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Iituem
2007-06-07, 08:06 AM
This one is a throw-out to anyone who feels like showing off their trapmaking skills. I'm looking to add a few interesting traps to a campaign, but I'd like to have some insights from the rather creative minds here as to what would make good traps.

In other words, I'd like you all to try and post some homebrewed traps here, statted and with an associated CR. Three rules:

1. They must be your own traps. No cribbing from a campaign setting if you can help it.

2. Do not just give me a link to a long list of ready-made traps, this is an exercise in creativity and devious planning.

3. They must all be mundane traps, although don't be afraid to go Heath-Whittington on my rear.

Get trappin'!



P.S. Combinations of traps that work together are allowed.

Realms of Chaos
2007-06-07, 08:16 AM
This one is simplicity itself, a trap for the ages.

The Messy Hallway (CR 1)
This hallway is filled with strategically placed refuse (which looks haphazard without a dc 30 spot or craft (trapmaking) check). The refuse is scattered just far enough to allow small or smaller creatures through without difficulty but providing light rubble for larger creatures. In addition, due to strategic placing of glass shards, move silently checks take an additional -2 penalty and the ground is considered covered in caltrops (once again avoidable by small or smaller creatures). Lastly, there is enough flamable material around to make the entire hallway flamable.

Here is another:

The Hollow Fruit (CR?)
This fruit has been slightly hollowed out (possibly while still on a tree), poisoned, and filled with a core of antivenom. A Small whole over which this took place is visible with a dc 25 spot check. In order too eat it (more) safely, a whole to the antivenom must be pierced first so that it can be drunk before the poisoned fruit is eaten. The CR of this trap depends on the poison.

Mr. Moogle
2007-06-07, 09:03 AM
Cr 5-6
First you need to make traps that cast Slow on anyone who enters and then you make the hall crmple into a massive spiked pit trap.

Wraithy
2007-06-07, 09:21 AM
a regular pit trap (no spikes), but when youhit the pottom of the pit the floor collapses onto a pile of padding/feathers etc. the adventurers confusion is soon stopped as the collapsing bottom of the pit releases a large falling cielling of spikes (treat each spike as a long sword)
unsure of CR

sigurd
2007-06-07, 10:31 AM
Just a pit with an illusionary bottom 12 feet from the base.

At the very bottom there is a perpetual silence (so screams and spells are affected), 2 small iron doors and various holes in the walls for spears and dart guns.


sigurd

FoeHammer
2007-06-07, 10:50 AM
Jello Pit

This trap consists of a section of hallway with a portcullis at each end. Once the PC's are between them they shut. Then the floor falls away into a pit of Gelatinous Cubes which automatically Engulf the PC's. As the PC's fall into the Cubes they are not entitled to the Reflex saving throw OR Attack of opportunity in the Engulf description. If they avoid being killed they find that the walls have been made smooth by the Cubes acid requiring a DC 25 Climb check to escape. However the Portcullises are still closed requiring a Character to make a DC 15 Strength check to open a hole in the bars, and a DC 10 Climb check to squeeze through. Once on the other side it requires a DC 15 Strength check to pull open the portcullis.
CR: I'm thinking around 7

Comments?:smallsmile: Criticism?:smallfurious: Praise?:smallcool: All of the Above?:smallconfused: Let me know!

Korias
2007-06-07, 10:51 AM
CR 12 Trap: Ancient's Demise

3 Round Trap:

First Round: Character walks on stairs, stairs transform into Ramp. Character Slides down, Reflex Save DC 22 to prevent and remain on stairs. Oil is then poured from the top of the stairs, preventing them from climbing back up.

Players that fall into a pit at the botom are stuck there. Its 15 Ft Deep.

Second Round; Pit fills with sand, lifts the player up to the edge of the pit, but traps them in the sand with their head visible. Then, Mummy Bandages fall from the ceiling, giving the character Mummy Rot on DC 15 Fort Save.

Third Round: Honey is dropped from the Ceiling, and Army ants are released from holes in the wall.

