My custom traps for my Copper Dragon PC. Need help, and your trap ideas please!

[Pika...]

Hey,

Virlym (Thief in Draconic), my wyrmling Copper Dragon/Rogue PC has a thing for traps and tricks, so I REALLY want to expand on that. I am currently watching a documentary about traps on the Military Channel to get ideas, but would love for you folks to review them, tell me what you think their mechanics (aka Craft: [Trapmaking] DCs, and damage effects) should be, and I would love to know if you have any custom made trap ideas you have floating around or have ever used/done as a PC.


Traps so far:

The Traditional Bell Warning:

This one has already seen use and has helped the party.

Concept:
-Buy numerous bells and a few balls of 50ft of twine (Arms and Equipment Guide)
-Stuff the bells with cheap fabric so they don't ring while you walk.
-Before you rest, using the twine simply tie a bell to say a door handle (if resting in a room), to an elevator cart, or simply in a hallway (preferably hidden to one side) with the twine about ankle-high for the type of creature who's dungeon you're in.




Trap Idea: The Anti-Solder “Boomie!”

Concept:
-There is a vile of A-Fire gently placed upside-down inside a glass jar surrounded and held in place by many caltrops with no caltrops between the (now upside-down) bottom of the vile and the lid of he jar.
-A hole is pre-drilled in the center of the jar's lid.
-You bury the jar right up to the lid.
-You (carefully!) lower a spike sharp-end-first into the jar so that it softly rests atop the (now upside-down) bottom of the A-Fire vile making sure the spike barely protrudes outside the jar (about an inch is ideal for grassy areas, or a half-inch for sandy areas).
-Leave.
-Wait until an enemy steps on the protruding spike, hence pushing it down into the jar and breaking the A-Fire vile spraying fire and caltrop-goodness all around!




Trap Idea: The Pull-and-Fun!

Concept:
-This trap concept can potentially be used in a number of diverse (and hopefully humorous) fashions.
-The premise is attaching a fishing wire to the end of a vile of A-Fire, hiding the vile of A-Fire within five feet of the desired blast radius, then attaching the other end of the fishing wire to something someone might pull, open, yank, pick-up, or otherwise handle physically enough for the vile of A-Fire to pop open.
-Simple, right? Hehe.






So thoughts?

Thoughts on what the mechanics should be?

Any traps of your own for little Virlyms arsenal. :smallbiggrin:


Many pikas in advance!

[The Bandicoot]

A simple bucket-over-door prank could easily be made more deadly with any of a wide assortment of alchemical substances

[Flickerdart]

Guidelines (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/traps.htm) exist for this sort of thing. However...

The twine thing qualifies as a Booby Trap from Dungeonscape, though, since it's not a real trap. The second wouldn't actually work, because the alchemist's fire would simply floor the inside of the jar, and the caltrops would be buried underground and not deal any damage. The trigger area is also so tiny that you're likely to never get anyone to step on it ever. The last one doesn't work for the same reason - Alchemist's Fire isn't a rocket launcher, it's a vial of substance. If you open the vial, then the substance leaks out.

Even if any of these did manage to do damage somehow, they'd only do 1 point of damage (the splash damage for alchemist's fire). Even CR1 traps deal at least 1d4.

It would be so much easier and more effective to just use normal bear traps and arrow traps.

[Infernalbargain]

Could do like simple pressure plate activated rock to lava.

Here's a nice one: set up the illusion of some trap where the methods of disarming the illusory trap triggers the real trap.

[hex0]

Yes, have you looked at Dungeonscape yet?

[panaikhan]

Grimtooth, for all your trap needs...

[GodGoblin]

Have you looked at the Combat Trap Smith? Its all about this kind of thing!

[Heliomance]

The 3rd party book Traps and Treachery is amazing, if you can get hold of it.
Personal suggestions:
The Amazing Maze
Have a maze where the walls are made up of, liberally mixed:
Walls of Stone
Invisible Walls of Stone
Illusory Walls of Stone
Invisible Illusory Walls of Stone
Shadow Conjured Walls of Stone
Invisible Shadow Conjured Walls of Stone
Walls of Stone cast on the Ethereal plane
The Neverending Corridor
The party walks down a long, featureless corridor, with a door at either end. On opening the door at the far end, they see a long, featureless corridor, with an open door at the other end and a party (yes, it's them) looking through it. If they go to the end and look through again, they'll see the same thing.

