I hope you like traps...

[Ace Nex]

I'm currently playing an Archivist 6 with a wizard 4 cohort. I have a lair (as big as I want within reason) and it's going to come under attack by the party (two fighters, a swashbuckler, a swordsage, a binder and an artificer) before they recruit me.) All cheese is OK, so come up with some sick and twisted inexpensive traps!

[CyberThread]

The best trap is always the door, that has nothing behind it but a wall, and to do this several times, and when they do find the right door, to trap them . At your spell level, knock will start to become a thing. So a nasty thing to do, is just use really cheap door hooks, knock unlocks two style locks per spell.


So use multiple door hooks, to force them to use more then one knock

http://simage1.sportsmansguide.com/adimgs/l/1/173721_ts.jpg




Another fun little bit, if you want to enchant them with something low level and fun, if the door hook breaks, magical item the hook , and have it cast a silent image of being nothing but a brick wall behind it. After looking over so many brick walls, they may not even test it to see if it is real.

[falloutimperial]

Set up a classic situation that the players are familiar with, then cheat. Example, have two identical doors with two identical guards. When the characters approach have a sign explain that one room is a pit trap and the other is an illusion of a pit trap. Explain one guard tells only truths and the other only lies.



Both rooms are pits.

[Jormengand]

Are you allowed to take PF stuff? If so, bear traps. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/goods-and-services/hunting-camping-survival-gear#TOC-Trap-Bear) All the bear traps. Why? Because they cost, like, 2 GP?

Finding some way to get them to drink a potion of Inflict Serious/Critical Wounds is also on the cards.

[BowStreetRunner]

The party has to pass through a series of three water-filled tunnels. Each tunnel is the same length, and there is a map of the tunnels in the first room so they know how long each tunnel is. Halfway through the middle tunnel there is a trap that fills the water with a contact poison that does CON damage.

The key to this sort of trap is that since the length of the tunnel is known, the party may attempt to pass through without Water Breathing or a similar effect if they believe they can hold their breath long enough. Any of the party who are trying to hold their breath to pass through the tunnels suddenly have lower CON scores and can't hold their breath as long.

STR damage is another option here, as it affects their swim checks. Of course, unconsciousness and paralysis poisons both work in this scenario too.

[Ace Nex]

I love how devious some of these are and I would certainly love to use them, but I forgot to mention that I don't want to kill them... just really really really harm them in the process.

[Jack_Simth]

I love how devious some of these are and I would certainly love to use them, but I forgot to mention that I don't want to kill them... just really really really harm them in the process.

OK, so:
Tap their resources.
a) Doors mounted on walls (mentioned). Lots of them. They're all cheaply locked from the wall side, so they burn their Knock spells simply figuring out which is which.
b) Spell Traps. As an Archivist, you can get any divine spell. You can't get Spike Stones easily (it's 4th level), but Spike Growth and Snare are free for the taking. A quirk in the scroll creation rules and the magic item collaboration rules mean that you can get Arcane spells as well (The person who pays the XP determines whether a scroll is Arcane or Divine - normally, this is a waste: that Arcane scroll of Restoration or that Divine scroll of Fireball isn't very useful outside of Use Magic Device - but for an Archivist, this means you can get any spell where you can convince someone to collaborate on a scroll of it with you. Explosive Runes everywhere. Have a Magic Mouth tell them that the writing on a particular wall tells you how to get through the wall (And it does. You stack enough explosive runes on the wall that if they read them all, the wall is breached and they can pass through it - Explosive Runes does small enough damage at once that they'll just heal up after each one... make sure to grid them out and leave some things around that look like clues as to which one is 'right').
c) Distractions. Put a bunch of random, crazy things all over the place just for the sake of getting them to spend time investigating them. Poems on walls (and the doors from earlier). Strange designs. Detailed statues. Be specific. The more detail is recited to the players, the more they're likely to think that it's actually important and waste time investigating. This causes their buffs to run out....

[erok0809]

I saw these somewhere else on this board, but I want to put them here.

Make a door appear to have a bunch of locks on it with a Silent Image or something, and put a depression in the wall in the shape of a hand. Above this, have a sign that says "Only the most pure/evil/strong/whatever may pass." The handprint is a shocking grasp trap, and the door is unlocked.

Also, you can put a door with a bunch of bars on it, and have like 7 levers off to the side. Every time they move a lever, some of the bars move, it doesn't really matter which, because the bars don't matter. I would have the door be unlocked already, or you can make the way to unlock it completely unrelated to the levers, like some random button. To make this one better, have the room start filling with water as soon as one lever is moved, to make them start freaking out about drowning, and potentially frustrate them even more when the door opens with no effort. I would make this room relatively small in that case though, so it will fill quickly.

