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Adrayll
2010-08-30, 12:12 AM
So one thing that bugs me about most dungeon traps/puzzles, it that they're one of two kinds:
a) the kind that's essentially an established numerical or picture puzzle (like bejeweled, mastermind, a number pattern, etc) on a door saying "solve this to open the door" or
b) an HP tax that fires an arrow or a gout of flame or a poisoned dart at the players

So i try to avoid those for the most part, and try to put in some good, unique, original puzzles or traps. Recently, one I used is the party got a reflex save, and then dropped into the bottom of a large, spherical pit 30' in diameter with slimy walls. The rogue, fighter and the druid's wolf companion passed, the sorcerer, druid and a DMPC goblin they had with them failed. We just started this campaign, so they were at level one with pretty much no magic. The door to the pit at the top was a finely-balanced spring that snapped open at 300lb of weight, then snapped closed again (at anything less than 300lb). Eventually, they managed to get people out with a clever scheme (i'll post it later, i want to see if people have any ideas of their own :smallwink: ). Also, there was a fun random encounter against some guards that got really cool when they dropped a guard on the other guard (who had fallen earlier), and left the druid with a permanent in-character hate of lizardmen.

A thing about the trap i didn't tell the players was that i would either award them XP for a CR 1, 2 or 3 trap depending on how ingenious and quick their solution was. (They got full marks)

Does anyone else have ideas for some non-traditional traps that need original solutions? My players and i both love these, and I feel they're a lot better in dungeons than the usual kind of traps.

Amoren
2010-08-30, 12:20 AM
I'm not sure if this is a typical trap, but there was something I was pondering about being really mean to sorcerers/casters that teleport out of a dungeon/fight mid sequence so they can restock on magic/prepare their spells to suite the battle.

After they leave, and they attempt to teleport back in, they would discover that the spell was hijacked by a Dimensional Anchor placed at the top of a 100ft tall cavern. Right below this dimensional anchor was an anti-magic zone (extending from ten feet below the dimensional anchor to the floor below). At the bottom of the cavern was basically a set of sharp poison con damage spikes to just drive the point home.

The Pressman
2010-08-30, 12:20 AM
One of the old favorites is the one where disabling triggers it. If you're looking for something entirely new, just have a wall of force in a hall, and when they try to go back they walk over a stone that they walked over coming towards the trap, thus triggering a second wall of force trapping them in a box. That box then starts to fill with some poisonous substance. And the walls of force start to move towards each other. However, if they can find the one brick that's an illusion, they're home free. Not really original, it jus reminded me of A New Hope.

Grifthin
2010-08-30, 12:27 AM
Lots. My favourite is the one where there are spikes on the wall behind the party then the entire corridor tilts so that the spiked wall becomes a floor.

Or when there's a rolling boulder trap (indiana jones) and they manage to dodge it only for the rock to punch a hole in the wall releasing poisonous gas.

Or the water trap that floods the dungeon so they have to swim/fight their way out - makes for awesome combat in all 3 dimensions.

Or the room made of walls of force with the treasure suspended in it that have a disintegrate spell aimed so when you trigger the trap sections get destroyed dumping the party in a slimy pit full of monsters.

Or the trap that drops gelatonous cubes on the party.

Tyndmyr
2010-08-30, 12:28 AM
I'm not sure if this is a typical trap, but there was something I was pondering about being really mean to sorcerers/casters that teleport out of a dungeon/fight mid sequence so they can restock on magic/prepare their spells to suite the battle.

After they leave, and they attempt to teleport back in, they would discover that the spell was hijacked by a Dimensional Anchor placed at the top of a 100ft tall cavern. Right below this dimensional anchor was an anti-magic zone (extending from ten feet below the dimensional anchor to the floor below). At the bottom of the cavern was basically a set of sharp poison con damage spikes to just drive the point home.

Dimensional Anchor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dimensionalanchor.htm) does not work like that.

It'd be more honest if you just screamed "NO! Bad caster!", and smacked him in the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

Zaq
2010-08-30, 12:29 AM
One of the old favorites is the one where disabling triggers it. If you're looking for something entirely new, just have a wall of force in a hall, and when they try to go back they walk over a stone that they walked over coming towards the trap, thus triggering a second wall of force trapping them in a box. That box then starts to fill with some poisonous substance. And the walls of force start to move towards each other. However, if they can find the one brick that's an illusion, they're home free. Not really original, it jus reminded me of A New Hope.

