the material it's made out of, etc.
- skylight to the roof and down the other side
- tunnel under the door
- transmogrify the door into sand
- set the door on fire
- burn the lock away with acid
- freeze the door until it becomes brittle
- soak then freeze the door until it expands and shatters under the pressure
- stick a vine in the lock, turn it into a magical whip, and then lasso the lock switch on the other side
- convert yourself into a spider and crawl under the door
- convert yourself into a termite and bore through the door
- convert yourself into a scroll, have an ally slip you under the door, then set you on fire so you return to your natural form
- crawl through the window above the door
- teach your pet how to open a door and stuff it into a vent so it can walk around and unlock the door from the other side
- funnel explosive gas into the room behind the door and ignite it
- grenade down the air vent
- thermite in the locking mechanism to melt the tumblers
- visit the room behind the door earlier in the day and set up a device to unlock the door later when you come back
- travel through time to before the door was locked, hide, wait for it to be locked, unlock it, then come back to the present
- travel through time to before there was a door
- look for a key under the hide-a-key rock
- remove all the torches to see if the lock is really a puzzle
- blindfold nearby magic statues that lock the door when they see enemies approaching it
- solve the puzzle locking it
- stand on the pressure plates that trigger the locking mechanism
- replace the missing sword/shield back into the statue's hand
- defuse a trap, carry it to the door, and set it to go off on the door
- unleash a fog and then fog walk to the other side
- heal the door which will open itself out of gratitude
- hide and wait for someone else to open the door
- animate dead on the other side of the door so the skeletons will break it down (or open it; hey, who am I to judge)
- call forth a demon on the other side of the door
- teleport an ally to the other side of the door
- undo the hinges with a hammer and screwdriver
- undo the hinges by spinning the screws with magnetism
- use magnetism to pull whatever is in the room into the door
- portable hole
- cast a spell that consumes wood or metal
- banish the door to another dimension
- shatter the door with an earthquake
- rust the hinges
- look under the door and then blink to the other side
- pour water under the door, freeze it until the bottom of the door lifts, and then squeeze through the resultant space
- pour water under the door and then form the water into a jack, lifting the door so you can squeeze through the resultant space
- plant a seed in a crack under the door and then make it grow magically, shredding the door
- ask for divine intervention
- anger a bull and then move out of the way as he charges at you/the door
- bring in an elephant with a long trunk
- speak the secret phrase
- ranged volley
- use illusions to make it appear as if you went through the door and let the enemies break it down in their chase to catch you
- cast a small flame on the other side of the room and hide so the enemies on your side of the door open it to find out who's on the other side
- cast a whispering spell on the other side of the room and hide so the enemies on your side of the door open it to find out who's on the other side
- despell the lock (just in case)
- shine bright light under the door to get the creatures on the other side to open it
- tie a rope to the handle and have an ox pull the door off
- tie a crowbar to a rope, slip the crowbar under the door, and jam the rope into a crack in the door. Now, tie the other end to a rock and hurl the rock into a well. Of course, if the well has a winch, you can snake the rope directly into that.
- descend into a sewer and climb up on the other side of the door
- step out of a window, shimmy to the next room, and enter in behind the door
- go back outside and climb a drain spout
- magical disintegration
- magically mark the door by touching it, leave the room, then summon the door to your new location
- shanghai a beaver
- crush or crumple the floorboards beneath the door
- frighten the door
- use an "opposite" spell that flips the status of an object
- spectral hand
- build a magical prison around the door and then contract the prison to crush or crumple the door
- conjure a portal gate on the other side of the door, travel to that plane, find it's twin, and return from the alternative plane on the other side of the door
- kill yourself, become a ghost, pass through the door, possess a creature with thumbs on the other side of the door, then get resurrected by an ally
- hold a scorpion (by the tail) under the door and then turn it into a giant scorpion -- crushing or crumpling the door with it's exoskeleton
- use carving tools to dig around the lock
- snake a thread, untangled hanger, or thin rope through the crack and pull it toward you -- popping the latch
- call forth a wave of locusts
- if the door has multiple locks and one of them is unlocked, you can magically clone the unlocked lock onto the others
- grant the door life and then get it to attack you
- grant the door life and beg it to let you in
- give an enemy a mental hypnotic "suggestion" that someone is behind the door to trick the enemy into opening the door
- magically terraform the earth beneath the door to create a growing hill that crushes or crumples the door
- if the wood of the door is considered "dead", resurrect it
- if the wood of the door is considered "living", poison it
- touch the lock and look back at who locked it and then go get the key from that person
- become a woodpecker and peck through the door
- become the world's thinnest woodpecker and have your ally use YOU as a lock pick device to tap the tumblers from the inside
- magically shrink the door
- cause an avalanche that smashes the door
- cause a blizzard that piles up enough snow to push the door open
- jam a crowbar into the crack and break the lock
- shield bash
- whatever Eldritch blast is
- roll a cart down the hill and into the door
- use magical wind to knock down the door
- use shock wave to knock down the door
- kick through the door
- hack through the door
- dark tendrils break down the door
- kick through the wall
- hack through the wall
- find the bad guy who has the key and "obtain" it
- knock on the door and see if anyone opens it
Oh, no! I fried my brain and now I'm one shy of 100. Use the comments below to get me over the top. Hope you enjoy the article and, if you do, share it with your friends on Twitter and Facebook.