Knock Wakes the House
Knock is a Tier 1 wizard spell with a casting DC of 11. Land the check and a single lock, latch, or bar within Near range springs open with no roll against the object itself. That is the clean part. The catch sits in the description: the spell produces a loud noise, and loud in Shadowdark means the wandering monster check you make every hour just got easier to justify.
Players treat Knock as the silent skeleton key. It is the opposite. A Thief picking a lock at least fails quietly. Knock succeeds at volume. Casting it against a dungeon door two rooms from a guard post is not stealth, it is a dinner bell. The spell earns its slot when subtlety is already gone or was never the plan.
The correct use is aggressive. Blown cover, a chase, a barred door between the party and escape: that is Knock’s moment. As a lock solver in a quiet corridor, it trades one problem for a worse one.
At the table: When a player casts Knock in a populated area, roll the wandering monster check immediately instead of waiting for the hour mark, and have the nearest listeners move toward the sound.
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