Also, for fun, look up the Tomb of Horrors module, and take some inspiration from there. That should be fun.

[BowStreetRunner]

...I don't want to kill them...

Where's the fun in that? :smallconfused:

Ah, well. How about this instead? Put in a hallway with a stone barrier 5 ft thick but pierced through with holes. Next to the barrier is a table filled with flasks all labeled 'Gaseous Form' but not all containing the same liquid. Two are potions of Gaseous Form, but the spell Magic Aura has been used to make them appear non-magical. Two are poison. Two are alcohol (dangerously strong spirits from the Arms & Equipment Guide). On the far side of the holes is a lever that will lower the entire 5 ft stone barrier. However, lowering the wall section also reveals a gelatinous cube that now fills the hallway dividing the party in two.

One of the ironic twists to this scenario is that creatures in Gaseous Form are immune to poison. So while someone taking the potion will not cure the damage already done if they first ingested the poison, if they are in gaseous form when the secondary damage occurs they will be protected.

[Razanir]

Fakeouts. Have a few situations where there's an obvious trap and a non-obvious bypass. Then once they're used to it, you have the non-obvious path be a trap and the obvious path be safe.

Also, detail is a brilliant idea. Make something intricately detailed, only to be completely unimportant. A certain cup of a carpenter comes to mind...

[DeltaEmil]

And here I thought this thread was going to be about girls that turn out to be boys.

[Crasical]

And here I thought this thread was going to be about girls that turn out to be boys.

Well, Ace didn't say whether there where any Elves in the party or not.

Also, doorway in a small alcove in the wall midway down a long hallway. Triggering the trap sends a bast of magical energy sweeping down the hallway, leaving anyone who was standing directly in front of the door when it was opened unharmed, but hurting the party that pokes open doors with a stick from around the corner.

Alternatively, the alcove is very small, and only holds one or two creatures at a time. Have the trap fairly obvious but with a delay, like a large boulder being dropped and starting to roll down the hall or a slow-moving wall of spikes or fire. Let the PC's fight for the spot by the door, or choose who to sacrifice by remaining in the hall.

[Deophaun]

Don't forget to have a room full of statues. Regular statues. Throw magic aura on a few randomly for fun.

Put suggestive scratch marks in the floor "as if this portion of the wall moves."

Place ghoul glyphs over pits.

In a room is a lead-lined sarcophagus. It appears as though a finely crafted spear, haft decorated with intricately carved holy symbols, is sticking into the center, keeping whatever lies within perpetually skewered. Wards are placed around it as if to keep anything from leaving the room. Frescoes decorate the walls showing powerful champions (more numerous and powerful than whoever you expect) cutting their way through swarms of undead towards a being whose figure has been burned off the wall. Inside the sarcophagus, if the heroes are foolish enough to open it, lies... the way down.

[Razanir]

I'm back with more ideas and more references.

1) Fake entrances
2) Gender-bending teleporting mist. You step through and wind up outside, gender-bent, with all your gear missing
3) An illusion of the tomb tower crumbling to the ground

[Deophaun]

The party must navigate their way through a slick tunnel coated in grease. Pits and slopes routinely threaten to dump the party into spike traps or other nastyness. Midway through the tunnel, they come to a statue holding a glass globe. Suspended in the middle of the globe is a gem. Also in the globe is a bunch of alchemist fire.

[Nettlekid]

And here I thought this thread was going to be about girls that turn out to be boys.

Come for the innuendo, stay for the threatened TPK!

Adding my suggestions, I can't at all remember where I saw it, but I read somewhere about a trick lock that appears to be in the opposite state as it is. So, it starts out unlocked, but appears to be locked. So whoever has the means (by Open Lock or Knock or whatever) tries to unlock it, and it appears to become unlocked, but that actually locks it, so they can't open the door. If they try to open the lock again, it looks locked, but is in fact open. Repeat, repeat, and the design is to get them so annoyed that they leave. If you were to intersperse these among the hall with the doors-on-walls, or really just any door, then you can really add to the confusion. Let's say you have one of these on a door, along with a regular lock. The real lock is locked (so if they try to open the door, they can't) and the trick lock is unlocked, but looks locked. They Knock both locks. Real lock unlocks, trick lock locks. They still can't open it. It would be quite frustrating, especially if they decide to re-lock the real lock thinking it's the trick lock.

But really, you shouldn't have to overdo it. Of all the characters you just mentioned, only the Artificer has Trapfinding, and have they really maxed out both Search and Disable Device, when they have Craft, Spellcraft, UMD, and Knowledges, and many other more useful skills to use? They may not even have a Wand of Knock at the ready. Just mess with them a little, and you'll be fine. It's not like they're going to use Scry and Die tactics on you.

