Quiddle's trap finder 3000, Guaranteed Trap finding for less than 40gp

[Quiddle]

Trap finder 3000
rat-1gp
11ft telescoping pole-5gp
5 nail <1cp
barrel-2gp
4 wheels >30gp (based price of 2 carts)
sand or dirt-free
1 Put the rat and the sand/dirt in the barrel attach the pole to the top of the barrel and the 4 wheels to the sides.
2 Send the contraption rolling down halls where you think there might be traps. It should trigger all life based proximity, wire, and pressure based traps.
3 ????
4 Profit
cost: >40gp

Deluxe Trapspringer 5000
above stuff
+Create Crawling Claw scroll-375gp (makes two hands)
Attach one of these to the contraption and have it open doors as well as push the thing along. The hand should survive most traps because general traps aim for the body of the victim and not the hand.
cost: >227gp (counting the scroll as 1/2 its cost because this only uses 1/2 the generated effect)

So much easier than using class features and skill points, am I right?
Thoughts?

[Psyren]

What if the traps are uphill?

In all seriousness, there are a number of complex triggers your rat will not trip. Magical traps in particular (the truly dangerous ones, as you need trapfinding to find them - in 3.5 anyway) can trigger on things like race, alignment, size and even speech.

[Jack_Simth]

Trap finder 3000
rat-1gp
11ft telescoping pole-5gp
5 nail <1cp
barrel-2gp
4 wheels >30gp (based price of 2 carts)
sand or dirt-free
1 Put the rat and the sand/dirt in the barrel attach the pole to the top of the barrel and the 4 wheels to the sides.
2 Send the contraption rolling down halls where you think there might be traps. It should trigger all life based proximity, wire, and pressure based traps.
3 ????
4 Profit
cost: >40gp

Deluxe Trapspringer 5000
above stuff
+Create Crawling Claw scroll-375gp (makes two hands)
Attach one of these to the contraption and have it open doors as well as push the thing along. The hand should survive most traps because general traps aim for the body of the victim and not the hand.
cost: >227gp (counting the scroll as 1/2 its cost because this only uses 1/2 the generated effect)

So much easier than using class features and skill points, am I right?
Thoughts?

Couple of things...
1) As noted by Psyren, there's a lot of magic traps that will miss, which will hit you.
2) Lots of things will destroy your setup - like, say, a decent pit trap. Or an area damage trap. You'll need to replace this often.
3) There are a number of things it will trigger before you get there... that'll still hit you anyway. Like, say, a Fireball trap (20 foot spread).

Edit:
What you need is something much longer range. Like, say, a wand of Unseen Servant (1 hour duration per charge, only takes damage from area effects, 50 to a wand) a scroll of Detect Magic (CL 9, minimum), and a scroll of Permanency. You use the Unseen Servant to drag a bag of rocks (weighted to 100 pounds) around in front of you. Meanwhile, you use Detect Magic to look for anything discriminating.

[Quiddle]

Couple of things...
1) As noted by Psyren, there's a lot of magic traps that will miss, which will hit you.
I don't know about you but most traps I run into aren't super specific.



2) Lots of things will destroy your setup - like, say, a decent pit trap. Or an area damage trap. You'll need to replace this often.
Yeah, it will get destroyed but thats the point the set up is really cheap.



3) There are a number of things it will trigger before you get there... that'll still hit you anyway. Like, say, a Fireball trap (20 foot spread).
It is much easier to avoid a trap if you watch it trigger.

the unseen wand costs 750gp + scroll of permenency 10,125 gp = 272 trapfinders
I guess it might be worth it if every other square has a trap....

[Jack_Simth]

I don't know about you but most traps I run into aren't super specific.

What? You don't run across traps in an Evil lair set to go off when their Detect Good spell trips? You don't run across life-based traps that have been tuned so that they don't waste themselves when the local rats go by?

Sounds like your DM isn't putting much thought into his traps. Any place you've got people living will have a simple bypass mechanism so it doesn't kill the help when they come home after celebrating at the local bar-equivalent. There's a lot of things in D&D that can base things off your alignment, your deity, and quite a few other things.



Yeah, it will get destroyed but thats the point the set up is really cheap.

