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Shinizak
2009-09-12, 02:12 PM
I need some creative, fun traps that make the players think a bit, maybe a few traps that require a few rounds of work to deactivate. I want something that the party can interact with beyond: "I roll disable device, do I stop it? No? how badly do I die?"

Please post some traps.

Alavar
2009-09-12, 02:22 PM
I've always had an interesting idea for a peculiar trap, but I've never been able to pull it on my PC's. First, have an ethereal filcher or something steal any rope they have. Then, in a rather long hallway of a dungeon, have a "tripwire" made of rope in the hallway. When they cut the rope (probably because they need it for something you've designed ahead), the ceiling of the hallway starts collapsing. Make the numbers so that any dwarf/halfling/gnome can't quite make it before the ends close. Afterwards, the ceiling of the middle rises, not crushing them, and a Big Bad Monster comes out of a secret door in the middle, near the original place of the rope. If they need saving, the rest of the party has to go above the original hallway and defeat something of their own.

Melamoto
2009-09-12, 02:31 PM
Permanent Ice Assassin trap. Keep in mind that this has a pretty good mortality rate, and you'd be lucky if nobody died.

Animefunkmaster
2009-09-12, 02:35 PM
Trap of a major image of a massive ooze being summoned to block there path. I had three non magical PCs climbing the walls freaking out before someone made a save. Did the same thing 4 more times, and then in the 'boss' room it was real.

However it won't be of much good in a party with a caster.

Jack_Simth
2009-09-12, 02:36 PM
Combine with creatures.

1) There's a Mass Inflict X Wounds trap in the same room as a bunch of undead. You need to either kill the undead faster than they can be healed, or keep the rogue from getting killed by the undead while he disables the trap (you can do the same for golems and their healing spell).

2) There's a room that has a lot of ten-foot concealed pit traps in it. Slight problem: there's a caster sitting on his throne on the opposite end of the room. And he's got Wind Wall up. The traps are useful for nothing more than slowing down those trying to close.

Raum
2009-09-12, 03:31 PM
I need some creative, fun traps that make the players think a bit, maybe a few traps that require a few rounds of work to deactivate. I want something that the party can interact with beyond: "I roll disable device, do I stop it? No? how badly do I die?"

Please post some traps.To make traps interactive, make them visible.

Take a simple pit trap as an example - don't cover it or hide it, leave it as an obvious hole in the ground. Now the PCs have to figure out some way past it...do they jump? It looks long...how about balancing on the edge and walking past? Might fall...should we string a rope? That simple and obvious pit trap is a more interesting obstacle than simply rolling dice to find and disarm some hidden trap.

Other possibilities:
- The 'monkey's fist trap' - allegedly you can put something shiny in a hole you've drilled, add some nails angled towards the center of the hole, and a monkey will reach in to grab the shiny but be unable to pull his fist out past the nails. If he were willing to open his hand and drop the shiny, he'd be able to withdraw his hand. You can run this in various versions which replace nails (and the 'shiny') with other things to see if the PCs are smarter than monkeys. :smallbiggrin:
- Balance traps - balance something (archway, wall, ceiling, etc) in such a way it will collapse if you pull the 'keystone' out...then make the keystone something they want. A decent sized chunk of gold should do...particularly if it's magical. For bonus points, have some reason for not yanking it out from a distance and dropping the ceiling...perhaps it collapses the way out...
- Leave the trap hidden, but make it an actual trap...at a time when they need mobility. - Anything from a simple staked down bear trap to more complex punji traps (http://www.rogueturtle.com/articles/images/vcpunjii.gif). Damage is minimal, perhaps even nonexistent. But they're stuck until they can free themselves.
- Salted boats - trap a boat by drilling several holes in the hull then filling the holes with a combination of rocksalt and sawdust. Water will dissolve the salt which leaves any would be sailors with a rather dampening problem. In a modern campaign, you might make it even worse by putting sodium on top of the rocksalt. :smallwink:
- Chinese finger trap - Put it in front of a button set deeply into the wall...
- The doggy door - Just what it says, a small door adults will need to squirm through. Now put the exit halfway up a wall in a much larger room. Squirming through is easy, doing so without falling may be problematical. To make them squirm a bit more, make sure you describe the rusty spikes on the floor below them in loving detail...

