Creative and unusual traps?

[CruelSummerLord]

Anyone can put a poison needle in the lock of a chest, or put a bed of poisoned spikes beneath a revolving pit, provided they have enough skill.

But surely there are more clever ways of laying a trap?

What are some of the most creative traps you've placed as a DM, or faced as a player? They can be mechanical, magical or whatever...what were they? And how did you get past them, if you actually did?

 

[paradox42]

Grimtooth's Traps

Most of the best traps I placed in dungeons of mine came from the old series of Grimtooth's Traps books, by Flying Buffalo. AFAIK they're long out of print, but if you can get your hands on copies of them, then for my money there's no better source for trap inspiration. The quality of the individual traps (and note that some of the "traps" in each book were actually cursed or otherwise-undesirable items) could be hit-or-miss, and some of them are just downright silly, but the best stuff will make you cackle with glee and start dreaming up dungeons just so you can include them. They were designed to be rules-neutral, since they were published long before the OGL, but careful thought after reading each trap's description should lead you to come up with acceptable game stats. Also, the books were largely compilations of fan-submitted material, so in some ways they could be considered precursors of threads just like this one.

There is a d20 book, released for 3.5E by Necromancer, called The Wurst of Grimtooth's Traps. That collects several fan favorites into a single book, and updates all of them to use D&D 3.5E rules specifically (along with a few suggested variant rules to make traps in general more interesting and dangerous).

One of my personal favorites, though, was not updated in the Necromancer book, so I'll describe it below (in the spoiler block). It illustrates some of the fiendish cleverness that's written into the best Grimtooth stuff, in particular the way it uses psychology to trap the victims rather than just being a straightforward thing like your average ceiling-crusher.

[sblock]One that killed a PC the very first time it came up in a game of mine, was the "For a Case of Fire" trap from Traps Ate, the fourth book in the series. Page 33 for those who have the book- the author is listed as one Drew Dietz.

Basically, what happens is the party activates the trap by standing/walking on a pressure plate in the floor, which activates the trap on a time delay of thirty seconds (5 rounds in 3.X D&D terms). Next to the pressure plate, on the wall, is a lever with a sign next to it that reads "For a Case of Fire, Don't Pull Lever." Now, if the lever is pulled, it disarms the trap- no muss, no fuss. But what adventurer in a dungeon known to have traps in it is going to do a silly thing like pulling a lever just because a sign says to?

Assuming the adventurers are "properly" paranoid, they won't pull the lever- and in that case steel walls slam down on each side of the area, trapping them inside it. Then nozzles open up and spray oil all over everything, following which flame jets roar to life from the ceiling. Result, crispy-fried adventurers (depending on how much damage you have the flames do of course- this could easily be varied by changing what effect powers the "flame jets" of the trap).[/sblock]

There are numerous others, but that one's arguably my favorite. I don't recall any trap I ever came up with myself that's that devious and nasty.

 

[Graybeard]

One trap I used at 1st level was in a cavern. The floor was sloped downwards and sections here and there in the center were slippery. If you slipped, the slide down ended in a cage. Entering the cage caused the door to fall and lock. Not deadly but very annoying to the PCs.

 

[Quartz]

I've found that many of the traps in books, like paradox42's, are more there for the amusement of the reader than of actual practical use if one's trying to keep the medieval theme.

In tombs and the like, I like traps powered by local natural resources: for example, if there's an underground stream, put a waterwheel or two in to reset the traps, and the pit traps all lead to the stream for efficient disposal of the remains. Clever players can use this to their advantage. Or maybe the stream has shifted course: perhaps the players can use it?

I also like failed traps - traps which don't go off or only half go off. The pressure-plate which depresses and you hear a grinding noise or whatever and nothing more happens.

 

[Twowolves]

I believe all of the Grimtooth's traps books were compiled, updated to 3.5 and released in a hardback form last year or the year before, but I forget by whom. FFG I think.

Speaking of FFG, their Traps and Treachery books are likewise full of come good traps.

I have a couple in mind for future use, but don't want to give much away. One of which involves an awakened monkey sorcerer/geomancer (for the bat wings, natch) in a vest with fez, and three barrels of water, vinegar, and barbecue sauce.....

 

[ejja_1]

I second this

Most of the best traps I placed in dungeons of mine came from the old series of Grimtooth's Traps books, by Flying Buffalo.

Just a few favorites.

The piano floor, floor boards sets on springs with blades between the boards. Player steps on floor cuasing the floor to sink and the blade to enter his foot.

For the door kicker in the party the balsawood suprise, kick through the door and on the other side a guillotine drops and severs the limb.

The acid and oil trap, the ceiling has a low hd low ac monster hanging from it. When the players fire missle weapons at it, it pierces the ceiling and dumps a large quantity of oil upon them wich is set ablaze by the wall sconces. This then burns a rope wich holds the spike in place that keeps the floor trap from dumping them into a large quantity of acid.

Heh Grimtooths rocks!

 

[taferial]

Ill add a couple of mine, as far as im concerned they are origonal creations, but im never sure where my insparation comes from in the first place...

Catch the pidgeon - Shoulder width (concealed) trapdoor in the floor, ladder (slightly wobbly, nothing too dangerous) leading down into the darkness, the drop should be long enough to convince your players not to just leap down (or have another simple trap if they do). The ladder shifts slightly hitting a sparker at its foot, we then get to see a fuse burn down and sprint off behind box's and other clutter on the floor, walls and ceiling, quite probably heading to some explosive device. Que players running for the ladder, grabing water bottles and franticaly searching for a distant fizzing noise or the sparkeling glow just out of reach on the ceiling. For added high-jinx, you can add aditional fuses requireing more players to jump down and try and cut/ extinguish the fuses. ~ used in my game to incinerate vital plot muguffin.


Pinball wizard - A variation on the piano-key floor. about halfway across the floor is the trigger which will cause blades to be sprung from between the floors flagstones. After the inital sproing which, after saves, may not have caused any damage, explain that while the blades were dangerous, that threat has passed and it will be easy to walk between the blades to cross the room. If the blade trap activated and if your players are like mine they will likely stop to break the blades off "just in case".

This is such a clasic trap your players are going to be feeling a tad superior to you at this point so this is when you smack em. If the origonal trap trigger was spotted and disabled this second part of it should still be able to happen. Its going to take some time and the rogue may not be strong enough to snap the blades so more people are going to go into the room, after x people are in the room, the whole floor drops by about 5 inches and (revealing the blades if previously un-triggered) ball-bearings are realeased onto the floor, lots off balance checks (maybe a flying enemy or two if your of a vicious persuasion (something with a trip attack for even more fun)) to avoid falling on the spikes for more damage.

After all this has been dealt with and someone makes it to the exit, another pad (very hard to see, the floor being covered in balls and all) will activate a magnet, causeing the ball-bearings to either rocket towards the player thet tripped the trap in a "reverse cone atrack" style or just moveing em about forceing yet more balance checks. ~ Word of caution, after getting out of this room your players will likely punish you harshly by trying to use the ball-bearings for evry concieveable pourpose. Which is only fair after all that time you spent giggleing at them. You could elevate this to seriously nasty by putting Ag drain poison on the blades, but i diddnt want 30 or so poisoned spikes in the party at that time.


I wont add more, cos these descriptions will get longer and more convoluted

 

[Quartz]

Here's a nasty magical trap: the room looks entirely normal, except that the floor (or ceiling or walls) is made of tessellated tiles. The trap is a bound air elemental. If the password (or whatever) is not given, it forms a whirlwind and the tessellated tiles turn out to be shuriken.