Speedy shovel?

[Kobold_paladin?]

Hi everyone! It's me again with another stupid question: how fast would you be able to shovel out dirt in 5e with a shovel?
There is nothing on shovels in any of the books I checked so now I'm curious. How much can I clear out? What would a shovel proficiancy add to that?
This question is kind of pointless but i feel like i need to know now.
Thanks for the help -k_pal?

[Tanarii]

Less that 5ft cubed per round.

[firelistener]

In combat, I probably would't let someone clear more than about 1 or 2 cubic feet of soil with their normal abilities per turn just because shoveling takes time to move the dirt. You can only do so much in 6 seconds. Out of combat, I'd probably go with roughly 36 cubic feet in an hour, so a hole big enough to have someone Medium-sized stand in and be totally below ground.

For just regular holes or trenches, it'd be an easy (DC5) strength check. If they do it for several hours or want to go super fast, like maybe to fortify a town quickly, have them make a DC10 Con saving throw or take 1 level of exhaustion.

If it's a trap or hidden pit of some kind, I'd have them make a Survival check and their roll would be the DC for perception to notice/escape/disarm the trap.

I wouldn't do any "proficiency" with the tool unless it was something special like a warforged with a shovel built in or a magic item shovel that lets someone use proficiency bonus on any digging-related checks they normally wouldn't be proficient in.

I'm not really going off any specific rules, but the Dungeon Master's Guide has a lot in it about how to come up with appropriate checks like that.

[Rfkannen]

Interesting question, there is no official awnser, but balance wise I would want it to be about on par with mold earth withought the versatility. So id let a player move about a 5 foot cube of dirt for round. (Seems consistant with produce flame and a match.



Realistically if I remember right it takes around a day to dig 6 feet, however i do not care for realism in my fantasy, the players are heroes and can dig faster than real world people

[Tanarii]

1 cubic yard, or 27 cubic feet, 3-4 hours
https://www.quora.com/How-many-hours-does-it-take-to-manually-excavate-1-cubic-meter-of-ground-for-footing

Edit: which means Mold Earth is 8 to 10 thousand times faster than using a shovel.

Edit2:


Realistically if I remember right it takes around a day to dig 6 feet, however i do not care for realism in my fantasy, the players are heroes and can dig faster than real world people
8000-10000x normal speed is a bit more than heroic. It's definitely magical. Or at least Demi-god like.

[Kobold_paladin?]

Thanks everyone! I know this question was random but I'm glad I got a few answers to help my d&d worlds come to life.
Even the details count.

[Greywander]

Based on some googling, one estimate is that it would take about 200 minutes, or over 3 hours, to excavate a 5 foot cube of earth with a shovel.

Dang, Mold Earth is really good.

The same estimate has a shovel holding 1/8 of a cubic foot, and assumes 5 shovelfuls a minute (i.e. one every two rounds).

Another estimate says that an experienced gravedigger could dig a 6 foot grave in 6 hours in optimum soil, but an average person would take 4 and a half days. According to another search, the standard grave size is 2.5 by 8 feet, so 120 cubic feet. For reference, a 5 foot cube is 125 cubic feet.

Another estimate gives 3 to 5 hours to dig a "5 foot deep" hole.

For D&D, the easiest thing to do might be to start with the 1/8 cubic foot of dirt you can get with one shovelful, then allow the character to get a number of shovelfuls equal to their STR mod in one round. For a STR mod of +0, it takes two rounds to get one shovelful, and for each -1 it takes one extra round (e.g. a character with a -3 STR mod would take 4 rounds to dig one shovelful).

For proficiency, you could add something like gravedigger's tools or landscaper's tools, and proficiency would double your rate of excavation.