PDA

View Full Version : mechanical traps



awa
2020-06-03, 08:47 PM
i'm looking for ideas for traps, but only traps that could be created fairly quickly without a major investment in resources or time.

No magic can be used at all, and they cant rely on mechanism more advanced then say a bear trap .

so like a pit trap or bear trap is good. But pendulum blades seems iffy.

el minster
2020-06-03, 09:00 PM
Combat Trapsmith from complete scoundrel could be what your looking for. Get ranks in craft (alchemy) too even though it isnt technically needed.

Kelb_Panthera
2020-06-03, 09:25 PM
Both trapsmith and combat trapsmith make such traps very quickly and cheaply though the former is a spellcaster if it's intelligent enough, albeit with a very limited list that offers little in the way of offense, IIRC. Otherwise, you're looking at the DMG and dungeonscape for mechanical traps but those aren't nearly as inexpensive or quickly rigged.

awa
2020-06-03, 11:23 PM
I actually meant to put this in the general section rather than the 3rd edition section.

I'm looking at it from a dm perspective looking for ideas rather than a mechanical perspective.

LibraryOgre
2020-06-03, 11:57 PM
Simple ones? Caltrops or marbles... anything to make footing dangerous. These are really great behind a barrier; if they jump over a downed tree, they might not see the caltrops on the far side.

If you've got acid or something else inherently dangerous, there's always the very simple "bucket on a half-open door." It works because it's simple and if they're not looking for it, they fall for it. If a door opens towards the target, and latches, you can even do something balanced poorly... open the door and a log falls on you. In the wilderness, you might use logs or boulders, set to drop (especially with a simple snare).

Depending on speed, you might also use trip-wires or clotheslines... run a line at chest-height on a man on horseback and you're going to slow down any mounted pursuit. At foot level, you drop foot traffic.

If you've got a bit more time and resources, snares are a good option. They can be quickly made and, if you're dealing with halflings or gnomes, really effective. Even bigger creatures canbe injured or slowed, if they're unlucky.

Telok
2020-06-04, 12:52 AM
Sharpened stakes in tall grass, smeared with foulness.

Boxes of spiders dumped from above.

What appears to be a shallow pool of murky water.

Zhorn
2020-06-04, 01:01 AM
Recess in the ground (water-tight at the base optional, but not mandatory) fill with a few glass vials of oil (or some similar fragile container) and a vial of alchemist fire to serve as your ignition switch.
Cover using a tile/pressure plate not heavy enough to break the vials under its own weight, but close enough that additional weight will break the vials.

Someone steps on the tile, vials break, they are now standing in a patch of burning oil.

Bonus points if the recess and tile are a snug enough fit that as the tile is pushed down the ignited oil/alchemist fire is squirted/spayed upwards through the gaps at the edges onto whomever stepped on the tile, so they are on fire instead of just standing in fire.

Reset is simple enough, once the previous mixture has burnt out, lift out the tile and reline the recess with new vials.

Pauly
2020-06-04, 01:04 AM
If you do a search for survival traps on youtube there are a whole variety of traps that can be made. Most of them use twisted fibre/rope and a bent green stick as the spring to power the trap.

The biggest obstacle is the knowing how to engineer them, not the amount of work or woodworking skill required to make them.

Kaptin Keen
2020-06-04, 03:18 AM
I've always liked the 'gelatinous cube in a pit trap' idea. My old boss always liked the 'bucket of magma' positioned over a door. All manner of beast traps are dangerous - potentially, at least. Carrion crawlers have a nasty paralysis, for instance, so if you get dropped on a pile of crawlers and some sort of environmental hazard, that can be quite bad.

awa
2020-06-04, 03:21 PM
The alchemist fire trap is a good one, I can work with that

the location in question is inside a building so a lot of snares are impractical, monsters are also not viable.

Psyren
2020-06-10, 08:33 AM
Pahfinder has Ranger Traps (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/ranger/archetypes/paizo-ranger-archetypes/trapper/ranger-traps/), which are designed to be simple devices that can be jury-rigged in the field. The nonmagical ones range from a simple tripwire to make a pursuer fall flat on his face, to getting doused in (sticky + flammable) tar, to incorporating an alchemical item like a smokestick which then obscures a victim's vision and provokes lots of loud coughing.

Lord Torath
2020-06-10, 10:46 AM
I've always liked the 'gelatinous cube in a pit trap' idea. My old boss always liked the 'bucket of magma' positioned over a door. All manner of beast traps are dangerous - potentially, at least. Carrion crawlers have a nasty paralysis, for instance, so if you get dropped on a pile of crawlers and some sort of environmental hazard, that can be quite bad.Problem with Beast traps is you need to keep the beast alive. Growing up, my sister bought a Venus Flytrap, which died because we didn't have enough flies to keep it healthy. (yes, we could have fed it bits of ground beef, but we didn't know that back then). You need to both keep your beast healthy, and have some way to keep it from attacking you while you're taking care of it. (I always hated the "snake-in-a-locked-chest" traps you found in many of the early modules. How do they keep the snake alive? How do they keep it from attacking them when they need to access whatever is in the chest?)


