Knock

One sharp word shatters lock, bar, and ward alike, flinging sealed thresholds open with all the subtlety of fate striking a gate.

2nd-Level Transmutation
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V
Duration: Instantaneous
Available To: Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard

Effect. Choose an object within range that is held shut by a mundane lock or that is stuck or barred. The object becomes unlocked, unstuck, or unbarred. If the object has multiple locks, only one of them is unlocked. If the target is held shut by Arcane Lock, that spell is suppressed for 10 minutes, during which time the target can be opened and closed. When you cast the spell, a loud knock, audible up to 300 feet away, emanates from the target.

Overview

Knock is one of the cleanest utility spells in fantasy magic because it is both narrow and decisive. It does not deceive a guard, unravel a riddle, or gently work through a mechanism. It opens what has been shut. A locked door, a barred gate, a sealed chest, a stuck hatch, or a magically secured threshold can all be answered in a single moment.

That directness gives the spell its identity. Knock is not subtle magic. It is the spell cast when patience has ended, when time matters more than secrecy, and when access itself has become urgent. It is the wizard’s answer to obstruction, the infiltrator’s last resort, and the rescuer’s refusal to let a barrier stand.

Uses

Forced Entry

This is the spell in its purest form. A locked door, barred gate, chained hatch, jammed shutter, or sealed coffer gives way at once. When time matters, Knock can replace tools, strength, and delay with certainty.

Breaking Magical Security

The spell is especially important because it answers Arcane Lock. It does not quietly outwit magical security; it overrides it for a time. That makes it one of the key counter-spells in any setting where warded thresholds are common.

Rescue and Escape

When an ally is trapped, a prisoner must be freed, or a retreat path has been sealed behind the party, Knock becomes more than convenience. It becomes survival magic. Few spells are better suited to urgent release.

Opening Under Pressure

This spell shines when danger is already near. In a calm infiltration, its noise may be too costly. In a burning library, a flooding crypt, a castle pursuit, or a collapsing dungeon, noise is often a lesser price than delay.

Tactics

For Players

Use Knock when slowness is the greater danger. If secrecy still matters more than speed, tools and skill may be the better answer. If discovery is already likely, or if the situation is moving too fast for careful work, this spell becomes invaluable.

Remember that it opens only one lock on an object. A chest with several locks, a gate secured in layers, or a prison door built for redundancy may still demand follow-up action. That keeps layered security relevant even in a world with magic.

Against Arcane Lock, treat Knock as a window rather than a permanent solution. It creates opportunity, not ownership. Ten minutes is enough for entry, rescue, search, or flight, but not enough to pretend the defense was never there.

For Dungeon Masters

Knock is best when it changes the shape of a scene rather than merely bypassing one. The door opens, but the sound carries through the abbey. The cell releases its prisoner, but the whole keep now knows. The vault yields, but what waits beyond has had warning.

That is where the spell becomes dramatic. It should not erase tension; it should convert one kind of tension into another. A barrier becomes an announcement. Secrecy becomes urgency. The problem is solved, but the world now responds.

Good Combinations

Arcane Lock

These spells define one another. Arcane Lock creates magical denial; Knock breaks that denial for a brief but crucial span. Together they form one of the clearest defensive and offensive pairs in fantasy spellcasting.

Alarm

A place protected by Alarm becomes far more interesting when Knock exists in the same world. One spell guarantees entry, while the other ensures that entry is noticed. That creates strong scenes of intrusion, warning, and pursuit.

Glyph of Warding

Knock opens the threshold, but not the consequences behind it. A warded chest may still erupt. A shrine door may still release a stored spell. This pairing reminds players that opening something is not the same as making it safe.

Silence

This is a natural tactical companion. Knock solves closure, but its great drawback is noise. Any party planning magical forced entry should think about sound, timing, position, and who is close enough to hear the price being paid. The need for that planning follows directly from the spell’s 300-foot audible report.

DM Notes

Knock works best in a world where barriers mean something. A locked object should not merely delay movement on a map. It should protect treasure, shame, prisoners, relics, secrets, inheritance, ritual, or fear. Then, when the spell is used, it feels like a real act of trespass rather than a mechanical shortcut.

Let the sound matter. The loud report is not decorative flavour. It is the moral weight of the spell. Knock gets the door open, but it does so openly. In that sense, it is an honest spell. It does not pretend permission was granted. It declares that permission no longer matters. That reading is grounded in the spell’s explicit audible effect.

That also makes it strong worldbuilding magic. In any culture where magical locks exist, there must be fear of magical entry. Guards listen for it. Priests dread it. Nobles plan against it. Vault builders layer locks because one spell should not be enough.

Knock

This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.

The knock spell opens stuck, barred, locked, held, or arcane locked doors.

Transmutation

Level Sorcerer/Wizard 2
Components V
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target One door, box, or chest with an area of up to 10 sq. ft./level
Duration Instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw None
Spell Resistance No

• It opens secret doors, as well as locked or trick-opening boxes or chests.
• It also loosens welds, shackles, or chains (provided they serve to hold closures shut).
• If used to open a arcane locked door, the spell does not remove the arcane lock but simply suspends its functioning for 10 minutes.

In all other cases, the door does not relock itself or become stuck again on its own. Knock does not raise barred gates or similar impediments (such as a portcullis), nor does it affect ropes, vines, and the like. The effect is limited by the area. Each spell can undo as many as two means of preventing egress.