Storming the castle door

[Sabaron]

So my players are planning on storming a castle next session (a Cheap Keep, from the Stronghold Builder's Guide). The first major obstacle is the gatehouse, with its sturdy wooden doors and portcullis. The wooden door has clear, simple rules to get past it (set HP and break DC), and so does the portcullis. One player, however, does not want to break the portcullis. He wants to lift it. Does anyone know how much one weighs? Or, if not, what a good DC would be to lift it? I was thinking of simply setting it to the Break DC, since I've been unable to find any weights.

Ah, good ol' second edition, with it's Bend Bars/Lift Gates roll. Come to think of it, is there a set Strength DC which is meant to simulate that roll in 3.5e?

Also, if anyone has some castle-storming tips for my PC's, I'm sure they'd appreciate it. They are 6th level, and have a small army along with them.

 

[James McMurray]

My advie would be to not lead the charge. The first people to the gates are likely to feel the brunt of the burning oil, arrows, and other assorted defenses.

 

[micromaximum]

One thing I've never seen mentioned but wondered about was the existence of some kind of lock mechanism for the portcullis. If you could get enough men on a sturdy makeshift lever it should be possible to lift it, but if the designer was smart enough to design some kind of brace or lock for the portcullis to be set into place after it dropped then it would be much harder to lift. I guess most of the time no one actually tried to lift the portcullis so it wasn't an issue.

Also some D&D castle plans place the portcullis behind the gate, but I'm pretty sure it would be more effective placed in front of the gate. Anyone who could break through the gate should be able to break through the portcullis. Instead of using it as a barrier, it makes more sense to use it to enhance the kill zone inside the gatehouse. Let the advance wave approach the gate with their battering ram and then drop the portcullis. With some luck you'll damage or destroy the battering ram and trap some of the attackers inside the gatehouse. That would definitely lower the moral of the second wave of soldiers tasked with storming the gate.

 

[Balgus]

Also, if anyone has some castle-storming tips for my PC's, I'm sure they'd appreciate it. They are 6th level, and have a small army along with them.

Hmmm, lvl 6 and already storming castles. *wipes tear* my baby's all grow'd up...

seriously, I would say get a battering ram. There is no way in Hell a character can lift the gates. Not even Superman, but.. wait a minute, OK superman can lift it, but not even the Incredible HULK, hmmm maybe he can too, but Phezzic, Ok these are all bad examples.

But of course, there is magic. Eh, I say you play the thing by ear. In ELH, the DC of swim up a waterfall is 80. I would put raising a castle gate somewhere at 40.

Any advice for them? Lead, don't fight. Save your energy for the big baddy that is waiting for you in the last room of the fort. There's always one more guy that you have to kill than you have offensive spells.

edit for grammar

 

[Sabaron]

Micromaximum: Actually, there is a second portcullis behind the first one, creating a kill zone much like you describe. I never said this was a good plan on the PC's part, but he's dead set on trying it so I needed a rule.

The gatehouse is set up like this:

/-\
| |
| |
| |
\-/

With the horizontal lines at the end being portculli. There are, of course, lots of little openings for the defenders to shoot, bombard and soak (preferably with boiling oil or molten lead) the defenders.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

If someone is serious about battering through a gate, they can easily jam open an outside portculllis with beams.

 

[Tatsukun]

Two words for the players -
Admintine ram

Two for you-
Admintine gate

Or maybe three for you-
Wall of force

-Tatsu

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I found a reference to a portcullis from a website about a Castle Rushen. The link is here:

http://www.isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/fulltext/rg1927/ch07.htm

It states that one grille of the portcullis weighed 12 cwt. A cwt = 112 pounds, therefore the portcullis at this castle weighs 1344 pounds ! A note is that in the design of this portcullis, it appears there may have been counterweights for about half the weight of the grille.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

To be nasty: have the first portcullis up when the characters approach ... and drop it when they get into the gatehouse and encounter the second, lowered portcullis (with closed and barred doors behind). Now that they're trapped between the two, poor the boiling pitch down through the murder holes in the ceiling, and stab with spears ...

If you're going to storm a castle, a well prepared gatehouse isn't usually the place to enter. Better to climb the walls elsewhere, and attack the gatehouse from the back side, where you can then let in your reinforcements.

 

[andargor]

Err, can't a portcullis be "locked" by a simple rod in the lifting gears or in some sort of slot? No amount of lifting will go through that. You'd have to break it...

Andargor