The part that I bolded confuses me. In a novel or a movie, that would be pretty cool, but how do you plan to represent that at the table? Do you want them physically tapping on the dungeon map saying "do I see anything in this square? In this one? In this one?" Do you just represent it with a Search-check-or-die? Do you wait until one of the players says "I start checking every brick for something weird?" How do you actually make that fun at the table?

The Pressman
2010-08-30, 12:32 AM
The part that I bolded confuses me. In a novel or a movie, that would be pretty cool, but how do you plan to represent that at the table? Do you want them physically tapping on the dungeon map saying "do I see anything in this square? In this one? In this one?" Do you just represent it with a Search-check-or-die? Do you wait until one of the players says "I start checking every brick for something weird?" How do you actually make that fun at the table?

Ich weiß nicht. I'd probably do something like bricks on the floor, or tie it into a popculture reference that everyone knows.

Amoren
2010-08-30, 12:43 AM
Dimensional Anchor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/dimensionalanchor.htm) does not work like that.

It'd be more honest if you just screamed "NO! Bad caster!", and smacked him in the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

Perhaps, and I admit that I blundered on what Dimensional Anchor does (I blame Dungeons and Dragons Online! Where there's an actual quest where the mage states they can't teleport to the island because the pirates put a dimensional anchor up, so you had to go there and destroy the crystal infused with it...). Still, this doesn't mean I can't have a potential reoccurring caster villain who's researched and created such a spell.

Actually, creating other ideas like this to screw with casters (if they start becoming Gods/abusing their abilities to an extent that breaks the game for other players). How about an entire room that's composed of a rare alchemical material that explodes on the slightest stimuli of magical energy? And with some phosphorescent dust scattered upon mundane items within a chest in that room to give them the impression of being glowing magic items. Wait for someone to pop a detect magic spell and then BOOM.

Zaq
2010-08-30, 01:05 AM
Perhaps, and I admit that I blundered on what Dimensional Anchor does (I blame Dungeons and Dragons Online! Where there's an actual quest where the mage states they can't teleport to the island because the pirates put a dimensional anchor up, so you had to go there and destroy the crystal infused with it...). Still, this doesn't mean I can't have a potential reoccurring caster villain who's researched and created such a spell.

Actually, creating other ideas like this to screw with casters (if they start becoming Gods/abusing their abilities to an extent that breaks the game for other players). How about an entire room that's composed of a rare alchemical material that explodes on the slightest stimuli of magical energy? And with some phosphorescent dust scattered upon mundane items within a chest in that room to give them the impression of being glowing magic items. Wait for someone to pop a detect magic spell and then BOOM.

In what way is this anything more than a raw "GOTCHA!" situation? Speaking for myself alone, I find that I use Detect Magic to find out when not to poke things, rather than to make the valuable loot light up for easy grabbin'. But I tend to have a healthy respect for the insane stuff magic can do and err on the side of caution as often as not.

Jolly
2010-08-30, 01:11 AM
On the subject of traps, I'll refer you to the excellent Ars Ludi articles on the subject: Bad Traps 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/).

Also, remind me never to play in a game Amoren is DMing. If you let people play casters knowing they're OP, and did not specifically request that they nerf themselves (or nerf them mechanically yourself at the outset with player approval) to punish the player like that is not nice at all. Becoming gods is what casters do at high levels. Stopping time, teleporting a bunch of people through the planes of existence, altering the very fabric of time space and creating alternate planes of existence at a whim: like it or not high level DnD casters are gods. If you have a problem with that the time to deal with it is character creation not by screwing over the poor player mid-game.

BladeofOblivion
2010-08-30, 01:14 AM
I once used a Flood-The-Dungeon Trap. Only it was Black Lotus Extract, not water. It was justified because the owner of the Dungeon was a Lich and Didn't really care.

Amoren
2010-08-30, 07:14 AM
Don't worry, I probably won't be DMing any DnD games anytime soon (and the closest I'll probably get is a d20 Future scenerio I've got curdling in my skull). Mostly because I don't have the experience and/or confidence to DM a game myself, yet. However, in the spirit of the thread, I was just trying to figure out some interesting ideas (although perhaps a bit convoluted), and the first scenerio (new dimensional anchor-isque spell above pit with anti-magic field between) was an idea that came to mind in response to a something I had read a long time ago.