Also, while none of the traps need magic as described (the best traps don't), you can make them more challenging with judicious additions of magical affects. Just remember, most traps are more fun when they're not hidden! :smallsmile:

For more on how to build traps, check out Bad Trap Syndrome (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/90/bad-trap-syndrome/) and Curing the Bad Trap Blues (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/91/bad-trap-syndrome-curing-the-bad-trap-blues/).

Tehnar
2009-09-12, 04:02 PM
Make traps with interactive elements in them. Lets say a room with swinging pendulum blades, gusts of winds knocking people into poisoned spikes, and with monsters shooting the PCs from cover.

You could have the pendulum blades be able to be disabled by the rogue jumping on one, climbing on it and getting to the mechanism and disabling it there. Or the barbarian could just sunder the blades. Or they could make a quick run for it through them.

Make traps so the entire party can participate. Try making traps so usage of jump, climb, balance, STR checks is rewarded.

TheThan
2009-09-12, 05:03 PM
*Rubs hands Maniacally*

Rolling bolder trap:
Borrowed from Indiana Jones, this trap drops a massive bolder on them and chases them through the dungeon. Its classic and probably something they will remember. Kudos of they have to run through other traps they have already bypassed.

Collapsing ceiling trap:
Another one borrowed from Indiana Jones, this one is a good-sized room (say 20x20), when triggered, the doors seal and the ceiling starts to slowly lower, threatening to crush them. For added effect make spikes pop out of the floor and ceiling.

Drowning trap:
The pcs falls onto a chute that promptly deposits them into an empty room. A moment later the room starts to slowly fill with water, sand, poisonous or explosive gas or anything else you can think of that can “drown” the pcs.

The jumping puzzle:
More of a puzzle than a trap, the pcs come to a seemingly impassible precipice. However there are several floating disks, rocky columns protruding form the bottom etc. The pcs must try to leap across the spaces to get to the other side. Please note that fly, dimension door and other such movement spells ruin this one.


The big red button:
Another puzzle, this one consists of four things; a mostly empty room, A big red button on a pedestal, an ordinary unlocked door and the player’s own paranoia. Hitting the button does nothing at all, but the pcs won’t know that. They will assume that hitting the button does something, and they may stay there and puzzle over what to do about it. Eventually someone will try the door, and find out that the button does nothing. The trick to this one is to simply stall them and waste their time. It should prove an annoyance.

Walk on the left side:
This is borrowed from an old fantasy film called “lady Hawk”. It’s a simple wooden bridge crossing a chasm/fast moving water/something the pcs won’t want to fall into. They should get some sort of information telling them which side they should walk on (a short riddle works good here). One section of the bridge has been weakened, and any appreciable amount of weight will make the bridge collapse. The pcs will have to figure out which side of the bridge to walk on to safely cross the hazard. If they walk on the wrong side, they fall into the hazard.

The stepping stones trap:
Another one I borrowed from a movie. This one entails a pit of nasty acid or lava, and a series of stepping stones that allow the heroes to skip across safely. One of the stones should be marked (but not too obviously). When that stone is stepped on, the whole section of stones collapses into the lava/acid etc. You can amp this up a notch by having the marked stone a “bate” stone, and set the trap trigger on one of the stones surrounding it. So if they try to avoid the marked stone, they may very well fall into it anyway.

I'll have more for you later.
Muahahaha

jseah
2009-09-12, 10:44 PM
There's two splatbooks for these things.

Traps & Treachery, Traps & Treachery 2

They have some very nice ones, some very ingenious but impractical ones, and some that your players won't mind experiencing the full brunt of just to see how it works. (and then swipe it for themselves and use it on their enemies)

EDIT: my favourite is the double pit. An open pit trap in a corridor with a concealed pit behind it. They jump over the first and into the second.

Draz74
2009-09-13, 01:36 AM
EDIT: my favourite is the double pit. An open pit trap in a corridor with a concealed pit behind it. They jump over the first and into the second.

Nice, but I favor a slightly different version:

An obvious open pit in a dim corridor. And a taut piano wire stretched across the pit at about neck-level.

jseah
2009-09-13, 03:41 AM
There's also the irritating "for laughs" one.

A normal, open pit in a corridor. Appears to be nothing special. No ledges on the side though.

However, the far side is a wall, painted to look as if the corridor continued on a bit before turning.

