Grain Explosion and other traps

[Beelzebub1111]

I was reading Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom and a particularly creative trap caught my eye.

Party enters a room that is basically a warm metal cylinder with a hatch near the top and a ladder leading up to it. Opening the hatch causes the iron door to the silo lock shut and grain to flow from the hatch into the heated silo. The friction of the grain with the heat of the silo, cause the grain to combust.

Anybody else have creative trap ideas like that?

[Angry Bob]

A poorly hidden crossbow volley. When the rogue makes the pathetically easy check to avoid tripping it, they start defusing it only for the sealed mechanism to disgorge a swarm of bees.

[Marnath]

I was reading Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom and a particularly creative trap caught my eye.

Party enters a room that is basically a warm metal cylinder with a hatch near the top and a ladder leading up to it. Opening the hatch causes the iron door to the silo lock shut and grain to flow from the hatch into the heated silo. The friction of the grain with the heat of the silo, cause the grain to combust.

Anybody else have creative trap ideas like that?

I feel compelled to point out the main risk there is suffocation, not the fire.

[Lord Thurlvin]

A poorly hidden crossbow volley. When the rogue makes the pathetically easy check to avoid tripping it, they start defusing it only for the sealed mechanism to disgorge a swarm of bees.

Not the bees!! Ahhh! Ahh!

[cheezewizz2000]

I feel compelled to point out the main risk there is suffocation, not the fire.

Unless it is pitch black in the silo and the adventurers aren't using a hooded lantern, or magical light to illuminate the area; naked flames lead to all sorts of fun, and not JUST because they have the word "naked" in them.

[Marnath]

Unless it is pitch black in the silo and the adventurers aren't using a hooded lantern, or magical light to illuminate the area; naked flames lead to all sorts of fun, and not JUST because they have the word "naked" in them.

I'm going to assume you have no idea what a grain silo is then? Because you can't "see" anything if you're buried at the bottom of a huge amount of grain.

[Qwertystop]

I came up with a whole list of these:
Spike Pit (not the typical one):

1: They fall into the pit, and take falling damage
2: A trap activates that casts the spell that reverses gravity on them, so they fall to the ceiling
3: They hit the ceiling, which is slightly sloped, take falling damage, and slide slightly away from the pit because of the slope
4: Another trap activates (same gravity spell), so they fall back to the floor next to the pit, and take falling damage again.
5: They are dazed from having just fallen on their head 3 times.
6: Another spell creates a loud voice... it says: "SPIKE!"

Bottomless Pit:
1: They fall into the pit
2:They hit a teleport circle just before hitting the bottom, teleported to 5 feet above the opening of the pit (strength check to grab the edge, scaled to distance fallen)
3a: return to step 1, if they failed the Strength check
3b: They get falling damage, based on how far they have fallen, if they made the strength check.

More to come in edits!

[Starbuck_II]

A poorly hidden crossbow volley. When the rogue makes the pathetically easy check to avoid tripping it, they start defusing it only for the sealed mechanism to disgorge a swarm of bees.

Wouldn't you get a search check to see that too? Granted the second trap might have a higher DC, but it should see be findable.

[hamishspence]

How about a pit trap, with a bottom that automatically casts Reverse Gravity when hit, and a ceiling, that automatically switches off Reverse Gravity.

Easy to get out of if you can fly, or cling to the ceiling somehow, but otherwise... bounce, bounce, bounce, splat.

[Angry Bob]

Wouldn't you get a search check to see that too? Granted the second trap might have a higher DC, but it should see be findable.

The pathetically easy check to avoid it is "supposed" to be the tip-off. Why disarm it at all? The trap is adjusted so that the bees happen if the disarm check is anything but perfect, and the DCs to spot the additions(bees) and to disarm would be fairly high.

[BRC]

Big Pile of Gold+Electricity. Also works with a golden statue, or really anything shiny and metal.

[Radar]

A spiral slide instead of a staircase leading both up and down from the entrance. At the lower end there is a magma pit or anything with continual flames going. Somewhere higher on the slope place pressure plates to release lantern oil throughout the whole slide (dousing PCs as well as the floor). When the oil reaches the pit at the bottom, it catches fire. PCs either fail their balance checks and slide into the pit, or the fire comes to them.

[Qwertystop]

How about a pit trap, with a bottom that automatically casts Reverse Gravity when hit, and a ceiling, that automatically switches off Reverse Gravity.

Easy to get out of if you can fly, or cling to the ceiling somehow, but otherwise... bounce, bounce, bounce, splat.

Thats what my "Spike Pit" was (2 above your post). Stop stealing ideas :smallwink:!

[Moose Man]

from harry potter:
mound of fake gold that multiplies and heats up when touched.
the best use for this is in an enclosed space, where they will be forced to touch it. they get crushed, burned and suffocate.

[Urpriest]

A spiral slide instead of a staircase leading both up and down from the entrance. At the lower end there is a magma pit or anything with continual flames going. Somewhere higher on the slope place pressure plates to release lantern oil throughout the whole slide (dousing PCs as well as the floor). When the oil reaches the pit at the bottom, it catches fire. PCs either fail their balance checks and slide into the pit, or the fire comes to them.

I assume by continual flames you mean real fires, not the spell, as the spell can't light things on fire.

