Considering combat eventually grows old, I've been toying with the idea of throwing the PCs into a dungeon made almost entirely of traps. They can't just be detectable traps, because a campaign where all they do is walk behind their rogue. I've got a few ideas, but I need some stuff that an entire group would have to deal with. I'd also like some ideas for some good traps that a thief can detect and disarm. Just throw out any ideas you have.
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Brilliant Trap Ideas
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 Ludovico |
Brilliant Trap Ideas |
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Posts: 484 (12/07/02 17:16:02) |
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Conlee of Eoin |
Re: Brilliant Trap Ideas | ||
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Posts: 196 (12/07/02 17:47:16) Young Dragon |
Not so much a trap as a secret door/trap, but here goes nothing:
An intricale wall carving of a scorpion. Activated by pressing the stinger. When it's pressed, two things happen: 1. A poison needle flicks out from the tail to sting the person that activated it. Any poison will do, just pick one. I like this because scorpions really do have poison tails. It would seem obvious, but I've used this in 2 campaigns and neither time have the PCs predicted it. 2. The panel of the wall containing the door opens up, revealing the next part of the dungeon. |
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ArchmagusXar |
Re: Brilliant Trap Ideas | ||
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Posts: 98 (12/07/02 18:14:17) |
I have a trap that seems to be incredibly nasty. I call it the "Room of Orbs." The room is one vast, open cavern with open space all around, even beneath you. There is but one bridge, five feet wide, that leads across to the opposite doorway. Also in the room are hundreds of foot-wide chrome orbs. They are suspended in the air as if by levitation, and they do not move. These orbs are everywhere, including over some areas of the bridge. Now, if a character crossing the bridge so much as brushes against one of the orbs, it detonates, sending a shower of razor sharp shards in all directions. Now the brilliance: many of these shards will hit another orb, detonating it. The chain reaction that is caused is enough to kill just about anyone. The orbs generally deal a grand total of about 10d10 damage to anyone in the room. To make it across the bridge without hitting an orb, each character has to make a Reflex save (DC of your choice). The only thing is, if one guy blows them all up, then everyone else is safe to cross. But, that one guy will be in a world of hurt.
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Conlee of Eoin |
Re: Brilliant Trap Ideas | ||
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Posts: 196 (12/07/02 18:30:55) Young Dragon |
Another one I just remembered:
PC steps on a panel, causing walls to slam down on either side, creating a small room. The room starts to fill with water. Successful spot check reveals a small hole (maybe as big around as a quarter) in an otherwise smooth room. It's on the ceiling. A character who freaks out will drown in his armor, but any character thinking coolly will strip down, allow the water to float him up to ceiling level, and press the button in the roof. The water then releases, walls retract, and party can continue. Hardly ingenious, but I've had fun with it as PCs try to figure out what to do. |
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xayma(d) |
Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 2 (12/07/02 18:31:00) |
Any trap that requires teamwork will generally be a good idea, things like walls crushing in witht he only escape 20 feet in the air, also anything that makes them abadon all but their essential gear is good, such as a fast filling room with water.