Boxes of spiders dumped from above.Same problem as above: how do you keep the spiders alive (and not eating each other) while you wait for the intruder to trigger the trap?

Pit trap that drops the victim into a cage on a lower level. For when you want to interrogate your captive.

Tvtyrant
2020-06-10, 11:50 AM
Bee hive trap: Massive bee hive that sustains itself is disrupted by a tripwire. See original Jungle Book for inspiration.

LibraryOgre
2020-06-10, 12:36 PM
Problem with Beast traps is you need to keep the beast alive. Growing up, my sister bought a Venus Flytrap, which died because we didn't have enough flies to keep it healthy. (yes, we could have fed it bits of ground beef, but we didn't know that back then). You need to both keep your beast healthy, and have some way to keep it from attacking you while you're taking care of it. (I always hated the "snake-in-a-locked-chest" traps you found in many of the early modules. How do they keep the snake alive? How do they keep it from attacking them when they need to access whatever is in the chest?)


My brother once wound up with an Iron Cobra as a pseudo-familiar because of a trap like that.

Kaptin Keen
2020-06-10, 03:56 PM
Problem with Beast traps is you need to keep the beast alive. Growing up, my sister bought a Venus Flytrap, which died because we didn't have enough flies to keep it healthy. (yes, we could have fed it bits of ground beef, but we didn't know that back then). You need to both keep your beast healthy, and have some way to keep it from attacking you while you're taking care of it. (I always hated the "snake-in-a-locked-chest" traps you found in many of the early modules. How do they keep the snake alive? How do they keep it from attacking them when they need to access whatever is in the chest?)

But .... this is why god gave us goblins!

Lord Torath
2020-06-11, 09:18 AM
But .... this is why god gave us goblins!Which god? :smallamused:

Also, are you suggesting goblins instead of 'beast traps'? Or that you use goblins to satiate the trapped beasts until you can add/remove whatever you need to from the trapped chest and/or toss them in the box so the spiders don't eat each other? In either case, I suspect TDO would like to have a word with you...:smallwink:

Edit: regarding the original question, what is the purpose of the traps?

Are they to nail unauthorized intruders? In this case authorized personnel would need to be alerted to and able to avoid the traps.
Are they to protect a particular item? Someone should have a 'key' allowing them to be disabled to safely access the item.
Are they to kill people in humorous ways for the amusement of the owner(s) of the building? He/She/It/They should have some way of monitoring the traps so a proper chuckle can be had regarding the fate of the unfortunates caught by the trap.

awa
2020-06-11, 10:45 AM
serial killer, murder house.

Specifically, he wants to kill the heroes by kidnapping children and then forcing the hero through his traps trying to rescue them.

Tvtyrant
2020-06-11, 11:10 AM
serial killer, murder house.

Specifically, he wants to kill the heroes by kidnapping children and then forcing the hero through his traps trying to rescue them.

Home Alone and House on Haunted Hill seem like the perfect inspirations for that one. I particularly like the original of the latter with the "skeleton puppet dangling from ceiling to chase victim into pit." Silliest murder trap ever.

Kaptin Keen
2020-06-11, 12:45 PM
Which god? :smallamused:

Also, are you suggesting goblins instead of 'beast traps'? Or that you use goblins to satiate the trapped beasts until you can add/remove whatever you need to from the trapped chest and/or toss them in the box so the spiders don't eat each other? In either case, I suspect TDO would like to have a word with you...:smallwink:

Uh, the uh, god of goblin supply?! Who keeps track of where goblins come from? But all dungeon keepers must agree that they're almost universally handy to have around. Right?

As long as you don't have to rely on them for fighting.

But yea, if I had a monster that needed feeding, I'd feed it goblins. I mean, the advantage of a gelatinous cube is it eats moss and lichen and other naturally occurring dungeon stuff (like goblins) and doesn't go mad after living in a 10x10 hole in the ground for 200 years.

But now that you mention it, plant creatures are ideal too, they also are quite content to grow forever in some dark, abandoned abyss. Well, I say plants, but I guess what I mean is fungus. Dropping into a pit full of violet fungi has to be one of the must gross ways to die in a fantasy universe. Trouble is, then you frankly aren't motivated to crawl down, after, to loot the fallen unfortunate.

You could keep a veritable zoo in a pit. Say um, an otyugh, carrion crawlers and ghouls/ghasts. Good chances they won't eat each other, and they can live off trash and the various fallen any dungeon is sure to produce at a steady rate. Toss in the occasional goblin for fun and profit.

Psyren
2020-06-11, 01:24 PM
Which god? :smallamused:

Maglubiyet or Lamashtu depending on setting :smallbiggrin: