Gnome alone? A christmas themed mini-dungeon!

[Swaoeaeieu]

it is that special time of year. And my players are gonna enjoy a nice winter adventure whether they like it or not :P

I got most of it planned out. but could use some ideas for one encounter: a grumpy little gnome is holed up in his home, he took something the PC's need to retrieve. But this inventive little tyke has trapped his house out the wazoo!

in the spirit of christmas (and the movie being adapted) i need some fun ways to impede the adventurers way through the house.
Point for style and humour. no need to go lethal or mean. just looking for fun ideas.

Anyone got some good ones?

Player level 4 btw

[Venger]

You might check out tucker's kobolds. They've got a lot of traps for low level adventurers you could tone down a little if you didn't want to kill everyone.

[John Longarrow]

20' pit trap with "Net" 15' down? All the fun of trapping the PCs without causing lethal damage?

Traditional "Water filled pit" that is frozen over so now a "slippery trap" that you treat as though hit with a grease spell?

Trap that shoots candied yams as party members instead of darts? Sounds silly until you find out there are moose in the area that LOVE candied yams and will start chasing to PC to eat it off them.

Door to snow filled area? Open door and ref 20 or be hit with a wall of snow? Treat as entangled until you dig out (cumulative DC 30 STR check, can be made as a full round action each round, others can help).

Just the ideas off the top of my head!

[Bucky]

Giant Syrup Jar. DC 12 Strength check to pull yourself out of the goop at the bottom, DC 25 climb check to get out (smooth wall tilted inwards)... but with up to a +10 bonus if enough of you is sticky from the goop.

The classic pie to the face trap is completely on-theme.

My personal favorite prank trap is the disco party. When triggered, DC-boosted Color Sprays everywhere. Of course, I usually run it in a spot where the party will have a combat encounter the second time through the room, but you have no need for that.

[Swaoeaeieu]

Oh i love the silly traps! I currently have a peck and feathers one and a springboard under a rug. Buckets swinging from the stairs and something with a slipery staircase and loads of caltrops. Keep em coming guys! I love it!

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I have an idea.
1)First make some honey fall on them in an hallway. The honey should slow them down.
Then make them go as fast as they can to the next door( you probably know how to make your friends run for their lives).
Fill the next room in swarms of bees( make the bees males* and make the party throw will vs fear if the bees swarm them(use illusions and make the bees look like females if the party have a good knowledge(nature))).


2)Make a giant cube of gelatin that looks like the ooze fall on them. Make them swim out.

*only the females have stingers.

[Swaoeaeieu]

any other christmas tropes i can use to spice up this seasonal adventure?

[John Longarrow]

Party opens door. Busty woman in an "Elf" costume starts hugging them and asking them to come watch her perform. Party now suffers from effects of a glitter dust spell. Party also needs to explain to the wives why they have flyers from "The lusty Elf" in their packs.

Carolers show up while party is going about what ever they are doing. Upon seeing party, carolers start screaming and run off to "Tell the cops". Gives the party the feeling they need to get done in a hurry before LEOs show up.

Ghost. Lives in the kitchen and cooks for the family. When the party shows up ghost starts tossing food at them before running away.

[Swaoeaeieu]

Ok so here is what i have so far, please give your impressions and maybe even additions/improvements?

Also, if any of my players stumble upon this, you know my username, you know we have an upcoming session, dont ruin this by reading it!

