Find traps spell, how does it work

[Doomwhispo]

This spell merely reveals that a trap is present. You
don’t learn the location of each trap, but you do learn the
general nature o f the danger posed by a trap you sense.

I was wondering what falls under the general nature of the danger posed by a trap.

Imagine there is a mechanical pit with lava underneath

Should I as dm say
You sense there is a pit trap nearby
Or
You sense there is a trap with a lava.

Since the general danger of the trap is lava, but also falling?

So does it reveal the nature of the trigger of of the actual damage?

[Matticusrex]

It was scrapped without a replacement being made. Pretend it doesn't exist.

[Doomwhispo]

It was scrapped without a replacement being made. Pretend it doesn't exist.

What do you mean? It's in the phb mate....

[GladiusVCreed]

I think he means it was removed in an errata.
If you want to keep the spell, heres how I would handle it:

Trap: Pit Trap into Lava
To player: You sense that within the area there is a trap that will make you fall to a fiery death.

This lets them know that there is a trap, the nature of the trap, but they don't know where it is exactly. They also don;t know what triggers said trap. It could be a trap door. It could be triggered by a lever. It could even be magical.
You may have to be a bit of a wordsmith when it comes to this, which is porbably a reason it was removed.

[bearsquito]

Can you confirm the Find Traps spell has been errata'd out? I don't see a reference to it in the most recent PHB errata document.

[Mellack]

I do not think it has been officially removed. Instead it has been made so useless that nobody should ever bother taking or casting it. It is among the worst spells in the game. Probably better to pretend it does not exist.

[SharkForce]

I do not think it has been officially removed. Instead it has been made so useless that nobody should ever bother taking or casting it. It is among the worst spells in the game. Probably better to pretend it does not exist.

yeah, this.

technically, it is there. but you should pretty much never take it unless the DM is changing it to actually do something useful.

anyways, to do my best to describe how the spell works to the OP: was the door intended to drop someone into lava, or is it just a door which lava somehow ended up below it, and previously it was a root cellar or something where the bar holding it shut has worn out? if the latter, you don't even tell them there's a trap.

additionally, if the trap is not in their vision (for example, it is around a corner, or inside a smoke cloud caused by the lava, when they cast the spell), the spell detects nothing.

which means that you should search for traps whether the spell says there is one or not, for the record.

also, if the caster is somehow impervious to the trap (for example, if you can fly because you have wings, or if you are too light to trigger the trap, or the kobold that pulls the lever to drop you is currently on a bathroom break), the spell detects nothing.

yet another reason you still need to check for traps after checking with the spell.

anyways, for the sake of argument, we'll presume the trap was intended as a trap and didn't just come to be a trap without explicit intention, that the caster of the spell would be negatively impacted by the trap if it goes off, and that the trap is somewhere in their vision.

i would then let them know that the trap will drop them into something unpleasant.

the party would then need to search anyways, throughout the entire region that they can see, in order to actually find the location of the trap and potentially any arming or disarming mechanisms.



which means this spell is only useful if you think there might be a trap in your vicinity, which you can see, which was intended to be a trap, and which will work on you personally in the same way it would work on your party members... except it still isn't that useful because you would still need to do a proper search for traps even if the spell returns a positive, but at the same time the spell not returning a positive doesn't mean there isn't a trap at all so you should probably still search if you think there might be a trap.

now, at this point you might be thinking "why would anyone ever use this spell? they should never have even printed this spell, the odds of it ever being worth a preparation slot are so slim that this spell should never be chosen. this spell is essentially a trap option that will only ever weaken anyone who chooses it", and you would be right.

and, for a bit of delicious irony... the spell would not detect itself, because it wasn't intended as a trap.