Trap Room Help

[20yrslater]

I have a room, lets say 40ft x 60ft. There is a crystal chandelier hanging in the center. There is a particular path of unmarked safe tiles to make it from one side to the other. If the characters step off the path, they activate a trap, lets say 60ft line of ice from the chandelier towards the block that was stepped on.

Two of my players have summon spells that total about 10-15 castings of total per day. In the past they just summon creatures/undead and command them to walk around stepping on traps.

Is there a way to avoid this and have them try and figure out the path another way?

Would I be an ass to make the entire room contained within an Anti-Magic Field and if I did that, how could I still use the traps line of ice?

Also, does detect magic, detect an anti-magic field?

Thanks in advance.

20yrslater

[Humble Master]

Have a Magic Circle Against Whatever. It will prevent summon creatures from entering the trapped area.

[Deophaun]

Two of my players have summon spells that total about 10-15 castings of total per day. In the past they just summon creatures/undead and command them to walk around stepping on traps.
Good. Let them waste their spells.

Is there a way to avoid this and have them try and figure out the path another way?
There is. It involves not treating traps as stand alone encounters. They need a reason to get through the trap and get through it quickly, where waiting for a bunch of summoned minions to poke and prod their way to a safe path is going to get them killed/their objective lost.

[20yrslater]

Thanks.. gives me something to think about.

[nickia]

Have the effects of the trap get worse the farther away from the safe path and fill the room with anchor mist to prevent summoning and teleportion.

[Darrin]

Is there a way to avoid this and have them try and figure out the path another way?


Many spell traps, particularly "glyph of {blah}" are keyed to a particular creature type. If all the PCs are humanoids, you can just say only humanoids trigger the trap. Summoned creatures are nearly always outsiders (summon monster), animals (summon nature's ally), constructs (conjure ice beast/summon desert ally) or undead (summon undead).

Somewhat more devious... a permanent "steal summoning" effect (from Complete Mage) in the room. Make sure the caster level is high, and any summoned creature is automatically directed to attack the original summoner. This could reveal more "safe squares" (if you're not mucking around with the triggering conditions), but the PCs now have to deal with whatever they summon. Admittedly, 1st level summons may not last any longer than wet kleenex, but you can possibly throw some buffs on the summons as well: bull's strength, haste, greater mighty wallop, etc.



Also, does detect magic, detect an anti-magic field?


In the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, detect magic can detect dead magic zones, which are similar to AMFs. But other than that... by a strict RAW reading, I'd probably say "no", but it might be worth posting a question in the rules thread.

[GreenETC]

Of course, depending on the level of your party, they could just climb around the room, teleport across, or Levitate/Fly over it. Or just shoot the chandelier down with arrows/spells.

I'd recommend making the unmarked path be a mirror of a marked path on the ground, so there's actually a puzzle or something involved. Trap rooms are rather pointless if there's no real solution other than brute force.

Sorts like this:
:smallfrown: = Bad :smallbiggrin: = Correct Path :smallsmile: = Fake Path :smallwink: = Where They Meet
:smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallbiggrin: :smallwink: :smallsmile: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown:
:smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallfrown: :smallsmile: :smallsmile: :smallfrown: :smallfrown:
:smallfrown: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallsmile: :smallsmile: :smallfrown:
:smallfrown: :smallbiggrin: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallsmile: :smallfrown:
:smallfrown: :smallbiggrin: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallsmile: :smallfrown:
:smallfrown: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallbiggrin: :smallwink: :smallsmile: :smallsmile: :smallsmile: :smallfrown:
:smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallwink: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown: :smallfrown:

[SethoMarkus]

Why is it that you want the players to get through the trap "on their own" specifically? It seems that they have found a way around traps that works for them, but they are still expending resources to do it. Just make them regret using up those spells, later.

I see this situation as similar to one in which a Wizard casts a Knock spell to open a door instead of using the Rogue in the group to Pick Lock. Either way they got through the door in a completely rules-legal way, but in one they expended resources, while in the other they did not. Summoning monsters to trip the traps uses up resources, figuring it out through trial and error does not (aside from the HP lost).

Personally, I don't think it is good form to try and force a specific solution onto the party. If they seem to bypass every trap with the same method, just make sure they can't use that method (through the nature of the trap or challenge, not by adding anti-magic fields and/or DM fiat to "fix" the trap).

Perhaps, introduce a maze with trapped hallways? Maybe a corridor or room that the characters have to crouch or crawl through prone? These would limit the usefulness of a summoned creature, while still allowing other creative solutions.

If the party walks away from a trap with fewer resources than when they walked up to it, it was a successful encounter.

[Darrin]

Another idea: Make the room bigger/longer so that they can get through it by using their preferred method, but it will take up all their remaining summons.

Then put a teleport trap 15' beyond the end of the room so that it teleports them back to the beginning and reshuffles the "safe" squares.

Hmm. Or skip the teleport and have the squares reshuffle every hour. When they come back out of the dungeon (hopefully when their summons are exhausted), they won't realize the path has changed.