Its a trap!

[Sherwood Bandit]

Hello everyone, this is my first post on this forum, and after a few weeks of lurking I finally registered (20 000 users and more, quite a community I must say).

I am soon going to play in a 3.5 Dnd campaign set in a prehistoric world, with emphasis on survival and trying not to be the next lunch of an over-sized dinosaur. My character will be an human fighter with a focus on traps and ambush. Given the setting, my DM has given me craft (trapmaking) as a class skill but I want to focus more on that aspect of fighting.

The problem is, I don't really have much ideas for primitive traps, and I'm stuck there. I looked at the traps of the DMG but most don't really cut it (Collapsing columns? I'll have to wait for them to be invented ) Does anyone have any ideas for simple traps that a bright cavemen could pull off in the wilderness? Any trap would be good, as long as I could pull it off in a reasonable amount of time. Stats for those traps would be nice (Reflex save DC, craft DC). I am going to use an homebrew variant for creating the traps so don't worry about their marketprice (I'll probably put it on the homebrew section if I think its good enough).


So, any ideas?

[Guildorn Tanaleth]

Dig a pit & cover it with leaves.

Bend a thin tree to the ground & tie it in a loop in such a way that it captures the first thing to step in it.

You know, basic hunting traps.

[Zincorium]

Tiger pits, or lesser versions of them, are always a big hit. All it takes is a suitably sharp rock and a bit of time, and soon you'll have your own camouflaged pit with sharp pieces of wood at the bottom.

If you want to go even simpler, anything sharp or heavy with tension on it will serve decently, say a bit of obsidian attached to a sapling, with a brightly colored rock holding it down. Enemy picks up the rock, sapling springs back up and enemy gets hit in the face. You did say caveman level sophistication.

Snares are a good idea for small game but it's hard to get high enough quality of rope at that tech level to make them usable.

[JackMage666]

Um... Fighter's get Craft anyway, and Craft can be any kind of craft. You can be Roger, the Fighter with Craft (basketweaving) if you so please.

[mockingbyrd7]

If he's strong enough and you're in a densely wooded area, perhaps your caveman could pull off the classic "swinging log" trap; one log coming from each way that swings from a thick vine, they crash together in the middle. Activates by walking into another vine that holds it all in place. I'm thinking something like DC 20 Reflex save, save for no damage, damage is 2d12 + some number (like getting smashed by two greatclubs, but simultaneously and with a hell of a lot of momentum).

[Human Paragon 3]

All good suggestions so far. Why don't you watch Predator (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) or read The Most Dangerous Game for some ideas, too. T.M.D.G. is probably online somewhere for free reading.


Edit-- The Most Dangerous Game-osity!

[RTGoodman]

If he's really strong (or has enough help) you could create a simple trap that has a big rock either suspended in the air/on a cliff/in a tree or just propped up with a heavy log, set up in such a way that when an animal walks under to pick up the bait, it knocks the gigantic boulder onto itself. The damage would depend on the size of the boulder and the height of the drop. An easy way to do damage from boulder size would be 1d6 + 1d6 for every size category the boulder is above Small (2d6 Medium, 3d6 Large, etc). Then just add 1d6 per 10 feet of the fall height, to a maximum of 20d6.

Of course, that's starting to get complex, but by the time you're hunting tyrannosaurs, you should be probably around 6-8th level, and therefore pretty experienced and knowledgeable in trapmaking. Also, you're gonna need a good strength or a lot of help to set this up.

[Machete]

For survival hunting, lots of small snares is your best bet.

Lot of alright suggestions.

Try here for traps big and small: http://tions.net/CA256EA900408BD5/vw...oor%7E03%7E000
for some real life snares and traps that are primitive.

You might also want to take Craft: Cordage (ropes, string, thread, twine, sinew wire, whathaveyou), Craft: Weaponsmithing (nets, bolos, bows and arrows for the trail guarding trap, and such are all useful) and Craft: Shelter for making debris shelters and scout pits, and throw a single rank into Craft: Woodworking for making burn bowls because parasites from a water supply are a real downer.

[Ralfarius]

Ever since watching Survivorman, I've been partial to the Figure Four Deadfall. For catching food, at least. You could potentially modify that for larger creatures, assuming you could hoist the components into place.

[kpenguin]

Triplines are always good. They don't even have to trigger anything, they can just trip someone while you run in banging with your club.

