Low Level Trap / Scaling with Stupidity

[Xrposiedon]

I was thinking today of a unique way to create a trap, that punishes stupidity and lack of role play in town. If anyone has some feedback or tweaks, I would love to know. Also, having issues putting a CR on this baddie....I need some help =)

Here is the Idea:

1) Give your party a task to go into a cave / temple / dungeon ....some place that a statue makes sense to be.
2) When they enter within 30 feet of the statue, the first player to enter is asked a question by the statue.
3) This question is in regards to a key name or location, something the players should have to role play in town, or on their journey to find out....by asking people questions, looking for tasks, ...general information gathering.
4) The statue cannot be moved, destroyed, or bypassed by any means. (DM's discretion why)
5) Start a timer...every 30 seconds, the trap does damage to the first player who entered.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS ANTI-Stupid ---
The trap will continue to do damage, every 30 seconds (Real time) -- NO SAVE, or when a wrong answer to the question is
given.
DAMAGE SCALES as such [ 1 , 2 , 2 , 3 , 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 55, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6....basically 2 instances of 2 damage, 3 instances of 3 damage, 4 instances of 4 damage....infinitely. This DOES NOT RESET. So even if they come back after finding out the right answer, the moment they enter, they take damage starting at the point of which they left.


NOTE: The players can make a roll to remember the correct answer, if they have already found out the information needed, but maybe didn't write it down or do not remember.

[DeathChallenged]

So basically you are punishing a players forgetfulness? To what advail? And what if they do not answer? And why the short timer?


Honestly if I saw that I'd probably leave the game.

[Armored Walrus]

Why not just ask your players to take notes? Or give them a reason to care enough about what's going on in town that they want to remember? Or accept that your group doesn't care about the NPCs and just do dungeon crawls? Or, make sure the info they were supposed to pick up in town has other consequences, like they can't get the dragon to give up the treasure without a fight unless they can give it the info it desires?

That trap seems incredibly passive-agressive to me. If you don't like the people you're playing with, why are you playing?

[Emay Ecks]

I'm personally a bigger fan of rewarding good role play and information gathering in towns with extra opportunities (discounts in stores, the location of a secret entrance to the lost temple, or an npc who is willing to help them on their quest).

But if you really want to punish the party for not roleplaying in town I'd recommend:

1) Have the statue block a magic item or some other non-essential part of the dungeon. This might make them realize they can role play to get extra stuff, but still not make them feel forced to. Some people just don't want to role play.
2) Players tend to be incredibly stubborn. They are going to assume there is a way around this statue. They might try breaking it, they might try sneaking past, pretending to be statue-people, etc. If you aren't going to have any other means of bypassing the statue besides knowing the answer, make sure something directly states that. Have the statue say "There is no way past me besides answering my question" or have signs say "This statue is incredibly stubborn, if you don't know the answer, leave"
3) Have a good reason why the statue is asking them this question. If the players feel like this is just you trying to punish them, they might not respond well (d&d should be a chance for everyone to have fun, it's a team game not a players vs dm game)
4) I'd strongly discourage the 30 seconds of real time dealing damage. First things players will do once they notice is just walk 30 feet away from the statue and then continue their out of character conversation about what they should try.
5) I'd have the damage affect everyone in the area. I'd assume the damage is similar to an aura (which a lot of enemies in fourth edition had, damage you couldn't save from just from being in the vicinity). It's hard for a player to visualize something that is just damaging them and only them and they have no way to resist it (is it firing a laser at them or something?). Make the effect obvious (the statue seems to just be emitting flames, the air around the statue gets unnaturally cold, etc).

[Xrposiedon]

I am trying to design something that effectively acts like a low level sphinx...However, it scales with how long they sit there just trying answers within range....the longer they sit there and keep letting it zap them.....the more powerful it gets, forcing them to go find the answer.

So rather than trying the choice to flat out tell them to make sure to pay attention...

How could I alter the trap to make it effective and fair?

Have it ask different questions at different intervals?
Up the timer?
Different scaling for the damage?
HIGH DC Hidden reset button on the outside?

It's meant to be a story line gatekeeper....essentially forcing people to learn key information prior to entry into said story piece


As for the visual. Yea, I was thinking like a Small White Laser beam, that as its power grows, gets much brighter and thicker.

[Armored Walrus]

You'd have gotten more immediate positive feedback and critique if you had worded your initial request this way, rather than than "how do I punish my players for being stupid?"

On topic, Emay Ecks' post has good ideas.

I'd also remove the "no save" portion. At least save for half. Most damaging/detrimental effects are behind a saving throw or an attack roll for a reason. If you just hand out damage, that increases the impression that this trap is meant to punish the players not necessarily the characters.

Also not sure why it needs to continue to damage them when they come back with the correct answer, so I'd remove that part of it. If they go back to town and discover the correct answer, then come back and give it, there's not much point to continuing the punishment any more.

Edit: To add emphasis to Emay Ecks' suggestion, I would immediately follow this up with some way to provide a reward for roleplaying. If you're going to use the stick, you also need to use the carrot.