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darken |
Re: Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 7848 (12/07/02 18:40:53) Rules Lawyer, Esq. |
I have a trap I call "Thieves' Bane". It has Spot DC 1, Search DC 0, Disable Device DC 0, for the "apparent trap". The real trap is hard to notice as it exists within the apparent trap. (Who's actually gonna say, "I search for traps on the trap!"?) The real trap can have DC depend on the party level and the DM, with 2 triggers that can spring it:
1, When people trigger the apparent trap. (Normal) 2, When anyone attempt to disable the apparent trap. The save is also different. When people attempt to reflex save against it, it's a DC 5 reflex save negate; however, it's enhanced magically to create an illusion that shows the opposite of reality. That is, when you dodge away, you are actually leaping into fray. Therefore if your save is successful, you actually suffer the full effect, and vise versa. The result of the trap also depends on the DM. darken Light, is the lack of darkness. |
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Flyingdebris |
Re: Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 4590 (12/07/02 22:11:34) |
This is pretty psychological and fun to do to your players. Set up circumstances in a room (such as another trap) to cause desperation and the will to get the hell out. have a fist sized hole on a wall as the only noticable feature of the room. have it be a hole that is a foot deep with darkness permenently cast within it. A little trap I like to call "3 fingered larry" Every player worth his salt will not want to stick his PC's hand in a hole. Other PCs will think, naw our DM isn't that evil. just for kicks put 2 holes. Have some unknown inscriptions over each one, nothing that any character can read. The players will spend precious time guessing which hole is correct (they both are) they'll shove an arm inside maybe inside each one. You then tell them they hear multiple sharp chopping noises, wetness, and lack of feeling in your arm preceded by intense pain(s if they put each arm into each hole)
when they pull their arms out they see bleeding stumps up to their elbow, then a door opens. Then the remains of their arms are sprayed nonelegantly on to the floor through the holes. They can escape through that door, after a while of watching the amputee player scream for a while, begin to clue him in that its really an illusion, but make it subtle, make the image/feeling of having stumps wear off after a few minutes.        PH34r /\/\y 1337 tr00p |
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Ludovico |
Re: Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 484 (12/07/02 22:43:56) |
that's a nice trap, but I'm not about to go so easy on them as to make it an illusion. Besides, smart use of a 10-foot-pole could save their hands, and anybody stupid enough to not use that deserves to lose both their arms.
As for the trap within a trap idea, I've been thinking about doing a layered trap. something like: Layered Trap: Search DC: 25(30)[35] Disarm DC: 25(30)[35] Description: There are several traps on this door, each layered within the other. The players can attempt to disarm each individual trap, but only one after the other. Should they fail to find/disarm one trap, every trap that hasn't been successfully disarmed is sprung. The repercussions are as follows: Explosion trap (poison gas trap) [some other wide range trap] |
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WanderingMind |
Re: Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 1900 (12/08/02 00:10:57) |
There are alot of traps that can use Animate Objects.
A Trap that triggers Animate Objects on a Statue. Poor man's Golem. It looks like a Boulder Trap that has already been tripped because the boulder is at the bottom of the ramp. Animate objects on the Boulder. Start running UP the ramp and did anybody take the Endurance feat because with it's wheeled equivalent speed of 60 you better not slow down? "Smoosh!" the boulder rolls over everyone. The spell expires or it reaches the top of the ramp but now the boulder starts rolling back down. Run away again... Animate Objects on a vertical lift that carries passengers equipment and ore down a mineshaft. It works as an elevator but it can also act as a trap. With a command it can be set to just squash everything that climbs in, and then drop the remains down the shaft. Animate Objects is pretty poweful magic and characters that can expect to face that level of challenge are going to be able to deal with those traps as often as not. For lower level traps especially non magical ones, I like things that require skill checks. Balance check problems like a log bridge that is set to suddenly roll. Climb check problems like a ladder with a few rungs that are bundles of thistle stalks. Hands without gloves are barely injured but the stalks just crumple if they are put under 50 lb's of weight. You have to make an extra climb check with a penalty to hang on. Legbreaker traps that made to injure horses and throw any riders that fail a ride check. Digging a whole pit trap is a lot of work and the pit is likely to be obvious. A Hole big enough for a leg to get broken in is much easier to dig and to camoflage. An area where an easy 5 foot jump is necessary to cross a fast moving stream except the landing area has been dug out underwater. The landing are is just some mosscovered springy roots that try to bounce you into the water. Jumping 10 feet would put a character on solid ground instead of the hanging bank of roots, or else tumble and swim checks could be necessary. Use of dangerous creatures, and goods. Vipers or monstrous vermin hidden in a treasure chest. A Bag full of coins and in the bag with them a flask of alchemist fire and a couple of thunderstones. Characters take the bag thinking it's all treasure, just some Coins and Mundane Items. A hard hit like dropping the bag on the ground and coins and alchemists fire could end up everywhere. This is more of a nuisance hazard. Suffocation or Drowning Smoke chambers. Chambers that are part of the flue path for a fireplace on a level below, and once somebody enters the chamber they can be locked in by guards. Burn some noxious substances on the fire down below and that room is a bad place to be. Flood Chambers Where a Dam is closed downstream or a Dam is opened Upstream. A Very Deadly Trap? Black Pudding in the bottom of a Pit trap. Getting people to fall in is the trick. Run!!!