They jump across and slam smack into the other side.

ericgrau
2009-09-13, 12:29 PM
Take the standard DMG traps, think of how they actually work and then allow disable device only as appropriate.

DM: "You find a pit covered with a weak stone tile."
PC: "I disable it."
DM: "Unless you have some bricks, mortar and a lot of time, no way dude. Just go around."

DM: "You find holes for poison arrow darts. The proximity sensor is over there."
PC: "I disable it."
DM: "Um, which part?"
PC: "The whole thing, so the sensor won't activate it."
DM: "Your character is not dumb enough to get near the proximity sensor. Would you like to take a few minutes to jam the triggering mechanism in each hole?"
PC: "Nah, takes too long and too risky. We're in a hurry. I'll just jam a piton in each hole."
DM: "Ok, no need to roll the disable device then. Mark off the pitons."

Eventually PCs will figure out that they usually can't just say "I disable it." Also, about 1/3 of traps can be found by non-rogues (search DC 20), regardless of CR. Like the piton trick, any player might also come up with crude solutions without rolling a check.

Zaq
2009-09-13, 09:45 PM
Take the standard DMG traps, think of how they actually work and then allow disable device only as appropriate.

DM: "You find a pit covered with a weak stone tile."
PC: "I disable it."
DM: "Unless you have some bricks, mortar and a lot of time, no way dude. Just go around."

DM: "You find holes for poison arrow darts. The proximity sensor is over there."
PC: "I disable it."
DM: "Um, which part?"
PC: "The whole thing, so the sensor won't activate it."
DM: "Your character is not dumb enough to get near the proximity sensor. Would you like to take a few minutes to jam the triggering mechanism in each hole?"
PC: "Nah, takes too long and too risky. We're in a hurry. I'll just jam a piton in each hole."
DM: "Ok, no need to roll the disable device then. Mark off the pitons."

Eventually PCs will figure out that they usually can't just say "I disable it." Also, about 1/3 of traps can be found by non-rogues (search DC 20), regardless of CR. Like the piton trick, any player might also come up with crude solutions without rolling a check.

:confused:

So... why would a player of yours even bother taking Disable Device? Why not just tell them ahead of time "oh, by the way, I don't allow Disable Device to do anything" so they don't waste points on it?

sofawall
2009-09-13, 09:50 PM
Take the standard DMG traps, think of how they actually work and then allow disable device only as appropriate.

DM: "You find a pit covered with a weak stone tile."
PC: "I disable it."
DM: "Unless you have some bricks, mortar and a lot of time, no way dude. Just go around."

DM: "You find holes for poison arrow darts. The proximity sensor is over there."
PC: "I disable it."
DM: "Um, which part?"
PC: "The whole thing, so the sensor won't activate it."
DM: "Your character is not dumb enough to get near the proximity sensor. Would you like to take a few minutes to jam the triggering mechanism in each hole?"
PC: "Nah, takes too long and too risky. We're in a hurry. I'll just jam a piton in each hole."
DM: "Ok, no need to roll the disable device then. Mark off the pitons."

Eventually PCs will figure out that they usually can't just say "I disable it." Also, about 1/3 of traps can be found by non-rogues (search DC 20), regardless of CR. Like the piton trick, any player might also come up with crude solutions without rolling a check.

Are you one of those people who also make Bards actually talk well out of character, and Imtimirage Barbarians actually have a terrifying roar, and wizards using spellcraft memorize spell componants so when you say "the enemy wizard is waving his arms and tossing bat guano!" he knows it's a fireball?

Because those are all exactly the same as forcing players to describe how they're disabling the device. You are making them use player knowledge instead of character knowledge. No matter how good you are at storytelling, the players will never have as good a view as the characters, and the players, no matter how skilled, will never be as good as the PCs past level, oh, 3.

RandomNPC
2009-09-13, 10:17 PM
from dragon mountain a 2nd edition modual.

30 foot deep, 10 foot wide pit trap, spikes for 1d6 at the bottom. No edge, so its jump, spider climb, fly, or something simmilar.

In the space of the ten by ten hole in the floor there's a reverse gravity spell that sends the characters up the real 70 foot pit trap in the roof to 1d8 spikes.

in my game after the two jumpers fell up the mage disspelled it and made them fall all the way back down.

