interesting traps

[pseudodragon]

i am running a campaign, and i could use some trap ideas. i also think that others could benefit from receiving unique trap ideas. one unique trap idea that i read was a trap that drops a bear on the PCs. (the trap is not effective against a party of a Druid and a ranger)

[Jormengand]

Not necessarily a trap per se, but teleportation circles which change gravity for the target, putting them on the ceiling or a wall. Could be combined with other traps or an encounter.

Thinking with portals is also encouraged - for a fun encounter, have a low-gravity, objective directional gravity towards the nearest wall, demiplane with six walls (like a cube), and every wall is plastered with portals which lead to another part of the cube. May require some ad lib rules adjudications, but ehh.

A statue that looks like a creature from a distance. It does nothing, except for retaliate when attacked. It randomly fires fire, acid or cold attacks at whoever attacks it (choose one, and apply it to everyone who attacks it that round).

A pit trap, only when you climb out of the pit trap, you're in a different room.

A trap which shoots fire, arrows, or something else at the party. It can be deactivated by leaving the room, and entering it again.

A room full of traps which are all in plain sight, but can't be deactivated. The room contains a key, macguffin, or other object of significance; when it is taken, the room is plunged into Deeper Darkness, even if the item is put back, and the party must remember where the traps were.

[Melayl]

See if you can find an old copy of Grimtooth's Traps (any incarnation). Damned clever, that guy.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

See if you can find an old copy of Grimtooth's Traps (any incarnation). Damned clever, that guy.

I have one of these. Verrrrry devious things in there.

[DM Nate]

Once I had an obvious kobold trap of a triggered crossbow in a wall (low DC to spot), covered with clear contact poison (high DC to spot). My party made it through, but I imagine that a trap-within-a-trap could fool a lot of reckless adventurers.

[BWR]

Thirding Grimtooth's Traps; there are some hilarious things there. Few or no mechanics, just explanations of what the trap does, and the GM is left to give it appropriate stats for whatever game she's running.

[Alex12]

Reverse the usual "pit trap with a gelatinous cube at the bottom" trap. Instead, drop the gelatinous cube onto the party directly.

[Lord of Shadows]

Reverse the usual "pit trap with a gelatinous cube at the bottom" trap. Instead, drop the gelatinous cube onto the party directly.

Or even worse..

A pit trap that drops a Gelatinous Cube into the pit behind whoever falls in. A 10X10 Gelatinous Cube has got to weigh many hundreds of pounds, causing those under it in the pit to be restricted by the confined space. Even if there is a "Hercules" type who can lift up the Cube, it won't all lift up evenly. Meanwhile, anyone left up top has to melee the Cube to have any chance of getting the others out alive. That might be a 4 Skulls in Grimtooth ranking.

[Alex12]

Or even worse..

A pit trap that drops a Gelatinous Cube into the pit behind whoever falls in. A 10X10 Gelatinous Cube has got to weigh many hundreds of pounds, causing those under it in the pit to be restricted by the confined space. Even if there is a "Hercules" type who can lift up the Cube, it won't all lift up evenly. Meanwhile, anyone left up top has to melee the Cube to have any chance of getting the others out alive. That might be a 4 Skulls in Grimtooth ranking.

Actually, a typical Gelatinous Cube weighs, according to the SRD, about 15000 pounds. That's not a typo. 7.5 tons. If it were a solid block instead of made of goo, falling damage rules mean that even a fall of just 10 feet would do the 20d6 max damage that a falling object can deal. And since it's a gelatinous cube as well, it's also engulfing whatever or whoever it hits.

[Lord of Shadows]

Actually, a typical Gelatinous Cube weighs, according to the SRD, about 15000 pounds. That's not a typo. 7.5 tons. If it were a solid block instead of made of goo, falling damage rules mean that even a fall of just 10 feet would do the 20d6 max damage that a falling object can deal. And since it's a gelatinous cube as well, it's also engulfing whatever or whoever it hits.

Wow.. Make that 5 Skulls..

[Frozen_Feet]

When you're devising traps, keep in mind few rules.

At their most basic, all traps are made to keep something in, or to keep something out. When the PCs enter the area, pay attention to how they do it and which direction they are going to.

Next, no trap exists to hinder those who have a permission to be there. So if anyone is supposed to go in and out of an area, there should be a bypass mechanism for every trap. The more trafficked an area is, the more obvious those bypass mechanisms are. Ideally, no trap in a trafficked area will be triggered by accident - only something obviously criminal or out-of-place will do so.