On the line of more mundane traps though... Perhaps an inversion of the falling gelatinous cube; a pit fall trap with the bottom fully occupied by a gelatinous cube!

Volthawk
2010-08-30, 07:17 AM
There's also the various versions of the death room. They're fun.

DMBlackhart
2010-08-30, 10:59 AM
Not sure if this counts as a trap, or even really original. But it IS probably the best encounter my PCs have ever faced so far.

The concept was basically a large rectangular room. The length of the room being considerably further then the width or hieght. Think, large rectangular box. Along the entire upper half (which was about 60 feet above them), was an entire pool of water. The water was magically suspended, and effectivly covered 1/2 the rectanglular room.

The PCs thought this ment "gtfo or drown". So they tried their best to find an exit that diden't exist. Finally, realising the water WASEN'T gonna crash down and swallow them up, they decided to cool down, and laugh about it. That's when I hit them.

The entire room flipped, causing them all to fall into the bottom half (or upper, w/e) into the water. The water was still "suspended" in place. However the PCs were now in a roughly 60 foot deep pool of water, with a trap door at the bottom, and a bunch of REALLY angry skeletal fish / other baddies.

This only added insult to injury when one PC got close enough to open the door, and free them all, the room flips again. They land on dry land, the fish baddies are stuck in the "roof" water area. And they are forced for a second go-around.

My PCs LOVED it. However it made them afraid of water, as such much more of the campaign was spent testing EVERY water source for magic or traps.

Hope that helps.

DaMullet
2010-08-30, 12:53 PM
In one dungeon I'm designing now, I've got a couple traps I'm pretty proud of. The dungeon starts at ground level, and there are three equally-trapped ways to get 50 feet below the ground and start in earnest.

If they take the ramp to the left, an Indiana Jones-inspired boulder begins chasing them. If they fail the spot check to notice the tripwire, they set off a hail of caltrops from the ceiling right in front of them. When they get to the bottom of the ramp, there's another tripwire to spot, this one on a spike trap jutting from the floor. Luckily, the spikes don't retract, and are strong enough to stop the boulder. Then there's a short turn, and another ramp taking them further down and back to right underneath the start. A few feet down this ramp is (you guessed it) a second boulder, but presumably one they'll think to look for after the first.

If they take the spiral staircase, there is a switch which causes the stairs to shift into a slide and lantern oil to squirt all over them. This would be less of an issue if there weren't lit torches all up and down the stairwell for them to dodge.

Thirdly, if they take the elevator (Obviously the fool's choice), it simply lowers them down... until the elevator is level with the floor so they can't get out, and then the floor drops out. If they catch themselves, they can try to climb down, but if they fail the check by the wrong amount, they find the handholds full of poisoned needles, which probably makes them fall the rest of the way.

Then, as a piece de resistance, all three of these paths converge onto a large tiled room. The tiles are patterned in a vaguely symmetrical way, and are of three different colors. No matter what they look for, they won't find any traps, but when they step on certain tiles, they hear a loud 'click' and then a grinding sound from the walls. There is no trap, but they'll be so bloody paranoid after getting down there that they'll press every tile with a 10 foot pole before they continue through to the (trapped) door at the end.

Ruinix
2010-08-30, 01:14 PM
trigger a trapdoor over the party droping a cube Gelatinous Cube.

a classic double magic image.
ex. an ilusion of a pit with spike on the bottom with a gap easly jumpable, the ilusion is on safe ground.

a second ilusion on the "landing" ground, an ilusion of a that, safe landing ground hinding a pit with spikes on the bottom.

this one can be aplied to almost everything like doors, walls, leavers XD everything.

The Big Dice
2010-08-30, 01:24 PM
The Tomb of Iuchiban had some great traps. Clearly the designers had read their Grimtooth.

One is a corridor. You enter it and it stretches off into the distance. As you walk, both ends vanish into the ditance, like being a a long, straight highway. Then you come across the skeletons of other people who got stuck in the corridor. And realise that it doesn't make any difference which way you go, the end of the hallway never gets any closer.

It's an illusion though. You have to close both eyes and walk forwards blind to get to the end. And everyone present has to have their eyes closed, or the illusion isn't broken.