No, it's not a portal. It's a series of several identical corridors (I recommend 5 or 6, I think) with illusion spells set to replicate the party and make them think they're stuck in a teleport loop. If they mark the walls, illusions will duplicate the mark on the walls of every corridor.
Confounding Crossroads
The party comes to a crossroads. Every path looks identical, no way to tell them apart from the crossroads. Complete darkness descends for a round, then lifts. Nothing seems to have changed.

In reality, they've been teleported on the spot to face down one of the paths at random. Also, there's a random chance that a Reverse Gravity spell has gone off and they're now standing on the ceiling. (As a bonus, when they get out of the Reverse Gravity area and fall back to the floor, they'll probably assume that they've just walked in to one instead!)

[fryplink]

While your alchemist fire contraptions wouldn't work, proping A-fire on doors in various manners would do the trick. notably, on an open door and upside down bottle without a cap, so that when the door is moved it falls, or a more deadly variant of the eraser-on-the door prank.

[Flickerdart]

The 3rd party book Traps and Treachery is amazing, if you can get hold of it.
Personal suggestions:
The Amazing Maze
Have a maze where the walls are made up of, liberally mixed:
Walls of Stone
Invisible Walls of Stone
Illusory Walls of Stone
Invisible Illusory Walls of Stone
Shadow Conjured Walls of Stone
Invisible Shadow Conjured Walls of Stone
Walls of Stone cast on the Ethereal plane
The Neverending Corridor
The party walks down a long, featureless corridor, with a door at either end. On opening the door at the far end, they see a long, featureless corridor, with an open door at the other end and a party (yes, it's them) looking through it. If they go to the end and look through again, they'll see the same thing.

No, it's not a portal. It's a series of several identical corridors (I recommend 5 or 6, I think) with illusion spells set to replicate the party and make them think they're stuck in a teleport loop. If they mark the walls, illusions will duplicate the mark on the walls of every corridor.
Confounding Crossroads
The party comes to a crossroads. Every path looks identical, no way to tell them apart from the crossroads. Complete darkness descends for a round, then lifts. Nothing seems to have changed.

In reality, they've been teleported on the spot to face down one of the paths at random. Also, there's a random chance that a Reverse Gravity spell has gone off and they're now standing on the ceiling. (As a bonus, when they get out of the Reverse Gravity area and fall back to the floor, they'll probably assume that they've just walked in to one instead!)
1: Not a trap (cannot harm party, bypassable with any teleportation spell which start at level 1).
2: Not a trap (cannot harm party, bypassable by will saves to disbelieve)
3: Not a trap (cannot harm party, bypassable by chalk or darkvision)

[Heliomance]

So? They are hindrances, and would all probably appeal to the sense of humour of a copper dragon. Also, what teleport spells are available at level 1?

You only get a save to disbelieve an illusion if you actively interact with it. Seeing yourselves at the other end of a long corridor does not count as interaction.

Darkvision doesn't function in magical darkness, and to use chalk you first have to figure out what's going on. If you felt mean, you could have another illusion - or even a Prestidigitation - that removes any markings every time the darkness comes down.

The first one - no, of course it can't harm the party. It's a maze. That's not what they're for. You could always populate it with minotaurs or xorns or something, and turn it into a combat encounter with the odds heavily stacked on the defenders' side.

The second one - can't harm the party, but can get them to turn back of their own free will and simply not attempt to get somewhere you don't want them to get. Most amusing.

The third one - apart from the bit where it can actually harm the party, when they walk out of the Reverse Gravity effect, you can have some of the options lead to unpleasant places.

Who cares if they're not traditional traps? I'm not suggesting these are all he uses. I'm saying they're amusing precautions that a copper dragon would enjoy.

[horseboy]

The best, and most memorable, trap I did in my last campaign:
It was a broken down, deserted barracks. The trophy case had been shattered and looted during the evacuation. The only thing left was a loving cup with "Barsave's Greatest Lover" etched on it. It was covered in contact poison. Simple, easy. You know they're going to grab it, teach them to keep their grubby mitts off of other people's stuff, until after you've killed them.

[panaikhan]

If the traps are aimed at other players, exploit their weakness for having to check everything or play on their paranoia.

Click plates - when stepped on, they go click. sprinkle a few around and PC's will be checking every 5' of floor.
Secret doors - have some that lead nowhere, or hide them behind false doors.

[Heliomance]

The best, and most memorable, trap I did in my last campaign:
It was a broken down, deserted barracks. The trophy case had been shattered and looted during the evacuation. The only thing left was a loving cup with "Barsave's Greatest Lover" etched on it. It was covered in contact poison. Simple, easy. You know they're going to grab it, teach them to keep their grubby mitts off of other people's stuff, until after you've killed them.
As in Capa Barsave? I approve ^^