[Azoth]

1)Pressure traps that slam the floor to the wall...or vice versa.
2)levers that open random pitfalls
3)Mimics instead of treasure chests
4)The never ending fall/hallway (teleportation circle halfway that sends you back to start)
5)Magically darkened hallways with 2x4s set at random heights
6)pitfalls with glass walls halfway across. (So your PC jumps into it and falls down into the pit)
7)an ornate ceiling filled with gems/coins that if broken drops rust monsters on the party
8)Illusionary boulder rolling down an incline at them
9)Spike pits covered with illusionary floors, floors covered with illusionary spike pits
10)a ceiling that falls down on them but uses complex gears to calculate its weight so one person can escape if he leaves the others to die...obvious turnoff switch in sight (also booby trapped)
11) chess master. A grid room full of appropriate cure/inflict traps that auto reset when stepped on. Fill half the room with undead. Two portcullis seal the room once the party is inside, and won't open until all living or undead within are destroyed.
12) Mario world. Put a teleporter at the top of stairs that port the victim directly over a large pipe to a lower level (insert fall damage here).
13) swarm city. Have a room start to fill with swarms of whatever you like once the party remove, knock over, blow out the only candle in the room. It was an insect bane candle.
14) Float like a bee. Have 5' sections of the floor give way once so much weight is on it.
15) Falling tower. Walking up the stairs is easy, but if you turn to go back the stairs start collapsing from most recent to oldest. (The trick is to jump stairs stopping the process)
16) Cat Lift. Illusion a really heavy creature/object to look like a cat or some such unassuming creature. The only way to move past the door it go move the cat off of the pressure plate it is sitting on.

[Segev]

The game is almost through with this hall full of snakes. Only five are real; forty-five are fakes.

[RogueDM]

Vacu-Room:
I had a good trap room once. Well, more than once, but I'm talking about one in particular here. The party entered a room with something they'd want to take (treasure in some cases, mine had prisoners) and removing said mcguffin springs the trap. The doors seal and the ceiling begins raising, or the floor lowers. As the room expands it creates a vacuum and thins out the air threatening to suffocate the party unless they can find the doodad to stop the trap.

In my case the release was to make one of the prisoners scream in pain, and I even had the party find a book with the solution written in it. I had the relevant page written up including a list of who each of the prisoners were and why they were there... and the party didn't figure it out. I literally handed each of them the solution and none of them saw it, just the prisoner list. But one of the prisoners was heckling the party so the rogue shot her and inadvertently freed them from the trap.

But the idea is that it is the inverse of the crushing room and is a bit unexpected. Creating a sense of urgency (similar to the above drowning trap) helps to at least create the illusion of a deadly trap without any real potential of a tpk (since you control the rate of expansion). Could also give them a puzzle or riddle to solve (in place of just finding a mechanism) in the allotted time.

Edit: Oh, and debilitating traps. Blind/deafness, curses, shin-breakers, caltrops. Adventurers hate being disabled and eventually they'll run out of remedies.

[ArqArturo]

I like traps linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps, linked to traps.

[Dlkpi]

2) Gender-bending teleporting mist. You step through and wind up outside, gender-bent, with all your gear missing
That sounds painfully familiar... is that from the Tomb of Horrors?

As for a few evil traps of my own:

Buy a pair of magic gloves of some sort, leave them lying around - most adventurers can't resist taking something like that. Poison the fingertips with a contact poison, so when they wear them they'll get it all over their supplies, weapons, comrades... and have no idea where it's coming from.
Gust of wind traps are fairly innocuous - unless they're whipping a spray of acid into your face.
Illusion yourself a lava-moat (or just a deep moat with sharks in it, if your budget can't handle thermal illusions. If it's before they've hit a lot of your other traps, they won't be as suspicious, and with any luck won't bother to check.

[NM020110]

From Frostburn comes the spell Icicle. Second level spell, creates a falling icicle trap. Lasts indefinitely if the area is cold enough to keep them from melting. 4d6 damage when they fall.

If your base is cold enough that icicles naturally form...well, walking into a massive chamber with a large number of doors (many being possibly fake) is one thing. Looking up to see that the ceiling is encrusted with Icicles, any or all of which may fall when walked under? That is quite another.

[Jormengand]

Oh, illusionary floor is also a pretty nice one. :D

[Razanir]

That sounds painfully familiar... is that from the Tomb of Horrors?

All three in that post were

[BowStreetRunner]

Don't forget to have a room full of statues...

This actually reminded me of one of my all-time favorites. It was a room full of mirrors and stone sculptures that looked like adventurers caught in various poses of surprise. A couple were sculpted with blindfolds on their faces that looked like they were partially pulled off with the adventurer's trying to hold them on. Between the mirrors and stone adventurers we were certain we were dealing with something that had a petrifying gaze attack. Of course, the joke was on us as it was just a hall full of mirrors and statues.