[Shas aia Toriia]

Don't forget, you could also get ranks in Craft (poisonmaking). I know this is a prehistoric world, but you could probably still find the plants or animal pieces necessary for it.

[RTGoodman]

Ever since watching Survivorman, I've been partial to the Figure Four Deadfall. For catching food, at least. You could potentially modify that for larger creatures, assuming you could hoist the components into place.

Gah - that's the exact thing I was thinking (and sort of trying to describe above), but I had no idea what it was called. I saw the same thing on Survivorman.

Also, someone else mentioned a pit covered with leaves. That's a great tactic, but why not take it a step further - make it a pungee pit (that is, a pit, covered with leaves, and with a bunch of spears in it so things get stabbed with they fall in). I mean, what better way to hunt dinosaur and other large creatures that to have them basically kill themselves by impalement. You just have to wait for one to fall in, and then stand at the top and finish it off with your atlatl (which every prehistoric hunter-guy should have) or spear.

Also, take a hint from the (possibly fictional) method used by early man - force things in herds to stamped off the nearest cliff.

[Swooper]

Watch Star Wars Episode VI. The ewoks have some traps going there

[Emperor Tippy]

Poisons are good. If you want traps for defending a fixed position agaisnt dinosaurs you can make a variant of the pit trap/moat that is covered with something strong enough to hold your weight but not a lot more, so if a dinosaur chases you or an enemy tribe is coming after you, you can run across and it/they will fall in.

[Kenbert]

Watch Star Wars Episode VI. The ewoks have some traps going there

Aww, man! I was gonna say that! I like the one Chewie falls for, I think that was a great one.

Anyway, other classics are the pit trap ... a bunch of rocks that fall when a trip wire is triggered ... other hunting snares ... yeah.

[Citizen Joe]

There's a theory that prehistoric man drove mammoths/mastodons off cliffs to kill them.

So if you set up a rope that you can grab as you are running from a T-rex, you can drop over the side of the cliff and cling there as the t-rex goes charging off the edge to its death.

[Mojo_Rat]

Wether it was done with Mammoths or not who knows. However it was done with Bison. The other Variation on this is Trying to drive the herd animals (wether giant prehistoric or otherwise) Into a Sandy Area. It works the same as the Cliffs except they can break their ankles and whatnot and then the hunters club them to death.

[Citizen Joe]

From a logical perspective, there is little incentive to trap a t-rex though. They are very dangerous. If you could get the same amount of meet from a mammoth, why risk it? Only if the t-rex is causing problems (like eating your mammoths) would it then be worth the risk. Otherwise, just move to a safer place or someplace that is inaccessible to a t-rex.

[dyslexicfaser]

Realistically, a caveman's trap would probably involve hiding somewhere high up and hitting them in the head with a rock.

Everything I've read says that cavemen (neanderthals anyway) didn't really do traps. They took down mammoths the old fashioned way: by stabbing it over and over with 40-pound stone spears and trying not to get crushed or gored too badly.

That said - this is fantasy. Go for the poisoned-stake pit trap.

[Citizen Joe]

That said - this is fantasy. Go for the poisoned-stake pit trap.

Errr... don't poison anything you're planning to eat.

[Mewtarthio]

Realistically, a caveman's trap would probably involve hiding somewhere high up and hitting them in the head with a rock.

Everything I've read says that cavemen (neanderthals anyway) didn't really do traps. They took down mammoths the old fashioned way: by stabbing it over and over with 40-pound stone spears and trying not to get crushed or gored too badly.

Refresh my memory: What period had neanderthals trying to avoid getting eaten by dinosaurs, again? Oh, yeah! The Prehistoric Era!

[Droodle]

Refresh my memory: What period had neanderthals trying to avoid getting eaten by dinosaurs, again? Oh, yeah! The Prehistoric Era!

Actually, I'm rather certain it was the non-historic Era.

[Jacob_Gallagher]

Well, in a modern setting you could use a toe-popper, which is a shotgun shell just peeking out the ground, set on top of a nail such that the weight of someone stepping on it sets it off...

In a prehistoric setting, my best advice would be to take a springy tree, attach spikes, and bend it over till it touches the ground. Then attach some kind of wire (plant fiber?) to hold it to a small loop of wood in the ground. From the loop, the wire then goes in front of the bent tree. Anything that breaks the wire then gets impaled by a rapidly moving tree festooned with spikes.