Rules for Digging out a Dungeon

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

My players have recently gained control of a hotel (in game) and want to dig out a secret area below the hotel.

Where is the best place to look for rules that can be used as a guide to how long this will take, what feats/skills might be useful, and what it will cost?

I'm also interested in knowing what skills they'd need in order to avoid weakening the hotel structure.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Alexander123]

My suggestion would the Stronghold Builder's guide.

 

[Sekhmet]

Profession: Architect
Knowledge: Architecture

Skill Focus (Either of those two).

Wall of Stone
Wall of Iron

Polymorph Any Object

Wish

All of these options should be fairly self explanatory.

 

[Iku Rex]

Classes? Level?

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

The average party level is about 5th. There are three 7th level (oathsworn, rogue, cleric) and the others are below sixth level (2 4th level wizards, a 3rd level bard, a 6th level mageblade, and a few others).

The players are thinking that the giant half-orc (homebrew race... think half-orc with residual titan blood that manifested after exposure to a magic aura, causing him to grow) in the group might be able to put his muscles to work. I think that because he doesn't know anything about mining, architeture, etc... that it will take a long time and probably end in disaster.

--- --- ---

I looked through the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook and noticed that all the prices and times assume magic (which my group doesn't have a lot of). So, I was kinda wondering how to do it the mundane way.

 

[Sekhmet]

Under the watchful eye of a trained architect, an unskilled worker (your giant half-orc) can be beneficial, not detrimental.
Just make sure you've got someone calling the shots that knows what the hell he's doing. (DC15 to 20)

 

[Summer-Knight925]

isnt the mundane way doing an adventure and getting cash to go buy some transmute rock to mud scrolls or even disentigrate?

I mean...if you REALLY want the 'mundane' way just have the characters go down to home deopt (in game) and pick up some dwarven day-laborers (not trying to be racist, i played a game where we ran across dwarves standing infront of a tavern looking for jobs, it was part of the hook....since their mine close, ANYWAYS)
yeah...just throw gold at the problem and then look at the prices for hirelings

maybe do some research into real world dig projects (such as digging WW1 trenches) and see how long it would take (in days) the multiply that number by the ammount of gold for hirelings...and supplies...and traps...and monsters....and to really spice things up, have them unleash some horrible entity the likes of which the world has never seen and they have to stop it....or have the hotel on an ancient elven burrial ground and it becomes haunted (spooooky)

 

[Andras]

1st Edition DMG had a section on construction. You might be able to adapt it especially the rates of excavation.

 

[Diamond Cross]

1e DMG Had these rules on page 106:

MINING: CUBIC VOLUME OF ROCK PER 8 HOURS LABOR PER MINER

A human, hafling, or gnoll could mine 75cu ft of very soft rock, 50 cu ft of soft rock, or 25 cu ft of hard rock.

A gnome or kobold could mine 80 cu ft, 60 cu ft, and 30 cu ft respectively.

A goblin or orc could mine 85 cu ft, 65 cu ft, and 30 cu ft respectively.

A dwarf or a hobgoblin could mine 90 cu ft, 70 cu ft, and 35 cu ft respectively.

Multiple Workers:. For game purposes, assume that each extra miner will
cause an appropriate additional volume of rock to be mined, providing
that there is room in the shaft. Assuming that a typical shaft will be 10'
wide, and arched to a 16' (or so) peak, including scaffolding, where appropriate,
the maximum number of miners, by race, per 10' wide shaft is
shown below; increase the number for wider or narrower shafts
accordingly, although any miner larger than man-sized needs a 10' minimum width in which to work.

 

[Allegro]

An alternate to hiring dwarf day laborers would be acquire a lyre of building for the bard to use. Pair this with the bard with significant ranks in knowledge architecture you have a one person building machine.