Also extremely bulky. How many did you bring with you, again? It doesn't really matter how cheap they are if you need ten and only brought two. Worse if you were going to the palace ball and left all of them at home. A wand you can keep in your pocket, and a permanent Detect Magic stays until the DM specifically gets rid of it.


It is much easier to avoid a trap if you watch it trigger.

The setup triggers it when it's eleven feet away (the length of your pole). Fireball has a 20 foot spread. It fires, burns you, and then you get to figure it out (if you survived).

Then there's things like the Symbols (with a 60 foot radius effect), various Glyph spells. Summon Monster traps. Quite a few others, really.


the unseen wand costs 750gp + scroll of permenency 10,125 gp = 272 trapfinders
I guess it might be worth it if every other square has a trap....
Note that refills only cost 750 gp, however. Additionally, that method will usually be done by a Wizard or Sorcerer, who can just cast the relevant spells. Also of note is that as Detect Magic has a penetration profile, it'll find a lot of the good treasure without a roll as well, and will help you sort out which loot is worth paying attention to, and which is not.

[Der_DWSage]

...And here I am, just kind of wondering 'Whatever happened to the noble 10 foot pole? Was that not good enough for people?' At best, you put another 10 foot pole on the end at a 90 degree angle, so you can trigger traps around corners. Weight-based trigger? Put the mouthy Gnome on the end.

Razza frazza whippersnappers and their goldanged contraptions. Back in my day, we took fortitude saves vs. death and we LIKED it! Made ya feel alive! (Except for when you failed, and you suddenly became the opposite.) Tripwires were tripped just to see what they'd do! We made six new characters per session, and by jove we loved every minute!

Mumble grumble danged kids...

[sketchtb]

Put the mouthy Gnome on the end.

Razza frazza whippersnappers and their goldanged contraptions. Back in my day, we took fortitude saves vs. death and we LIKED it! Made ya feel alive! (Except for when you failed, and you suddenly became the opposite.) Tripwires were tripped just to see what they'd do! We made six new characters per session, and by jove we loved every minute!

Mumble grumble danged kids...

My party did this to me once... Of course I was a whisper gnome rogue with maxed ranks in search.

[ahenobarbi]

Nice idea for the first level. Well you could improve it by using Unseen Servant to drag sandbag with a rat tied to it. Or hiring a rogue. Chances are he (or she or it) will die before adventure ends so you won't have to share loot (just make sure to word contract properly).


...And here I am, just kind of wondering 'Whatever happened to the noble 10 foot pole? Was that not good enough for people?' At best, you put another 10 foot pole on the end at a 90 degree angle, so you can trigger traps around corners. Weight-based trigger? Put the mouthy Gnome on the end.

Razza frazza whippersnappers and their goldanged contraptions. Back in my day, we took fortitude saves vs. death and we LIKED it! Made ya feel alive! (Except for when you failed, and you suddenly became the opposite.) Tripwires were tripped just to see what they'd do! We made six new characters per session, and by jove we loved every minute!

Mumble grumble danged kids...

:smallbiggrin:

[elonin]

I'd prefer to use a summon monster 1. Even more I would prefer to just use the fighter.

[Chronos]

Why expend any effort at all on finding traps? Finding traps is easy. Anyone at all can find traps, and usually does.

What's hard, and what your setup doesn't help at all with, is finding traps without triggering them. Sure, you're not triggering them on you, but the ones that would be triggering on you aren't the dangerous ones, anyway. What about the traps that summon a monster? Or the traps that roll a huge boulder down the entire length of the corridor? Or the traps that you can't even tell that they triggered at all, because all they do is ring a bell in the guardhouse so every guard in the place can rush you at once?

[Raven777]

We used a Dretch from SMIII as our trap finder. We roleplayed it that it was the same Dretch every time. Poor bastard must have hated my Sorcerer's guts.

[Jack_Simth]

We used a Dretch from SMIII as our trap finder. We roleplayed it that it was the same Dretch every time. Poor bastard must have hated my Sorcerer's guts.When using the Summon Elemental Reserve Feat for trapfinding on a Cleric one campaign, the DM eventually put in some fluff things along those lines. Like a wanted poster on the plane of Earth, that just said "HIM" with my character's picture.