This isn't the same as the trap itself being obvious, though the connection between doing something you shouldn't and suffering bad consequences is easy to draw. For example, if PCs are trekking through a king's palace and see valuable jewelry on a pedestal, everyone will likely think there's a trap before any evidence of such - after all, who would leave such valuable thing unguarded.

This is actually one way to play with your player's expectations. Put something valuable and/or desireable on display, and let them get away with taking it. It may be the king's jewelry, or the sultan's pretty harem girl. Only a session or two later will the "trap" be sprung. For example, when the PCs are selling the jewelry, the black market dealer will turn out to be one of the king's vassals in disguise and inform the king that the PCs are filthy thieves - then the king can later blackmail the PCs into doing his bidding.

A nastier variation is a lethal trap (like the gelatinous cube trap) that requires something that violates common sense to be done in order to bypass it. Suppose, for example, that there's a tripwire attached to such a pit - usually, you would assume the wire sets off the trap, but in this case, tripping it is what makes the path safe.

Don't overuse such subversive "gotcha!" traps, though. They only work when the straight example is a norm. Doubt through violation of expectations only works if there are expectations, and once the players assume "everything is a trap!" mentality, the game will bog down as they become too afraid to try things. Instead, aim for "it could be a trap, but if it isn't, there's a fortune to be had!" Appeal to greed, lust and other base instincts of your players and characters. The bait has to be delicious enough to make the risk seem worth it, but not delicious enough to make the trap too obvious.

Or, you could go the cruel way and put the PCs in a situation where bypassing one trap will set off another. These kinds of no-wins can be really intriguing, but in such cases, your players pretty much have to know there are two traps. To properly appreciate the situation, they need to have a real choice between two (or more) bad outcomes.

[veti]

I was playing 'Neverwinter Nights' the other day, and the traps in that game are just the worst. There are two kinds: the kind that mildly inconveniences you for a minute or so (generally by paralysing you for a few rounds, or doing trivial damage that you can immediately repair), and the kind that just kill you stone dead.

I have no problem with the second kind, as long as the game doesn't force you to go through them (which NWN all too often does, because of the linearity of most modules). But the first kind? Just make no sense at all. Why do they bother? Obviously, to give rogues something to do, but that seems a pretty poor reason for making every other class waste a few seconds (per chest) of extra time to get at the loot. The game needs more traps that incapacitate you at a moment when it actually matters, like when it's just set off an alarm in the main guardroom.

It's not hard to devise a lethal trap (although still, props to those who can do it innovatively). What's hard is justifying it. You need to know how it's set, and how authorised people access the thing it's guarding without setting it off... and how much it costs to maintain. (Seriously, a gelatinous cube? Who feeds it, during the days/weeks/years when no-one is setting off the trap?)

[TheCorsairMalac]

A couple ideas from my recent kobold den:

1. A hallway with an archer at the far end, luring any melee characters to charge him. There is a pit in the hallway, forcing them to make a jump. The tricky bit is that the floor beyond the pit is actually a concealed pit trap as well.

2. A chamber with hidden arrow slits, which open when another trap is triggered, pouring grease on the party, allowing archers to sneak attack the (now flat-footed/balancing) party from both sides.

3. A standard concealed pit trap. But it drops a boulder on them after they fall in, just for variety.

4. Portable needle traps that look like flat rocks, but sting with a scorpion-like arm when stepped on, poisoning someone.

5. A battering ram which bursts out of a hatch or door, smacking all players in a line.

6. A trap door in the ceiling, from which three or four small opponents dive onto a player, grappling him.

7. A wall which opens, revealing a number of enemies on the far side of a pit, who then bombard the party with alchemist's fire during a surprise round.

[Synar]

A statue that looks like a creature from a distance. It does nothing, except for retaliate when attacked. It randomly fires fire, acid or cold attacks at whoever attacks it (choose one, and apply it to everyone who attacks it that round).

That is quite sadistic, since most players will instinctively attack detailed creatures looking statues, because "either it's a petrified creature or it will animate", and the fact the statue attacks then in return only further them in their wrongness. Also it pose no risk for non-intruders.
I like it.
But if players don't resist energy/flee/understand the trap, it could end up in TPK (as stopping to attack the thing would need quite a bit of lateral thinking, or remarking that creature targeting effects don't work), while if they just don't attack the thing, the trap just got wasted.




Myself I prefer to use !!lava!!.

[Alex12]

(Seriously, a gelatinous cube? Who feeds it, during the days/weeks/years when no-one is setting off the trap?)

Obviously it's right below the latrines for the barracks of the kobold warren that the adventurers are invading.