Another is like one of those tunnels at the carnival that's a spinning barrel you have to walk through. But it has knives that poke through the wall of the rotating barrel and it spins faster and faster each turn. In game mechanics, it's ever increasing difficulty on the Balance checks to get through, plus lots of damage if you fail a check badly enough to fall.

Volos
2010-08-30, 01:25 PM
I had been getting complaints from my Rogue that there were not enough traps in my game, so I used a few plot hooks (mostly revenge) to get the players into this dungeon. After they followed the trails of bandit body parts into this room, they found themselves amongst somewhere between 15 - 20 Kython eggs, all about to hatch. At this point in my campaign, my players became paranoid of Kython. So they got into a turn-based egg smashing sequence. They all failed their listen checks and the Rogue wouldn't even bother searching the room, even though I hinted heavily toward it.

A pedestal came up from the floor and the walls started sliding away. Now the entire room had fallen down about 10 feet or so. The doorways now just led to stone walls. The druid had used all her stone shapes for the day, and the rogue had no doors to unlock. Now they noticed that there were eight heads on the walls, all different monsters that they had faced before. On the pedestal in the middle were eight keys, each a different race they had dealt with before. By the time the Rogue had figured out that they needed to put certain keys in certain heads, the ceiling started to slide downward to crush them to death. I will never forget the look of panic on their faces.

They had four rounds to figure out the puzzle/trap before they were crushed to death. Detecting magic told them that four of the keys were real while four were false, but it gave them no clue as to which heads would work. My players came up with the most interesting associations between monsters and races that I have ever heard of. I actually timed each round, only giving them 40 seconds to choose their actions. By three rounds they had three keys in three heads, with only one left to go. The caster gave the blackguard some extra arms and he crit on strength check after strength check to keep the ceiling up. By the fifth round the strength check DC was out of the Blackguard’s ability to make, but they got the final key in the correct head. All of my players started to celebrate, or at least that was until they noticed the ceiling was still coming down. It forced them downward until they were within inches of taking crushing damage. Then the trap reset, putting the room back where it was. They were both ecstatic and terrified.

flabort
2010-08-30, 05:12 PM
I'm a fan of the classic Conveyor Belt:
A long hall, that the players enter from the side, near one end. As soon as they enter, the floor starts to move towards the closer end, which is covered in spikes. Depending on who designs this trap, AKA on the DM, there are different ways of deactivating it. will always be >5' faster than the second fastest character, sometimes faster.

I'm also a fan of the infinite hallway:
Another long hallway, darkness cast on it, so players can only see, like, 5' infront of them. near one end, is a teleport trap, which sends them near the beginning again. both the trap and point of return are out of sight of any door, so they'll just keep on walking, and walking, and walking, not aware that thier repeating the same section over and over. the solution is to just turn back, and try another door.

Whats really fun is combining the two traps, to get the Infinite Conveyor Belt:
enter from the side, cannot see beyond your nose, get swept away from your goal, and keep seeing side passages wizz by you, as you get dragged back. since they are the passage you entered through, you might eventually figure it out.
Note: the conveyor moves you back after you make your movement. it will drag you through the portal, putting you near the end. you can't see it, but its there. when your movement comes, you may or may not be in range to get onto the stable ground just beyond. usually, though, it's just out of reach.

Jolly
2010-08-30, 08:37 PM
From my own personal experiences, whether or not any trap will work is highly dependent on the group. Some people like them, some don't. Learn your players.

ZeroGear
2010-09-02, 11:48 AM
Ever been in the layer of a copper dragon? The renown pranksters of the dragon world tend to favor embarrassing their foes instead of killing them. As such, it would be reasonable to have traps that throw pies, mud, or other substances in the faces of intruders. Similar ideas include traps that catapult the offender up and put of the layer.

Granted, we are taking about creatures that, should they see a blue or red dragon giving it's "fear my wrath, I am more awesome than you" speech, decide to embarrass them by dropping a turd on them from above.

Sipex
2010-09-02, 12:06 PM
I'm fond of puzzle traps as main traps (although I'll throw in the occasional HP tax trap to keep my players paranoid).

Puzzle traps are hard not to trigger (although they can be disarmed) and are more meant to take several rounds, like an encounter, to solve.

I ran a whole series of these last session as my players went through a gauntlet type scenario.