Just kidding. |
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Ludovico |
Re: Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 484 (12/08/02 14:24:36) |
okay, these are some good ideas for traps, but I need some group-affecting riddles. Not just things that they either see or don't see, but stuff that they have to figure out before they can advance... preferably extremely dangerous, deadly riddles.
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TallManTim |
Re: Teamwork | ||
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Posts: 254 (12/08/02 16:07:59) |
I had an ancient priest really keen on chess. As such, to progress through to the burial chamber, they had to pass through a set of chess related puzzle rooms.
There was a subtle hint earlier in the game that he played chess. Room 1: 40x50 foot room. 40x40 in the middle are five foot squares, coloured blue and red (or any colour for that matter, as long as they alternate). The players may enter the "board" anywhere, but have to follow the rules of movement for the piece they enter onto the starting position of (so - if they enter into either of the middle two places, they can walk freely across the board). If they move incorrectly for the piece, the first time they take 1d6, then 2d6 and so on. If they enter where someone else already started, they take 3d6 damage and are pushed back to the boundry. There is nothing to stop people spider climbing across, however, at least one person needs to cross to open the doors on the other side. Room 2: A room with a pedestal and a chess board on top. For this you need a real chess board. There are eight different coloured queens and an inscription: Eight Queens of the Eight domains War without cease With careful planning you must bring An everlasting peace. What should be obvious to the players is that they have to put all the queens on the board, without any of them intersecting another. When all eight Queens are placed on the board, if any intersect, a fireball is created that does 1d6 damage for every intersection. This is where the board comes into play - announce it as "this is the board you see". If they then do trial and error on the board, they will cause the fireball. They can work it out on paper (or simply not place the final piece). Room 3: A room looking like room1, but with chess pieces set up for a game. Black is on the side of the players. A magic mouth utters: The clock will tick Ten minutes and consternation Play the game quick Or face the transformation. Following this, white moves. The DM plays white, and the players play black. Either use a chess clock, or someone with a stopwatch to keep track of the players thinking time. Should 10 minutes be up, or black loses at any time, the remaining white pieces transform into humans and attack. If the players win, the white pieces fall to dust. I gave the players a surprise round to act while the pieces where transforming. The pieces were: King: 8th level Wizard Queen: 8th level Sorceress Bishops: 6th level Clerics Knights: 6th level Fighters Rooks: 7th level Barbarians Pawns: 3rd level fighters How it panned out with my group: Room 1: They figured this out and everyone got across without mishap. Room 2: It took a while for them to figure this out (about 1/2 and hour). They did not want any hints however. I screwed up here and left my chess board at home. Room 3: I thought that someone in the group might be OK with chess, but I trounced them in a few minutes losing just 3 pawns and a bishop. They made up for this by targeting the king and queen in the surprise round and when they got initiative, blasting them out of existence. The fighting folk all ran forward and attacked the players, the cleric (bishop) hung back. He blasted one player with contagion and another with searing light. The rogue was beaten up on a little from entering into melee, so he crawled up the wall and started taking potshots at the cleric with his bow. As the cleric could now clearly see him, he did searing light at him too, and killed him (PC darwinism at its best...) |
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Gildal |
traps | ||
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Posts: 174 (12/08/02 17:16:37) |
My favorite trick to pull is the baby rust monster in the treasure chest. This especially prevents warriors from busting open chests.
Plus, it gives them an incentive to have the wizard check out the chest too, maybe with a knowledge (arcana) if you are into magical traps. |
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Ludovico |
Re: traps | ||
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Posts: 484 (12/08/02 17:47:36) |
You don't know how aggravating it is for you to suggest chess as a trap/riddle. First off, one of my players is a 2000 rated chess player. Second, I've had to kick him out of campaigns before because he'll wander off and start playing chess, then everybody else just gives up and we waste entire evenings with that nonsense. Third and finally, I hate chess. Hate, hate, hate chess.
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TallManTim |
Re: traps | ||
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Posts: 254 (12/08/02 18:27:23) |
Quote: Uhhhh... perhaps you shouldn't put chess puzzles in there then... it's OK, calm down. Here, have these [Tim brandishes some serapax, lithium, prozac and viagra to be sure] I promise I won't mention chess again ;-) |
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NestroEmichae |
An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 546 (12/08/02 20:14:39) |
This was first done to me by another DM, and I have used it ever since. The trap I'm suggesting is the second one, but I want to give the one I got the idea from as well.
