Two Part Traps

[Beelzebub1111]

I'm looking for examples of traps that have two parts, Like the Pit trap filled with a Centipede swarm, or the Hold Person/catapult trap. Something that will make players go "Ah crap...OH SHI-"

[Kalrik]

Eh, two part traps are so so. Pit trap with acid and spikes is kinda lame. I prefer the traps that are armed or triggered when the PC successfully disarms the origional trap.

My all time favorite trap system was the predetermined death trap. The first room of the dungeon or what ever is a room full of wall hangings...one for each of your PC's. Depicted on each of the wall hangings are very good likenesses of the PC's dieing terrible deaths to specific traps near precise landmarks. Example: The fighter gets smashed between two gold spiked disks that are on either side of a stylized door. The party wizard is being disloved in a vat of acid that was hidden under a bridge that the party has to cross, a part of the bridge is missing.

So, when the party gets to the stylized doors or the bridge room with the acid vat they will focus so much on what was on the wall hangings that they don't notice the giant scorpions coming down from the cealing, or the rogue focuses on the disks, but not on the door or any number of other trapped things that he/she can bumble into.

You will enjoy every dirty look you give your players...especially when they catch on to the trick and the last two wall hangings were dipicting the actual trap. :smallamused:

[Drogorn]

Well, boulder trap + pit trap could be fun.

PCs trigger boulder trap, have to run away, then a pit trap opens under them and the boulder falls in on top of them.

[Xefas]

The classic Tomb of Horrors "Sphere of Annihilation in the Statue's Mouth" trap, but you add a second part for a little extra pizazz. After they inevitably stick their hand into the mouth, and die instantly with no save, the statue then casts a contingent instant-duration version of True Resurrection as an immediate action, restoring them to life in the same position as they were when they died. With their hand once again in the Sphere of Annihilation, they die a second time with no save.

So they get to die twice in one round. And really, isn't that the true ambition of every trapmaker? Every trap in Hedonism Bot's palace would be like that.

[devinkowalczyk]

Water trap (walls come up and fills with water) creates a nice barrier in the hallway.
Water traps filling with sewage that also reflect any magic back on the user are interesting.
(disease, no magic, fun times!)

electric rod with reflecting mirros makes sure you always hit (and cant find the exit)

rooms with electric wiring (exposed) makes certain paths very dangerous. the double part is the electric elemental who can move freely along any of the tracks

[mobdrazhar]

it's more than a 2 part trap but there is always....

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0036.html

[Vangor]

So, when the party gets to the stylized doors or the bridge room with the acid vat they will focus so much on what was on the wall hangings that they don't notice the giant scorpions coming down from the cealing, or the rogue focuses on the disks, but not on the door or any number of other trapped things that he/she can bumble into.

No one knows what triggers the supposed mechanism. Especially with a rogue, what is with the extreme tunnel-vision? If under a time constraint I would try to trigger the trap not instantly found in a round by the rogue, possibly becoming confident a couple in with the assumption the last one or two will have redundancies (because no one actually tries to give outsiders clues on how to bypass traps and wards). Other than this, I don't see how giant scorpions descending from the ceiling can catch anyone but a campy adventuring group in a fable.

[Beelzebub1111]

I was thinking things more along the lines of koboldish. Less Magical, more Tricky

[W3bDragon]

Last session, the PCs created their own little two part trap for themselves to trigger.

The area there were in had 4 traps. In the middle was a secret door that led to a control room where all the traps could be armed/disarmed. 3 of the traps were armed, one was disarmed. They missed the secret door, triggered all 3 of the active traps, then found the control room, fiddled with the levers, which kept zapping them if the did so incorrectly, until they managed to do something right with the levers (as in, arming the 4th trap). Then they got fed up with the control room and walked into the 4th trap.

Moral of the story: Cover an area in traps, some armed, some not. Give the PCs access to a control room to arm/disarm without labeling anything. Watch them randomly guess and put themselves through more traps than they would have had they not found those levers.

[BobVosh]

I like pointless traps. These work especially well if you can link them to a prop. I think I stole this from...return to castle greyhawk? However basically you walk into a room with a bunch of doors. All of them shut after the party/person is in the room and a hour glass (well, actually 5 minute glass) in the middle of the room turns over. All the doors are irrevocably held shut by magic far beyond the casters capability to break. You can turn over the hour glass to extend the time.

The doors will unlock once they let it run out. :D

[Thiyr]

I'm feeling some minecraft-inspired shenanigans right now. Namely, the one-way door, and the decoy house traps.

One way door: Have a door, which is opened by a conviniently placed switch. After a short delay, the door closes again and the switch resets. From behind the door, there is no means of opening it.

Decoy House: Create the framework of an area that people would wish to enter out of explosives, and cover the framework in somewhat realistic looking walls. Wood walls makes sense, as they wouldn't do much to hinder the explosives. Put something that would look tempting at one end of it (Say, a shiny chest). Put a lever similar to the one for the door on the inside of the room. It sets off the explosives and doesn't open the door.

Alternatively, have obvious and safe looking impediments to progress (barricades in front of hallways or doors) that seem easy enough to break through, that happen to be load bearing. Once again, this is improved by having the trap prevent them from going backwards as well.

[WinWin]

I'm fond of the eternal pit trap.

100' pit trap. with a reverse gravity trap at the bottom that resets every few rounds.