First there was a narrow hall, the rogues checked it up and down but didn't check the door (they're still new). Upon trying to open the door they find out it's locked and the far wall starts closing in at a rapid pace. The door is locked pretty tightly so the rogues have to make a high thievery DC to escape before the wall crushes them. I think they got 3 turns at base.
The other party members were outside the range of this trap (as the rogues had gone ahead) and were able to slow it down using innovative ideas (firing ice spells at the pistons was one).

Next was an invisible maze in a large square room. The PCs would have to carefully move around the room and get to the doors before the room filled with water and drowned them all. Anyone trained in arcana could use an action to see the walls from their position while those without had better athletics checks (being swimmers) and could use an action to check an adjacent square for a wall. If you hit a wall on a move action you were stunned until your next turn.

Finally there was a zelda inspired blade maze trap. Spinning blades followed pre-set paths in a simple maze-like area. Each blade went it's own speed and it's own path so the players had to navigate their way through without getting sliced up.

Stuff like that.

Choco
2010-09-02, 02:19 PM
Tomb of Horrors has some nice, fun traps that can be raided for inspiration/reuse!

Tyndmyr
2010-09-02, 02:24 PM
I recently used one in a three story house. It's best on a split up party. There were multiple rooms on the first floor, and while most of the doors were trapped, inside, there were no obvious traps and lots of loot.

One of the players finds three levers. This is replicated elsewhere in the building. Pulling the levers causes nothing bad to happen within sight of you, but causes cages to drop elsewhere(unless you pull all three, in which case one falls on you). If someone searches, they can see the holes in the ceilings/floor where the bars drop through.

So, the cages normally sit on the second floor unless triggered, and are visible there. However, on the third floor, we have trap doors above them. Therefore, the configuration of the traps is subject to change based on what the party is doing. Mix in a few fireball traps to discourage them clumping up too much, and you can get some crazy stuff going on.

Remember, don't trap the curious chump. He'll set off more. Set traps that the curious one will spring on the others.

Abies
2010-09-02, 02:36 PM
The best traps I've seen/created are always Rp opportunities. Allowing for there to be a clever way to defeat the inevitable trap is a fun challenge, espically if after the incidnet you tell the players how the trap could have been averted/diverted and they smack themselves in the head for not thinking of it (being so obvious in retrospect).

The aforementioned Boulder into a wall/container with poison gas is great fun, so long as ther was some indication that the wall or whotnot should not be disturbed. An opportunity to stop or divert the boulder using environmental incidents (perhaps into a room full of enemies) is also great.

It all boils down to the DM actually turning a trap into a real encounter. Just like a monster, you can just pull one right out of the book, but the memorable fights/encounters all stem from DM ingenuity.

I tend to steal a lot of trap encounters from video games I know my players have not gone through. Original? No. But fun and challenging for the players? Sure.

Jolly
2010-09-02, 02:37 PM
Remember, don't trap the curious chump. He'll set off more. Set traps that the curious one will spring on the others.

Ahh, I see you encourage PvP play. :smallwink:

One of the first campaigns I played in had a long time DnD guy playing a rogue, and an inexperienced DM. We ended up in a massive illusion based trap, and nothing we did could let us disbelieve or break out of it. The rogue ended up committing suicide (in character, obviously) and storming out of the room (in real life).

So just be careful not to make traps to complicated or difficult, it can kinda take the fun out of it for the players.

Tyndmyr
2010-09-02, 02:40 PM
Yeah, I use illusions very seldomly. They're really easy to make unstoppable, which is kind of a problem.

Complicated can be good. Unbeatable is not. I love putting the party in the midst of some odd rube goldberg thing, and seeing what they do. Definitely encourage ingenuity.

And occasionally pvp, but only vs the foolhardy.

Paraphrased from one of my games.
"Cmon guys, stop joking around. I'll just push all the buttons. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Shoot him now"

the doomed one
2010-09-02, 02:42 PM
Perhaps, and I admit that I blundered on what Dimensional Anchor does (I blame Dungeons and Dragons Online! Where there's an actual quest where the mage states they can't teleport to the island because the pirates put a dimensional anchor up, so you had to go there and destroy the crystal infused with it...). Still, this doesn't mean I can't have a potential reoccurring caster villain who's researched and created such a spell.