Bryn
2007-06-07, 11:04 AM
Well, it's not the most original of traps, but...

As the Enemy turns the corner, they see several kobolds standing in a small room, in which they press a button on the wall the doors of which promptly close. A low rumbling can be heard, and after a few minutes the doors open. It is clearly a lift.

Except it isn't: the kobolds were entirely illusory, and the 'lift' doesn't actually move. The button actually drops large rocks from the ceiling and simultaneously opens a trap door in the floor to a pit full of spikes (which are poisoned). The Enemy lands on the spikes, crushing the Enemy into them, and if the Enemy dive out the way to avoid the rocks they will land on the spikes. The spikes must be pretty strong to resist the repeated impact of rocks. The spikes are on a trapdoor themselves, and this opens, dropping the large rocks into a hole so that they can be dragged up again later.

The other Enemies, of course, don't realise that their friends have fallen to their untimely deaths thanks to the closed doors of the lift. The lift doors open revealing a completely empty room, and without magic the Enemy will never realise their comrades fate.

SoulCatcher78
2007-06-07, 11:35 AM
Might be a stretch for Kobold workmanship but who says they can't inherit it?

Hollow Door trap. Disguise the door as a standard wood/stone construct but the inside holds oil (approx 2 flasks worth). The door frame is a basic flint and steel grinder. Break down the door and get coated in oil (or better yet, alchemists fire) while the sparks rain down on your head. Oil + Dwarf = Kobold Candle!

The same idea can be used with acid or any other liquid (contact poison on splinters?).

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2007-06-07, 08:21 PM
It used a touch of magic, but was hilarious.

Mine railway car over bridge over x foot deep chasm. (adjust pit to adjust CR) The middle section of the bridge is an illusion. They go across the bridge, and fall X amount of feet to their death. Low saves though :smallfrown:

Fako
2007-06-07, 08:29 PM
A regular pit trap, 20'-30' long and as wide as the hallway. However, only the first 10' are visible, as there are 5' square trap doors covering the rest of the pit. That way, they jump over, only to find themselves falling anyways! :smallbiggrin:

Callix
2007-06-08, 02:53 AM
40ft long, 5ft wide pit trap with counterweighted doors in 5ft corridor, over 10ft pit with permanent silence and a crushing wall mechanism. On a 1 minute delay. The people in there can't get out because the trap door shut. The people upstairs can't get them out without fallin in themselves. To be truly evil, put the trigger 3/4 of the way over the trap. 6-man or less party all fall in at once.

JellyPooga
2007-06-08, 05:32 AM
Might be a stretch for Kobold workmanship but who says they can't inherit it?

Hollow Door trap. Disguise the door as a standard wood/stone construct but the inside holds oil (approx 2 flasks worth). The door frame is a basic flint and steel grinder. Break down the door and get coated in oil (or better yet, alchemists fire) while the sparks rain down on your head. Oil + Dwarf = Kobold Candle!

The same idea can be used with acid or any other liquid (contact poison on splinters?).

heh heh...I really like that one. Kinda makes the PC's paranoid about breaking doors down again...:smallwink:

On a similar note, an oldy but goldy, the Trick Door. If you don't bypass the trap (by using the key), the door (which is specially weighted and VERY heavy) falls on you (Reflex save to avoid maybe). Not original, but can be surprising. Especially good if there's a second door behind the first.

An anti-lockpick trap (inspired by the Hollow Door): Inside the lock is a thin bag of acid (particularly prone to piercing). If you try to pick the lock, your picks pierce the bag, releasing the acid into the lock, dissolving (or rendering useless) the pick and the key mechanism (make sure the bolt is separate in some way, so that the acid doesn't compromise the doors integrety), preventing said lock from being picked.

