Can Monsters open doors if...?

[Ryno]

So, I was playing the Trial and a wizard used pass through rock to step in to see what was in the middle room and then stepped out upon seeing the gargoyle was there. One of the heroes said, oh crap, they're going to get out now. I, as a good Zargon said, nope, monsters can't open doors. A friend watching the game joked, "Clearly, those monsters can't open the door because they couldn't have possibly used the door to enter the room in the first place", I responded, "haha, yeah the monsters are probably wondering how the hell they even got inside this room, where the walls and doors built right around them?"

Sooo..... I think that I may throw a rule in my games that a monster can only open a door to exit a room if someone uses pass through rock and allows a monster to see them. Do you guys agree? Are there any other unique situations that you think should allow monsters to use doors?

[Ethica]

I think monsters should be able to open doors all the time. Obviously it could be abused as a rule by competitive zargons to flood the playing area with monsters, but my belief is that it's up to good DMs to recreate the strategies of the monsters present in each situation.

[SirDionysDobermann]

Playing Morcar most of the time, I think it is a good idea that monsters normally cannot open doors. (O.K., in my usual group no magic wielder EVER seems to use "Pass Through Rock").
Even in the Basic Game, though, there are some Quests when monsters are allowed to open doors. Furthermore, there is the option of alarm-linked doors ("when door A is opened by the Heroes, all doors marked B open automatically" and so on).
Try some of these. Even use it as a surprise for nosey parker heroes. As a last resort, pretend there is a quest note that allows monsters to open doors. CHEAT, so to speak! Your group will love it!

[drathe]

The rule that Monsters cannot open doors unless noted in the Quest assumes that the Monsters are not aware of the Heroes roaming around their dungeons. Just as the Heroes are unaware of Monsters until the doors are finally opened. However, it stands to reason that if the Monsters are indeed aware of intruders, that they would leave rooms to investigate. Should the situation in the first post happen in my games, the Monsters would have seen the Wizard enter and exit the room, then open the door on Zargon's turn in order to eliminate the intruder. Monsters that are not already placed on the board, or revealed by a Spell (i.e. the Detection Spell, Clairvoyance) are ignorant to the Heroes' presence and will stay where they are.

Each Zargon/Morcar to their own though. Your game. Do what you feel is best.

[Ryno]

My favorite logic here is that if baddies know heroes are there, they will seek them out.

[el_flesh]

My DM will roll to see if the monster noticed the guy
will roll to see if the monster attacks or runs for help!

And of course monsters can open doors! Get real! If they've mastered the use of weapons they've mastered the use of doors!
Maybe a Brainless Zombie is the only thing that can't open a door.

[mo123813]

I like the idea of undead not being able to follow you, or maybe crowd at the wall were you left out.

What do you mean by roll to see if a monster noticed you?

And yes, they should be able to open doors and follow the their enemy

[el_flesh]

They're not all necessarily standing in the room staring at the door waiting for it to open.
They're doing all kinds of things in the room; talking to each other, obsessing over gold pieces, eating unspeakable things; that kind of stuff.

The roll checks to see if they are facing the door, and then if they notice your entrance, which also depends on the type of hero you are.
A shiny elf gets immediately noticed; a short-assed dwarf too. It takes a moment to notice the half-Orc isn't exactly playing on their team,
and if I send my skeletons barging in, they have no idea until it attacks them.

[Ryno]

They're not all necessarily standing in the room staring at the door waiting for it to open.
They're doing all kinds of things in the room; talking to each other, obsessing over gold pieces, eating unspeakable things; that kind of stuff.

I assume that each room is small enough and the doors are old enough and the armor is clanky enough for the monsters to always hear when a hero is entering the room. It would be a fun roleplay mechanic to occasionally throw in little tidbits here when you populate a room something like, "As you open this door you notice this crowd of Orcs feasting and fighting over the last bone of an unknown animal or creature. They are too distracted to immediately notice your presence." By the same token, you could also throw a wrench in the heroes mix and tell them that "due to noise generated from your battle in this room, the monsters in the adjacent room have been awakened and are now searching the dungeon for intruders"

[el_flesh]

Already got that kind of stuff...
DM does it on the fly, off the cuff...