Questions on Traps (SPOILERS to the DMG-Dungeon)

[MeMeMeMe]

By any reasonably strict reading of the rules, this is the sort of thing you accomplish as a result of a successful Thievery check. Saying "oh, I can't use Thievery to disable it, so I'll just wedge something into the mechanism" is like saying "I'm not trained in Perception, so I'll just look and listen harder to make up for it".

While I agree in principle, it seems to me it is also the sort of thing you could use a stunt for (the rules on DMG 42), as long at wasn't as easy as the Thievery approach.

 

[On Puget Sound]

Remember when the GM described a trap, and then players had to describe exactly what they were going to try to do to circumvent it? I think it might have been before Greyhawk was published (which introduced the "thief" character class and formalized trap disarming).

The cleric's action above fit into that style of gaming. During combat, she spent an entire turn observing the trap to see where the darts came out, then another turn readying, then an attack roll against the trap (at AC20, not easy) to wedge the weapon in, and accepted being unarmed for the rest of the fight (since she didn't have a spare hammer). Considering that even had there been a rogue in the group, that trap as presented in the 1st level module could not reasonably be disarmed by a 1st level rogue...it seemed fair and appropriate to allow it to work.