Arcane Lock says that it increases the DC of checks to break the object or pick any of its locks by 10. However, there is no listed increase in the object's AC or HP.
Does this mean that a character making an attack against an Arcane Locked object bypasses the spell's protection, because the object's AC is unchanged?
Best Answer
RAW, yes, because making an attack specifically opposes AC, not DC.
Arcane lock specifically changes "the DC to break it or pick it," not the object's Armor Class. (AC would be implied by an attempt to damage the object, rather than to break it).
That said, in the DMG's section on Objects (pp. 246-7) an object's Armor Class is described as "how difficult it is to deal damage to the object when striking it." So there's definitely leeway for a GM to read an object's AC as a sort of DC. But that's not RAW.