Traps in Pathfinder (Magical and Mundane)

[Feint's End]

OK I'm planning to play a Cryptic (Psionic Class for those who don't know) focusing on traps in combat. My plan is essentially to create them beforehand (which should work fairly well cause fast trapper) and then use fold traps to use them in fight for cc and other purposes. Now I have a few questions.

-I'm not really knowledgeable in creating magical traps. Where can I find the exact rules to do so?

-How can I imagine does a magical trap look like? Is it a hidden symbol painted on the floor? Because how does fold trap look like with a magical trap? Do I essentially "fold" the pattern of the trap in a supernatural way?

-Any suggestions on some useful traps and ways to increase their usefulness? 3.5 material is alright aswell.

Thanks for your help.

[Psyren]

What is "fast trapper?" Or did you mean Swift Trapper? Just want to be sure I'm understanding you right.

The rules for PCs creating traps of all kinds are here. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/traps-hazards-and-special-terrains/traps#TOC-Designing-a-Trap) Basically you need Craft Wondrous Item. You probably won't be able to cast any of the spells in the trap so you'll have to bump the DC up for each one you can't supply, just as if you were making any other wondrous item. Also, note that at late levels you can use Major Ectoplasmic Creation to make most mechanical traps from thin air.

Magical traps can look like just about anything. For example, Pool of Fear is a puddle. If you want to represent what the Cryptic is doing visually, just have the trap become part of one of her tattoos , and let her throw that symbol when it's time to reactivate the trap.

[stack]

Note that traps seem to be pretty expensive. They don't really seem priced for convenient player use, a drawback that makes me sad since the cryptic has such potential in that field.

[Feint's End]

What is "fast trapper?" Or did you mean Swift Trapper? Just want to be sure I'm understanding you right.

The rules for PCs creating traps of all kinds are here. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/traps-hazards-and-special-terrains/traps#TOC-Designing-a-Trap) Basically you need Craft Wondrous Item. You probably won't be able to cast any of the spells in the trap so you'll have to bump the DC up for each one you can't supply, just as if you were making any other wondrous item. Also, note that at late levels you can use Major Ectoplasmic Creation to make most mechanical traps from thin air.

Magical traps can look like just about anything. For example, Pool of Fear is a puddle. If you want to represent what the Cryptic is doing visually, just have the trap become part of one of her tattoos , and let her throw that symbol when it's time to reactivate the trap.

Duh ... yeah my bad. Yeah I meant Swift Trapper. Yeah I figured I wouldn't be able to cast most of the spells/powers and have to buy scrolls for that purpose. I think it's not gonna be too big an issue since I should be able to pump UMD fairly well and the DM is quite generous wealthwise.
Thanks for the Ectoplasmatic Creation Trick but I'm not sure if most mechanical traps are worth it (unless of course you fight a low level army and have some time to prepare). Ranger Traps are rather nice though ... especially if they are (su).

I also like the idea of it appearing as sort of a tattoo on your body. Would definitely increase the overall flavour of the already awesome Cryptic.


Note that traps seem to be pretty expensive. They don't really seem priced for convenient player use, a drawback that makes me sad since the cryptic has such potential in that field.

Well I think the cryptic can make good use of them anyways. You just need to get resetting ones. Fold Pattern effectively allows you to carry them around and Swift Trigger lets me active one of them at will per round. If properly done this can break the action economy quite well.


On a general note I think Cryptics are an awesome class with so much to offer. There are so many directions you can go it's not even fun (sadly the Dread didn't get the same treatment). They can focus on Tattoos, Traps, Debuffing, Ranged Combat or even melee with an archetype (scary, scary melee combatants they are). All of that while still maintaining their full utility power and effectively being better skillmonkeys than most other classes short of Investigators (But come on ... those are essentially the ultimate skillmonkeys). After I finish my Psywar guide I might start writting one up for this class.