4e Trap Question

[NotScaryBats]

In the DMG there is a trap I am interested in using, but it seems really hard core. Am I reading it right?

Treacherous Ice Sheet, covers 10 contiguous squares, when a creature enters or begins its turn in a square of the ice, it attacks. It also attacks when a creature stands up from prone in a square of ice.
Attack is +8 v Reflex, and does 1d6+2 on a hit + fall prone. If you're already prone, you don't take damage, but your turn ends.

Now, if you enter the ice with a move action, the ice attacks you. You fall prone. You try to get up with your other action, and succeed. It attacks you again. Say you succeed.
Next turn, it automatically attacks you again? And the cycle continues.

So can it get that many attacks against you in one turn, is my question?

I plan on having this ice in a combat encounter but it seems like it will really cripple my players. What are your thoughts?

[cupkeyk]

Its an opportunity action. A creature (or hazard in this case) only gets one opportunity action per creature's turn.

[Reluctance]

Prone is annoying, but remember that characters can still be subject to forced movement without making themselves targets, plus they can always crawl half their speed without getting up. Unless you bottleneck those 10 squares into a 10X1 line with no way around it, there's bound to be a safe spot within one crawl's worth of distance.

[Excession]

There is also the option of crawling off the ice. Doesn't come up much, but you can actually move up to half your speed while prone.

Edit: ninja'd. Also, you can jump over a single square really easily.

[kieza]

Having played in an encounter that used that trap, I can say that it holds the potential to be crippling. In that encounter, I was the Fighter, and as I moved to intercept thewhite dragon we faced, I fell. At that point I was too far away to reach the dragon, and on its turn it moved around me and went for the rest of the party. Next turn, the same thing happened, ad infinitum. By the time I got the dragon marked, half the party was bloodied or dying, and I had real trouble keeping it marked for the rest of the fight.

Now, this was exacerbated by the fact that we didn't work together well (everyone charged in and got knocked down and hit with the breath weapon), and the DM was a good tactician playing ruthlessly. But, the trap is quite hard on melee caracters who have to move to get at the monsters, and it's really nasty when it keeps the defender from doing his job.

EDIT: If you want ice that's not so hardcore, try what I use when DM'ing:

The ice is difficult terrain. If a creature wants, it can make an acrobatics check to treat it as normal terrain. If it fails the acrobatics check, it falls prone.

[NotScaryBats]

Okay, that helps a bunch. Thanks, everyone.
I am planning to have it at the bottom of a hill, with an elite bad guy archer up at the top. The heroes will have to go around the hill, through the ice, and up the path while fighting off minions to get to the archer.
That, or just climb up the hill.
Mwahaha.

[Kurald Galain]

In the DMG there is a trap I am interested in using, but it seems really hard core. Am I reading it right?

"Really hard core" seems like an exaggeration. Yes, it is an effective trap against melee characters. The players will have to take this into account, and consider using powers like Knight's Move or Jump to bypass it, or items like a rope. If your players try to work around it, it makes for an interesting encounter.

The ice is difficult terrain. If a creature wants, it can make an acrobatics check to treat it as normal terrain. If it fails the acrobatics check, it falls prone.

This, however, is a trap that most characters can completely ignore. I don't see it making for an interesting encounter.

[cupkeyk]

Maybe I just have really low self esteem but when I saw Kurald comment, I was thinking "Oh no he's gonna tell me my comment was wrong." Yay, he didn't.

[Kurald Galain]

Yay, he didn't.

That comment was right