Trap busting.

[Doomboy911]

It's happened before no one wants to be a rogue and now you're wandering down the dungeon knowing that at any moment a trap could go off on you all so I was wondering what techniques would disarm (set off) a trap without it hurting you.

My buddies and I have come up with a ton of ideas like mine that involves rolling a cannonball down a hallway to set off the pressure sensitive trap or climbing into an adamantium box and walking down the hallway letting the box take the damage.

So what would you do?

[Nohwl]

what level are you and what does the party consist of?

[Nick_mi]

Take a 1 level dip into rogue or barbarian?

[Choco]

The early parts of http://agc.deskslave.org have some dungeon crawls where none of the players are rogues. Should give you some good ideas, but know that implementing some of them will result in the game being slowed down to the point where it takes like 15 minutes to walk down a 40 foot hallway

Alternatively you can fireball every square inch of the dungeon, release a bag of puppies into it first, etc.

[Doomboy911]

It doesn't matter the level I'm just wondering what you might do like for example if I was a level 1 bard I'd take a crowbar and rope jam the crowbar into the door, tie the rope around crowbar and pull on the rope so the crowbar opens the door, the trap goes off and I'm out of the traps range.

[Esser-Z]

Summmon Elemental reserve feat.

[Kerrin]

A pole always comes in handy.

[DragonBaneDM]

Get this guy:

[2xMachina]

11 foot pole for pre trigger.
Stuff to chuck for things you don't want to be near. Nat 20 hits anything.
I recommend tiny quarterstaffs. Free :P
Gloves for touching things that may have poison coating.

Should help you with any contact things.

You'd still die from Indiana Jones style rolling boulders tho.

[Jack_Simth]

It matters heavily on:
1) Level
2) Class
3) Game
4) The DM

See, with 3.5 D&D, from level 1, a halfling Wizard can cast an Unseen Servant, and have it drag a 100 pound sack of rocks around for an hour. It can also let go of the sack to open unlocked and unstuck stuff. Stuck stuff you have it place a crowbar that's been tied to a rope. That'll trip anything the halfling would. 25 foot range at that point. That'll handle the vast majority of CR 1 and 2 traps, no problem.

At higher levels, you use the Summon Elemental Reserve Feat, the Magic Sensitive Reserve Feat (or Vatic Gaze, or a Permanent Detect Magic, or...), and one of the direct damage Reserve Feats (for destroying the self-resetting traps. Fiery Burst or Acidic Splatter, whichever gives you better range at the level, assuming you have a way to power it)

[Greenish]

Take a 1 level dip into rogue or barbarian?

Barbarian's Trapkiller is level 3 ACF (it trades off Trap Sense).

Rogue, Scout, Factotum, Ninja, Artificer and Ranger (with an ACF) get Trapfinding at first level.

[Shenanigans]

The bag of tricks can be useful, although probably not as cheap as a bag of puppies. :)

We had this problem once; our solution was to send the paladin in first. In character he thought it was appropriate and and his divine grace pretty much kept him safe.

Pretty much.

[ericgrau]

Non-rogues can still find 1/2 of the traps listed regardless of CR, as half of them are DC 20 or lower. Take a 10 or 20 for 100% success... except when you walk into the other half of the traps you can't find. I'd trigger them with one of the above mentioned tricks and then search the hallway afterwards for anything those tricks might have missed. For example a pit trap is something your summon might not weigh enough to trigger, but has a low search DC.

[snoopy13a]

If your party is evil, you could force kidnapped villagers or captured prisoners to walk ahead of you.

[Thrawn183]

I had a character that would just play fetch with his dog down any hallways that they hadn't discovered were clear of traps yet. Considering the party didn't actually have a character that could search for traps... he went through a lot of dogs.

[Jack_Simth]

I had a character that would just play fetch with his dog down any hallways that they hadn't discovered were clear of traps yet. Considering the party didn't actually have a character that could search for traps... he went through a lot of dogs.

And at 25 gp/trap for a guard dog, they're expensive after a time.

[snoopy13a]

I had a character that would just play fetch with his dog down any hallways that they hadn't discovered were clear of traps yet. Considering the party didn't actually have a character that could search for traps... he went through a lot of dogs.

Another potential problem is if the traps are weight sensitive (e.g. they only go off with 100+ pounds of pressure). Granted, using St. Bernards or Mastiffs or their DnD equivalent would solve this problem.

This could lead to funny results though. The halfing walks down the hallway with no ill effects while the heavy dwarf walking behind him falls into a pit trap.

[oxybe]

a fisherman's gaff. it's a 10 ft pole with a hook on the end. i was introduced to this by my dad, a fisherman. while he used it to grab buoys out of the water from inside the boat, a collapsable one is an adventurer's best friend.

a few fistfuls of coppers & marbles. cheap & disposable weights you can throw on pressure plates. if every coin is fifty to a pound, you have a very nice measure of weight right there.

crowbars, shovels & drills are your generic use "open 'er up" devices. the first being good to simply crack it open while the latter being better for a peek. shovels are generally handy to have around when you need to dig out a mechanism or something

ropes, pulleys and pitons. ropes + pulleys can be used to trigger things at a distance, while pitons can be used to jam mechanisms and doors open/shut. 100-200 ft of rope and 10-20 pitons is a fair amount that can last you a long time

a pair of thick leather gloves for fine manipulation + protection. maybe goggles if those exist.

a few sacks/waterskins. can be used to carry the copper/marbles, stones, water or whatnot as well as loot or strange liquids. alternatively, some mapcases are pretty much waterproof and can double for this.

[Jack_Simth]

Another potential problem is if the traps are weight sensitive (e.g. they only go off with 100+ pounds of pressure). Granted, using St. Bernards or Mastiffs or their DnD equivalent would solve this problem.

Riding dogs are expensive, though.

This could lead to funny results though. The halfing walks down the hallway with no ill effects while the heavy dwarf walking behind him falls into a pit trap.

Yeah, that does get funny. Tends to come up in Kobold lairs, mostly.

[BobVosh]

The early parts of http://agc.deskslave.org have some dungeon crawls where none of the players are rogues. Should give you some good ideas, but know that implementing some of them will result in the game being slowed down to the point where it takes like 15 minutes to walk down a 40 foot hallway

Starts here: http://agc.deskslave.org/comic_viewer.html?goNumber=40

[Greenish]

If your party is evil, you could force kidnapped villagers or captured prisoners to walk ahead of you.

Or have someone play Thrallherd.

[Doomboy911]

Or have someone play Thrallherd.

Thrallherd?

[Esser-Z]

Thrallherd?

Thrallherd.