1) the steps to the front door are iced over. Reflex 15 or fall down. 1d4 non lethal dmg
2) Entry hall has a table with a tray of fresh pies. Taking one gets the pie launched at your face. Sign says ''Welcome guests! have a snack.
3) ''The button room'': 15 by 15 ft room with a small pedestal with a button on it. Pressing the button causes a 20 second countdown to start and all the entries and exists to be barred. Pressing the button resets the timer. Only way out is to let the timer run out. (borrowed from someone else on the internet this one)
4) Dinner table: entry from 3), opening the door drops a bucket of honey on the person entering, also triggers a big set of billows, launching feathers at the recently honeyd person
5)fridge: Peeking around the corner you can see a opened fridge causing a snowstorm in this little room. Standing in front of the fridge drops a load of snow, DC30 strength check to dig yourself out. (thanks for that one!)
6) Back door has a trail of oil that slides you into the basement (classic!)
7) One perfectly ordenary door, but detects as magic. Opening it causes the dragon device behind it to burn you head (straight from the movies ;) )
8) ''The bear trap'': another goldie from the internet. A sign mentions that ''Whatever you do, dont touch the beartrap!'' the room has a bear trap set in the middle. Triggering or disarming it causes a bear to drop into the room. Bear is friendly, unless you are covered in honey or other tastyness.
9) A room with a chest. Sign says ''I give up, i put the stolen items in the chest, just leave me alone'' Opening the chest spews glitter and other decoration DC 28 reflex to dodge. (i have never seen an adventurer who could resist a chest)
10) Simple room with a carpet. Carpet hides a spingboard launching you out the window, into the frozen pond outside.
11) A room with the ropes needed to climb up and catch the gnome. Room is also covered in calltrops and gives of a small heat shimmer. The shimmer is an illusion. There is however a secon illusion hiding the hot coals next to the calltrops. (i know my psywar will ignore the calltrops so this will be a nice suprise) The ropes when putting your weight on it release buckets of cold water. Doorway has a prestigiditation trap that cools all liquids.
12) The hidden staircase has a taunting gnome at the top. Running up the stairs are multiple options: the boards breakdown and you fall, another frozen step, more calltrops. And at the very top of the stairs is a pittrap, dumping you in the pond once again.

If they make it upstairs the gnome tries to escape on his little rope to his treehouse.

What do you guys think? too much? too little? let me hear it!

[Loasty625]

A doorway triggered alchemist fire trap, and if the PC's head catches fire the nearby bucket is full of oil, not water.
Caltrops and pit falls are great classics. Plus ropes that can be climbed and snapped.
The spell Scattering Trap (Sor/Wiz 3, Players Handbook II) is a great addition to a room already full of Christmas ornament caltrops or whatever.
You could lock them in an ice chest till they're cold, and have a small fire elemental come out of the fireplace if they try to warm up.
Vine mine (Drd 3, Spell Compendium) allows the druid to create an easy escape route for everyone, and then use a standard action to change the vines so they hamper the party.
Gnomes are naturally proficient with illusions, and silent images could work like the silhouette scene in the movie, and auditory illusions could work like Kevin's audio recorder, or TV shenanigans. You can step it up with the spell Phantom Battle (Bard 3, Beguiler 4, Sor/Wiz 4, Spellthief 4, Players Handbook II) and force an already battered and bruised party to run from a fake threat headlong into another trap.
I wanted to suggest using a Force Ladder (Sor/Wiz 2, Spell Compendium) and then dispelling it, but the problem is it's not dispellable. Maybe there are other ladder style spells that are dispellable.
Mimics and animated objects make great monsters that are also traps themselves.
Rust Cubes (an alchemical item from Complete Scoundrel, PG 111) can be used to eat away at a metal bridge or ladder.
You can swing flour pouches at the party which make it easier for the gnome to track them around the dungeon. They also make a cloud when they first hit which could make the party fail spot checks against another trap.
I don't know if this exists in any books but alchemical glue of some kind, maybe like a tanglefoot bag could be very fun. At the bottom of a fall so their whole back gets stuck. Or just on the floor so they lose their shoes (which brings us back to caltrops). Having objects get stuck to the PC's hands is another great way to hamper them.

Also, I'm my opinion you want to make sure your traps don't just deal a ton of damage, but mainly disorient, discourage, and humiliate the PC's in true Home Alone fashion. You may want to house rule that some traps deal some or all non-lethal damage. I make the first d6 of falling damage NL, for example.

[Swaoeaeieu]

i know not many people will care, but i just wanna vent.

Just did the session yesterday and it was awsome! The players loved it, we all had a blast and the heroes saved christmas! (read: burned a theme park to the ground)
so thank you all for the ideas and inspiration, you guys help make DND the great pasttime it deserves to be. :)