You could put anything else in here and the PCs would be totally prepared for the wrong encounter. :smallbiggrin:

[Sith_Happens]

Don't forget to have a room full of statues. Regular statues. Throw magic aura on a few randomly for fun.

The room contains a trap that fills the room with magical darkness and turns some of the statues invisible. Bonus points if they're angel statues.

[Razanir]

The room has contains a trap that fills the room with magical darkness and turns some of the statues invisible. Bonus points if they're angel statues.

More bonus points if you also have a pit trap or teleportation trap in the room that takes you to a younger looking version of the dungeon.

[Dlkpi]

More bonus points if you also have a pit trap or teleportation trap in the room that takes you to a younger looking version of the dungeon.

And even more bonus points if every time the lights go out, you toggle the invisibility on some of the statues so that the same number of statues are visible, but they are in different locations/poses.

[Segev]

A Magic Mouth that speaks with a child's voice and is calling for its mummy?

[Razanir]

And even more bonus points if every time the lights go out, you toggle the invisibility on some of the statues so that the same number of statues are visible, but they are in different locations/poses.

Why have we never made a Weeping-Angel-themed dungeon before?!

[CyberThread]

your avatar is to busy licking my screen.

[Thiyr]

I'm always a fan of brown mold (found here (www.d20srd.org/srd/dungeons.htm)). Pretty much any way to consistently get fire going to it is going to be fun. I like having it grow into torches, thus making it grow again in explosive fashion. For a more controlled method, a timed dispenser of fire (someone using prestidigitation at it, contraption to drop alchemists fire, etc) works as well. best part, entirely nonlethal.

[Lightlawbliss]

it's amazing what some magical darkness and a greased pit do when used together.

one of my favorites that's been used on me was an alternating reverse gravity trap in the middle of a tall room. from the top you just had to go off the edge and fall onto an invisible wall of force walkway and follow it to the illusion covered door (surrounded by walls of force on all sides just for the fun of it.)

at the end of it all, put in a trap of cure light wounds that activates whenever someone steps on a spike ringed plate that has illusions making it look like there are spikes covering it. The spikes on the edge are real :smallsmile: .

[Fates]

Elixir of Love with a Magic Aura on it to make it appear to be a healing potion or something can be quite entertaining.

A room that is arranged like a giant chess board with life-sized pieces on either side can be fun, particularly if you include things like a lever, wall features that seem like they would open a door, and possibly an arcane mark or magic aura spell on the pieces to make them seem to be of magical nature. Then, have the room slowly fill with poison gas and the door slam shut, but not lock. The PCs will likely assume the door has locked itself and will desperately try to solve the chess game before dying or falling unconscious or something from the poison.

Gelatinous Cubes are your friend.

[ThatGuyOvaThere]

One of my favorite traps is a spiked pit, on the roof, that has reversed gravity, and a silent image to make it look like the roof, and to top it off nystul's magic aura to make it seem mundane. Of course if the roof is stone a dwarf can see right through that.

[rexx1888]

if you honestly do any of this in your 'home' and the PC's dont immediately kill you on site then theyre dumb and your going to be participating in a tpk soon.

i know that sounds harsh, but seriously only a truly evil person would build their home like this, an any PC that doesnt immediately decide to put that person down after even one of these messed up fudgery traps goes off deserves to die painfully.

just a friendly heads up, i guarantee that if my current character was on the recieving end of this stuff hed just mash the person responsible :P

on the helpful side of things though, you could always give the players the option of three seemingly identical doors. with a thorough examination of them, the door in the middle has some secret evil glyph or something. thats the door that leads somewhere useful, whereas the other two lead to various dangerous horrible things that are utterly pointless :P

[Jack_Simth]

Oh, fake entryway and fake maze.

You build a maze. A devilishly clever maze, incorporating anything you like.

The actual entry to areas of importance is a well hidden hatch in the ceiling, right next to the entry to the maze.

[Vizzerdrix]

An Animate Object trap that specifically targets undergarments.

A maze with a caltrop/ black sand floor. Catching an animated chair and riding it through is the only safe way to pass. Good luck with those ride checks.


Bored animated traps. Get them to laugh and they'll let you pass.

[Bethrezen]

Split the party up for a short time and have them regroup in a room. Have them enter through doors on opposite sides. Each door is enchanted to disguise whoever walks through it as some sort of monster/enemy/etc for a short time, making it appear as if each half of the party has stumbled into a hostile enviroment.

Another one of my favorites is a maze where the walls are completely composed of mirrors. Drop some unpleasant beastie in there with them (I enjoy Umberhulks personally) and watch them try and figure out just where this thing is as it stalks them through it, all while trying to find the exit.