Actually, creating other ideas like this to screw with casters (if they start becoming Gods/abusing their abilities to an extent that breaks the game for other players). How about an entire room that's composed of a rare alchemical material that explodes on the slightest stimuli of magical energy? And with some phosphorescent dust scattered upon mundane items within a chest in that room to give them the impression of being glowing magic items. Wait for someone to pop a detect magic spell and then BOOM.
There is a Pathfinder spell named Teleport Trap (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells---final/t/teleport-trap):smallbiggrin:

Ravens_cry
2010-09-02, 02:42 PM
I once used a Flood-The-Dungeon Trap. Only it was Black Lotus Extract, not water. It was justified because the owner of the Dungeon was a Lich and Didn't really care.
If they survive though, their set for life, that stuff is expensive.

Tyndmyr
2010-09-02, 02:44 PM
Oh, too bad. That was a minor creation trap. The only REAL black lotus extract involved are the components in the trap itself.

At least, that'd be the sane way to do it. Otherwise, it's just really expensive, and hard to justify. Like solid adamantium doors everywhere. A bit unrealistic in most dungeons, and subject to wild looting.

BladeofOblivion
2010-09-02, 05:57 PM
If they survive though, their set for life, that stuff is expensive.

3d6 Con damage per minute is very bad. It was one of very few situations that only the High-level fighter survived. The Cleric cast Neutralize Poison on everyone at the first exposure and ended up drowning due to the fact that swimming and holding your breath is very difficult when your constitution is quickly dwindling. Was it too cruel of me to also set off a few Antimagic Fields whilst I was at it?


Oh, too bad. That was a minor creation trap. The only REAL black lotus extract involved are the components in the trap itself.

At least, that'd be the sane way to do it. Otherwise, it's just really expensive, and hard to justify. Like solid adamantium doors everywhere. A bit unrealistic in most dungeons, and subject to wild looting.

You called it. It was Major Creation, actually, and several in Tandem. The entire dungeon was flooded except for the Lich's Inner Sanctum. That was filled with Burnt Othur Fumes. And one Angry Lich.

dsmiles
2010-09-02, 06:13 PM
Here's one that I enjoy:

The party enters a room with a metal floor, and a locked door. The door locks behind them. There is a machine with 20 switches. Ready, GO!
Every time they flip a switch everybody takes 1 electrical damage, and the doors do not unlock. They do not get the correct combination until they get fed up and say, "OK last try, then we're breaking down the door."
More of a trick than a trap really. And a funny one at that.
:smallbiggrin:

Zhalath
2010-09-02, 07:09 PM
It'd be more honest if you just screamed "NO! Bad caster!", and smacked him in the nose with a rolled up newspaper.

I'm using that for my sig.

I like the one where you flood the room with illusory water, and make all the players think they're drowning. One guy saves, and then he has this "oh crap" moment as he tries to get everyone else to disbelieve before they suffocate.

There was also the "magic items that you wanted in a chest" trap, where when they put them on, they had to save or go berserk. Fun for the soulknife, not so much for the psion. Also, an imp followed them around and told them they were jerks.

Crasical
2010-09-02, 08:00 PM
A short discussion with some of the old fogies of our DnD group brought these traps to the fore:


1. Stepping on the wrong spot sends the player shooting down a greased chute. Halfway down the chute, the player is subjected to a 'Reduce Person' spell and the chute narrows. The chute eventually deposits the player somewhere unpleasant, where they resume normal size and have to deal with climbing up a long, greased chute sized for someone half their size.

2. A wooden staircase where every few steps where on springs, so that stepping on them caused them to depress down and reveal the spikes/blades they where concealing, leaving the players to figure out how to disarm the thing if they didn't want their feet mauled.

Ilmryn
2010-09-02, 08:13 PM
I once used a Flood-The-Dungeon Trap. Only it was Black Lotus Extract, not water. It was justified because the owner of the Dungeon was a Lich and Didn't really care.

That would be very expensive. One dose of lotus extract costs 3000gp or something, what would a dungeonful cost?

Jack_Simth
2010-09-02, 08:24 PM
At least, that'd be the sane way to do it. Otherwise, it's just really expensive, and hard to justify. Like solid adamantium doors everywhere. A bit unrealistic in most dungeons, and subject to wild looting.
Yes. Which is why the doors in the 3.5 version of the Tomb of Horrors are now painted iron. Which is A Trade Good (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/wealthAndMoney.htm#wealthOtherThanCoins).