Mooch
2009-09-13, 10:26 PM
for an evil twist on the indiana jones ball have the boulder cast flesh to stone at a high DC on touch, then after they are a statue the boulder crushes the PCs to dust

Dragon Elite
2009-09-13, 10:26 PM
ILLUSIONS!!!!!

Seriously, this works.

quick_comment
2009-09-13, 10:27 PM
The best trap is having no traps, but asking for spot checks every so often. Maybe ask for will saves and such, and just smile and make some notes.

Raum
2009-09-13, 10:35 PM
:confused:

So... why would a player of yours even bother taking Disable Device? Why not just tell them ahead of time "oh, by the way, I don't allow Disable Device to do anything" so they don't waste points on it?
Are you one of those people who also make Bards actually talk well out of character, and Imtimirage Barbarians actually have a terrifying roar, and wizards using spellcraft memorize spell componants so when you say "the enemy wizard is waving his arms and tossing bat guano!" he knows it's a fireball?

Because those are all exactly the same as forcing players to describe how they're disabling the device. You are making them use player knowledge instead of character knowledge. No matter how good you are at storytelling, the players will never have as good a view as the characters, and the players, no matter how skilled, will never be as good as the PCs past level, oh, 3.Do you realize the OP asked for something beyond rolling a die?

IthilanorStPete
2009-09-13, 11:17 PM
Give them options - don't just lock the doors and flood the room, leave one door open for them to frantically rush through when water starts pouring in. Then put an Enlarged Dwarven Defender behind a dispelling screen halfway down the hallway. :)
-Not quite a trap in the strictest sense, but use Project Image if there's an enemy caster of high enough level. Good way to wear the PC's out and misdirect them.

woodenbandman
2009-09-13, 11:26 PM
Traps themselves shouldn't do all that much damage. There are a few things traps do that other things can't do as well.

1: Move people. At low levels, a pit can lead to another room. At high levels, an Arcane Sight activated Dispel Magic trap can shoot down flying mages, making them vulnerable to ground fire. Reverse Gravity, Teleport, etc. All these things can move pesky players to where a monster would want.

2: Create a hazard: There's a scything blade matrix in the wall. 5 blades activate every round. A monster can be killed, and difficult terrain can be traversed. How do you get past this? Most players instinctively will avoid it. Again, at high levels, when teleportation is common, it should also be anticipated. If your evil wizard trapped his lair with scythes, he probably hit it with some dimensional anchors and/or astral/ethereal encounters as well.

3: Demonstrate Importance: Decorations are cheap. When the decorations start hurting you, you know that the place is important.

For suggestions on making traps interesting:

1: Don't allow them to be detected. Remember, you can only find the trigger if there actually IS a trigger. It could be triggered by Arcane Sight from 120 feet away, or a monster flipping a switch. Sometimes it's appropriate to find it, like a pit trap or a pressure plate. Sometimes, if you want an interesting trap, it's not appropriate to detect it with a simple roll.

Alternately, don't leave the disarm location within easy reach. Have multiple triggers. Sure, you find one pressure plate, think you're safe. Maybe there are 2 pressure plates. Maybe the room is a huge pressure plate. And to disarm it, you need to climb the wall. where arrows are shooting out of. This changes from search, disable device to "okay, you found it. It's up there. Roll climb. Uh huh. You get shot, make a climb check to stay on the wall. Anyone else want to help him?"

I recommend checking out Dungeonscape, which is written by our own Giant Rich Burlew and a fantastic piece of literature.

2: Give clear indicators of traps. If you're making a trap undetectable by rolling, you should probably have some indicator that it's trapped. A statue is an obvious cue. Remains of dead things is good too. Then again, sometimes it should be truly unexpected. Also remember that a trap with a manual trigger can be detected if you're standing next to the area where the trap activates (though at that point it's a bit late).

3: Long duration, little damage, big payoff. A 1 shot trap is a sucker punch to the face. Nobody gets mad or excited about that. Make a trap a long running one. Have arrows shoot out every round, and chip away at the PCs. Do they run? Crawl through under their tower shield? Try to disable it? A pit trap is an example of this too, if you put monsters or passageways at the bottom. Make sure that there's more to the trap than just "roll disable device."

Jair Barik
2009-09-14, 02:07 AM
:confused:

So... why would a player of yours even bother taking Disable Device? Why not just tell them ahead of time "oh, by the way, I don't allow Disable Device to do anything" so they don't waste points on it?