[Aidan305]

How about a variation on that Silo one, ideally if the PCs are in the habit of carrying flames about:

Hatch opens releasing, not grain, but a very large amount of flour.

Ever see a flour bomb? Imagine that explosive force in a contained area.

[Fouredged Sword]

I like a shadow conjuration stone wall as a section of the floor, with just a thin section of tile over the top. Half way across the tile turns invisable, allowing them to disbelieve the stone wall. If the make thier save the wall isn't strong enough to hold them up.

[Qwertystop]

I like a shadow conjuration stone wall as a section of the floor, with just a thin section of tile over the top. Half way across the tile turns invisable, allowing them to disbelieve the stone wall. If the make thier save the wall isn't strong enough to hold them up.

Even better if you put a series of other traps, each one getting rid of people with a certain high stat, so you can narrow down the people who can get to you. This one stops Wisdom (Druids and clerics) (especially if you put spikes at the bottom of the wall) and you could make another for Fortitude or Reflex, so only pathetic people with no good saves get to the BBEG at the end.

[Tvtyrant]

Simple one:

Very large room with an elder glyph (LoM) on a pillar in the middle. Room is at the bottom of the dungeon and the pillar is full of diamonds. When they pry on free the glyph activates casting stone to mud on the ceiling. They all die.

Or same thing but its a teleportation circle to the Elemental Plane of Water.

[Qwertystop]

Great one:
Make a dungeon full of as many traps as you can think of, preferably the kind that makes a real impression, (not just "roll a reflex save. You failed? take 1d6 damage from arrows). At the end, when the players are getting jumpy, put a room with a tiled floor. the tiles are in a pattern, and some of them, when stepped on, make a clicking noise and cause gears to grind under the floor, and behind the walls. Nothing ever actually happens, but they will be SCARED after all the real traps.

[AslanCross]

I was reading Grimtooth's Dungeon of Doom and a particularly creative trap caught my eye.

Party enters a room that is basically a warm metal cylinder with a hatch near the top and a ladder leading up to it. Opening the hatch causes the iron door to the silo lock shut and grain to flow from the hatch into the heated silo. The friction of the grain with the heat of the silo, cause the grain to combust.

Anybody else have creative trap ideas like that?

I'm not really sure if this would actually work, but a mostly-empty silo with air saturated with floating flour would definitely be dangerously combustible. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion)


How about a pit trap, with a bottom that automatically casts Reverse Gravity when hit, and a ceiling, that automatically switches off Reverse Gravity.

Easy to get out of if you can fly, or cling to the ceiling somehow, but otherwise... bounce, bounce, bounce, splat.

I once had a similar trap in a hallway. The funny thing is that it was technically only CR 8 but could very easily TPK a party. That's a lot of continuous falling damage.

[Marnath]

I'm not really sure if this would actually work, but a mostly-empty silo with air saturated with floating flour would definitely be dangerously combustible. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion)


It absolutely works, although 6 million bushels is hardly "mostly empty." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTSnlSLRbNo)
I don't know how it'd be different with just the dust.

[Beelzebub1111]

Here's some of my favorites:
This is how you build a pit trap:
http://i54.tinypic.com/24bonlj.jpg
This one's a bit more complicated

http://i55.tinypic.com/2v93s5x.jpg
When you reach the bottom half of the rungs, all of the rungs fall down one by one crushing the climbers fingers, once all of them fall the ladder breaks collapsing in a heap on top of the unlucky adventurer

I'm not really sure if this would actually work, but a mostly-empty silo with air saturated with floating flour would definitely be dangerously combustible.
That one is also in there

[Radar]

I assume by continual flames you mean real fires, not the spell, as the spell can't light things on fire.
Yes, thank you for clarification. :smallsmile:

Another idea: AFAIK if the place, you're standing on is about to be - let's say - covered by a big boulder, you get a saving throw to jump to a random square nearby. Now, prepare a hall with most of ceiling tiles being big boulders triggered by either pressure plates on the floor or are triggered by some simple magical, proximity based traps (or both). It would be best, to have a general trigger activating the whole room somewhere in the middle, so the party would be way into the trap before anything happens.
First ceiling trap will trigger a chain reaction, since the square the PC jumped on is another boulder trap. The end result is either some very flat adventurers (if they run out of places to jump away to) or some locked and separated adventurers at villains mercy (if they end up in one of not traped floor tiles).

To be fair, this one is a very likely TPK even if the saving throws for jumping away will be really easy.

Variation: if the pressure plates aren't tied with the boulder directly above, then the traps can trigger themselves.

[Fri]

My favourite is the bear trap.

"You step onto the bear trap."

"Oh, well, I use my disable device skill to disarm it."

"No. I mean Bear trap. Two dire bears fall from the ceiling. Roll initiative."

[Fouredged Sword]

There are lots of clasic and funny places to hide a gelatinus cube. Try climbing out of a pit with one of those grapleing you.

[Angry Bob]

How about an entryway flanked by what looks like two caryatids(statues that come to life)(Fiend Folio). Instead of simply coming to life and attacking the party, their clothes, their swords, and the statues themselves animate separately and attack. So the party's dealing with two sets of those floating clothes that enslave people, a pair of flying swords, and two animated statues.