3d6 Con damage per minute is very bad. It was one of very few situations that only the High-level fighter survived. The Cleric cast Neutralize Poison on everyone at the first exposure and ended up drowning due to the fact that swimming and holding your breath is very difficult when your constitution is quickly dwindling. Was it too cruel of me to also set off a few Antimagic Fields whilst I was at it?



You called it. It was Major Creation, actually, and several in Tandem. The entire dungeon was flooded except for the Lich's Inner Sanctum. That was filled with Burnt Othur Fumes. And one Angry Lich.
So... it's magical poison that vanishes in an AMF, but the AMF countered the neutralize poison spells while the poison was affecting the players?

Pity your players didn't know how the flood worked. They could have called shenanigans when there wasn't a safe pocket around the AMF traps.

BladeofOblivion
2010-09-02, 11:08 PM
You see, I didn't catch that. The point of it was to mess with the Wizard and Cleric, who'd been giving be trouble by playing Batman and -zilla, respectively. Even if they had caught that slip of mine, it probably would have played out like this:

Cleric: Look! A pocket of safety!
Wizard: Thank you!
Fighter: I'm just going to swim out of here.
Rogue: Glurgle. (He failed his save and rolled three sixes for the CON damage.)

Plan 1:
Wizard: Ok. We just need to wait until this stuff goes away. I guess we can sleep until it does, as we all need the rest.
(Party Naps. Party doesn't realize that the duration of the antimagic field trap is less than the duration of the Major Creation Trap. Party dies horribly.)

Plan 2:
Cleric: We can boost our resistances while in here and try to get out.
(Casts Bear's Endurance. It fizzles.)
Wizard: Antimagic Field. We are soooo dead. I'm at 2 CON and have to make another save in 3 rounds.
Cleric: I made my save. The Fighter has the right Idea. See you when I eventually die!
Wizard: I hate everyone.

Jack_Simth
2010-09-03, 07:22 AM
You see, I didn't catch that. The point of it was to mess with the Wizard and Cleric, who'd been giving be trouble by playing Batman and -zilla, respectively. Even if they had caught that slip of mine, it probably would have played out like this:

Well, the poison is still itself - so if they're in the AMF, the poison no longer exists, and no more saves are necessary. If they were under the effects of Neutralize Poison, they're immune, and the saves are unnecessary in the flood. If they're in the AMF, the poison doesn't exist, so the saves are unnecessary. If the first thing the Cleric did was spam Neutralize Poison on the party, then the only threat is 'simple' drowning for the duration. Especially as an AMF merely suppresses spells; it does not dispel them, they're still there.


Cleric: Look! A pocket of safety!
Wizard: Thank you!
Fighter: I'm just going to swim out of here.
Rogue: Glurgle. (He failed his save and rolled three sixes for the CON damage.)

Rogue, under the effects of the Neutralize Poison cast earlier, is fine.


Plan 1:
Wizard: Ok. We just need to wait until this stuff goes away. I guess we can sleep until it does, as we all need the rest.
(Party Naps. Party doesn't realize that the duration of the antimagic field trap is less than the duration of the Major Creation Trap. Party dies horribly.)

Yeah, these guys die, because the duration of Neutralize Poison runs out.


Plan 2:
Cleric: We can boost our resistances while in here and try to get out.
(Casts Bear's Endurance. It fizzles.)
Wizard: Antimagic Field. We are soooo dead. I'm at 2 CON and have to make another save in 3 rounds.
Cleric: I made my save. The Fighter has the right Idea. See you when I eventually die!
Wizard: I hate everyone.
The Cleric swimming out is probably fine... if he can swim (due to Neutralize Poison, spammed earlier). The Wizard might have some problems, though.

Malbordeus
2010-09-03, 08:18 AM
a reverse gravity trap when the ceiling is coated in superglue.

or a sloaping corriador coated in salve of slipperyness, the door the party needs to get to is in the middle.


silliness asside, things i've done to the party included
Portcullis traps, that drop poisoned spears on everyone under it. (the rogue was a little ditzy and never checked for traps before walking to the end of a corridor)

Pit traps with Symbol of weakness at the bottom set to "within 10 feet" as a triggering condition.

an alarm trap forcing people to grovel along the floor infront of an image of an aboleth, otherwise it set off an entire dungeon full permanent of black tentacles...