How many tries to open a locked door in dungeons and dragons?

Question

We just got the basic kit, read the rules, and didnt hear anything about getting low numbers and just retrying the roll.

What happens?

Answer 1

As the other people said...

As many times as they want.  And would set off a trap.

But it CAN alert creatures and things on the other side of the door within distance.  They can get ready, build a fortified position, go get reinforcements, cast there spells, drink their potion, etc...

Answer 2

If there is no penalty for failure, then generally you can try as many times as you wish.  Under circumstances where you can spare 2 minutes, you may "take a 20" (assumes you roll a 20 on the skill check) on checks that have no penalty for failure.

So, unlocking a door has no penalty for failure, so you may "take a 20" or, if pressed for time, try again as much as you wish.  However, as described, if the door were trapped (there is a possible penalty in the skill description if you fail the check), you could never take a 20.

Answer 3

depend on skills of your rogue.

Answer 4

All of these answers are the answer to your question.  Open lock can be tried any number of times, if that is all that the pc is doing, and there is no immediate consequence for failure.  You can roll until you get it, or "take 20". This rules assumes that you take your time doing this, are not rushed, symbolized by how long it would take to do the same task if you rolled for it 20 times until you got a 20 on the die.

There are how however non-immediate consequences. I.e. Lidda the rouge has thoroughly (taking 20) checked the door for traps. Finding one, she disarms it easily. However, Lidda finds the door is locked with an extremely good lock. She sets about picking the lock. She can do it but she would have to roll extremely high. Lidda not being rushed, decides  taking 20 is a good idea. Hazah! She picks the lock! She gignerly opens the door followed closely by Tordek the dwarven fighter. Twang crossbow bolts strike both as they enter some hitting the door and doorjam. Uh-oh! There were 10 orcs behind the door who heard her attempts at picking the lock! They had all the time in the world to set an ambush and prepare readied actions to shoot anything coming through the door.

You see a lot of times there is no hard an fast rule about what happens in the adventuring world. Most things are circumstance dependant. Take into account the surroundings and make your best judgement. That is the best part about being DM. You can always make it up!

Answer 5

In general, you can try a skill check again if yu fail, and you can keep trying indefinitely. Some skills, however, have consequences of failure that must be taken into account. For example, if Lidda the rogue misses an Open Lock check, she can try again and keep trying. If, however, a trap in the lock goes off if she misses by 5 or more, she fails (after which she can get up and try again). PHB p64

So, you can try as many times, as long as it does not have a trap. If it does have a trap and you do set it off, you can retry again afterwords.

Answer 6

Well like was said before if there is a trap and you roll low then you might set it off. Also you could keep retrying but remember that takes time and the possiblity of bad npc's that are in the next room hearinf this comotion increases as well as if the players are being fallowed. So the players can retry as much as they like but depending on the situation there should be a disadvantage or penalty for continuose poor rolls. Such as extra noise alerts guard on other side of door.