Because you mix things up. Some of your traps can be defeated with a simple disable device check others can't, this is actually good DMing. Examples of ones disabled by a simple disable device could be... jamming the mechanism that causes the blades to swing out when the door is opened (less experienced people may set it off trying another method), breaking the clasp on a dungeon trapdoor so the pit can't open, magical traps fullstop. But at the same time you want traps that make the players thnik, that are more likely to go off and that incorporate people other than the rogue. Why go through the effort of creative traps if they never go off? Good examples for traps that aren't traps are alternatives of the pitfall generally involving unsteady floors and leaf covered pits
"I disable the trap"
DM-"You have succesfully removed the leaves from on top of the pit, it is no longer a trap just a very big hole"
If you make everything done by a simple diceroll the game can get boring and characters may feel left out. You don't want it to lead to situations like this
DM-"You step on the first tile and swinging blades go off down the length of the hallway, you can see a switch at the other end of the hall
Barbarian-"Quick we need to catch the evil villain, I can run down the hallway and pull the switch, it might isable the traps!"
Rogue-"Nah I'll just take 10 and we can waltz down the passage"
Cleric-"What if the other tiles are trapped too?"
Rogue-"I'll take 10 on them as well then"
Barbarian-"But he just insulted us and threatened our families! We need to stop him!"

In this example disable device gets in the way of good roleplaying. The rogue intends to do his stuff a bit at a time when clearly the barbarian could run down the hall, dodge a few traps and soak up the rest of the damage so they can get to the dramatic finale. The other reasonable alternative is the players work as a team, smashing traps one at a time but moving steadily down the hall. The rogue has had his moment on earlier traps the DM should encourage traps to be overcome through alternate methods (even if a DD check can be made)

jiriku
2009-09-14, 12:49 PM
If you can find them, any of the Grimtooth series of trap books is JUST what the doctor ordered. They are truly diabolical.

The best interactive traps are multi-stage traps that anticipate the player's likely reaction to the first trap, and traps that MUST be triggered in order to advance.

For example, one of the traps in Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom is a two-stage trap might consisting of a large room jam-packed with pointy crystalline statues mounted on pistons. When players reach the middle of the room, a trigger causes all the statues to rotate forcefully on their pistons, shattering against each other and slashing the heck out of anyone in the room. Players are likely to defeat this trap by smashing the statues, but this merely primes the second stage of the trap. The second stage, activated by a second trigger near the exit, collapses the floor, dropping the players and any broken crystal into a giant cylindrical drum which slams shut above them and then begins to rotate (powered by an underground river). Players are now treated to the experience of being inside a gem polisher as the tumbling action grinds them against all of the broken crystal.

Another good example of a multi-stage trap from Grimtooth is a room with one glass wall opening onto an underground lake. Attempting to loot a dummy chest in the room causes half the room to drop down on a hinge until it's tilted over sideways (falling damage for players), break the glass so the room is open to the underground lake (drowning time), while a heavy crystalline wall drops down to shield the undropped half of the room from the rising water. Players in the safe zone can break the crystalline wall to rescue their friends from drowning, but doing so lets the water in to their area, and now everyone is soon to drown. And did I mention the underwater predators from the underground lake? Yeah. The second stage of the trap activates when the players realize that the only exit from the room is via a trapdoor in the ceiling, which opens to reveal a crank-down spiral staircase. The weight of any character on the staircase causes it to crank down into the room, allowing quick exit from the room. However, the central cylinder of the spiral staircase is filled with a heavier-than air poison gas, and the act of lowering down the spiral staircase releases the gas into the room.

Multi-stage traps like these are barrels of fun for you as a DM, and will teach your players to fear you like the sexy barefoot god of war that you are. Again, the Grimtooth books are full of win.

Sipex
2009-09-14, 01:12 PM
Traps which have their own initiative or act over time.

8 sets of flame jets down a narrow hallway which fire at random every round or fire to a pattern. It starts going off as soon as the players enter the area so they can see the flames up ahead and have to figure out how to get past it.

Also, the control panel is on the far side.

Do the same thing with pendulum blades. Hey, throw an encounter in the middle of it so your pcs are ducking flames and stabbing monsters who are doing the same.