The original trap: When you enter the room, you see a block of the ceiling has iron spikes pointing at the floor and is just in front of the other door. Anyone who steps beneath it triggers a pit trap (100 ft. drop) and the ceiling block with spikes, which weighs 600 lbs. and is ten feet above the floor, drops at the same time. If they fail their dex checks, they die. If they make their dex checks, the block severs their fingers and forces them to fall to the bottom of the pit, where they die. The block is the perfect shape to fit into the pit. You can make the pit as big as you want. DC of 45 to disarm, DC of 5 to spot the block, DC of 40 to spot the pit. You should make it so that they can jump over it and a weight less than 50 lbs. doesn't set it off. My version: This uses the above, only with a few variations. First, the ceiling tile is replaced with the entire ceiling. Second, the area of the pit is the entire floor and has spikes at the bottom. Finally, fill the walls with arrow traps, spear traps, Greater Glyphs of Warding, a special Summon Monsters spell that summons a great red wyrm, and have it set up so that all of them go off at the same time, which is when people reach the half-way point of the room. To make the above even more hideous, you should trap the door leading into the room and put a lever beside the door that, when pulled, turns off that trap and activates this one. Give it a DC of 25 to spot and make it disarmable only by pulling the lever. The first one killed a fighter in one hit, and the second one wiped out an entire party (five people) of 20th-level characters in one blow. |
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TallManTim |
Re: An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 254 (12/08/02 20:40:20) |
Quote: The first one sounds interesting, as people can easily see what is there, and if you're going to go around standing under spiked masses hanging from the ceiling, you deserve what you get. This makes it a fun trap for all involved. How did the party react to the second one however? Having the entire party fall into a trap that was pretty much unstoppable when started sounds like an un-fun DM creation (although I imagine you, the DM, enjoyed yourself ;-). |
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DarkEmperor040 |
Re: An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 468 (12/08/02 21:58:50) |
i like that chess trap really really well, all my players like to play and are decent at it, would give them something different to do....dont mind if i *yoink* borrow this do you?
*runs out door* http://www.rathergood.com/vikings/
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tom3e |
Re: An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 2665 (12/08/02 21:58:58) |
Do you guys ever get the feeling that Nestro is just messing with all of us and sitting back in his big computer chair, laughing like a crazy man when we all have a cow about how crazy his creations are? From the last couple of things I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised.
On the note of traps, I think the most important thing for any trap is to warn the characters. If they have no clue a trap is coming, then there's no fun in it. They just walk into it, die or don't die, make their saves or not, and then go on. Or, even worse, they start searching every square they enter. You have to be very careful with traps to use them without killing the pace of your game. Tom/sjbigred/tom3e - Signing Out
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MerricB |
Re: An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 3143 (12/08/02 22:43:35) The Killer DM |
Traps should exist to break up the monotony of slaying monsters and gathering treasure.
Far more interesting than traps are tricks, things that aren't precisely to kill the players, but to make them think. Cheers! Merric, the Dreamer-Minstrel
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." -- Douglas Adams" |
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TallManTim |
Re: An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 254 (12/08/02 22:51:12) |
Quote: I'd agree. On that note, a trap that I'm planning to put into a game some time soon should be fun along those lines... Have it spring paralysis onto the player opening the chest, then invisibility onto the player and the chest. Hopefully the rest of the group will wonder where it's gone to and go off in search of him. A few minutes later, he'll come out of paralysis and start looking for his comrades. Quote: Not at all. Which part were you interested in? Or are you going to use all of them? |
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DarkEmperor040 |
Re: An interesting trap. | ||
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Posts: 468 (12/09/02 14:25:06) |
all of it, hehehe. i've got it all layed out, and should prove very interesting to see how they go about doin it. also it makes the rogue in our group practice some trap work, which he's never come across and could make him take some skill points in that....hehehe
also will break up the pace of kill, sleep, kill, get robbed, kill, sleep, hehehe http://www.rathergood.com/vikings/
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