Changing Maze: Works better with magic, but is possible mechanically (something that Kobolds might be especially apt at, given their mining expertise). The 'dungeon' complex is somewhat akin to a maze with dead ends etc. Pressure plates in certain places cause the tunnels to rotate into different configurations (preferably, the corridors that change are ones that are remote from the pressure plate that activates that particular corridor). The noise this causes (stone grinding on stone is pretty audible) is covered by the same noise being continuously generated throughout the complex (concealed grindstones should do the trick). Powered by whatever you want; falling water (a waterfall in fact) or slaves are my suggestions. Finding your way through a changing maze is a lot harder than finding your way through a static one.

SoulCatcher78
2007-06-08, 11:40 AM
Entrance tunnel with a hidden door that allows the dungeon dwellers to bypass the trap (hard to spot due to mosaic/statues/etc) with a false stone door at the far end. The floor is covered in debris that have blown in over time (leaves, twigs, dead animals). The floor of the passage is actually a metal grate (think pressure plate on a large scale...aprox 20' in legnth) that when walked on (to investigate the walls, check for traps, etc) begins to seep oil/alchemists fire onto the contents of the floor. This lasts for 3 rounds before a porticullis falls over the entrance trapping whoever was not staying back in the main entrance. Fire damage as applicable and the fuel/debris should burn itself out in 3 minutes of intense smoke and flame (3d6 damage per round + will save due to the smoke/confusion or take an additional 3d6 damage from panicked thrashing around (note: not a good time to stop, drop, and roll). This trap will reset after 3 rounds and the fuel resevoir holds enough oil/alchemists fire to operate up to 3 times. PCs attempting to raise the porticullis to release their comrades also take 3d6 fire damage.

Outdoorsy PCs are more likely to spot something wrong with this trap than your average rogue character (how'd those dead animals get in here?, why aren't there any tracks though here?). Druids and Rangers will most likely key into the fact that the oil/whatever smell kicks them in the face.

Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll
2007-06-08, 02:51 PM
A normal door.

No seriously. A normal door. However, it radiates 'overwhelming Evocation', and looks like its crazily trapped. The party will be afraid to go through it. Even though its just a door.

Smiley_
2007-06-08, 03:42 PM
First take a standard, square or circular, relatively large room. Rig it so said trap is triggered when the center 10 by 10 section is stepped on. Make it obviously a trap (DC 5 spot check to notice the slightly raised, bloodstained, discolored section).

As soon as everyone is in the room, presumably avoiding the trap, the doors close. An iron golem is dropped from the ceiling onto the central platform triggering a prismatic spray effect from all sides of the room. Everyone should be hit at least two times.

Watch the chaos ensue as the golem chases the party around and having another prismatic spray effect occur every time the platform is stepped on.

Tracersmith
2007-06-09, 07:46 PM
i think you guys are forgetting he asked for mechanical only

there was a pit trap (with 10x10x10 stone above) i used once where the doors of the trap hit a glass vile of acid, which ate through a cable that was holding up the stone, but the weight of a person on the floor of the pit was enough to keep the stone in place. When the party tries to help there friend in the pit out.....down comes the stone... but if they stay in the pit the live...

nooblade
2007-06-09, 07:59 PM
No magic doesn't mean that illusions are impossible! Make a room with weak floorboards (say that they break with 150 lbs or so) above a deep pit trap. Function as concealed pit trap, maybe, but its a whole room so there's at least a penalty to notice their real nature. From the previous room's door, make a 10 foot corridor into that room. Place treasure in said room, also have a skillmonkey kobold use a disguise/craft check to create "dolls" that look like real kobolds. Have a spot check to notice that they're fake, with a penalty because its far away. Maybe spot/search to notice the lack of heavy furniture? If they fail, you just say "you see a bunch of kobolds down the hall!"

When PCs open the door, fighter-type with bad spotting ability, low wisdom, and heavy armor first, they'll fall through the floorboards into the pit trap. Kobolds in adjacent hidden rooms (the pcs would've needed to progress further to reach them), they'll come back and storm them through arrow slits and such.

If the dungeon is created so the room will match others before it, it will be very difficult to tell the room is trapped. Placing a tough encounter below (think rust monster) for the fighter in heavy armor to make things even more interesting.