Speculating about traps

[xjermx]

Anybody got any ideas, or tried to put any traps together? I've seen the boulder trap, but its the only one I've seen floating around. It occurred to me that some cool trap ideas included a ballista- I guess it could fall under "trap", some armor plating on the front that gives the operator cover, sitting up on a hard-to-reach spot, throwing out 3d6+something damage via +7 vs AC. Then there's the pot swingers. I think I saw someone else mention a similar idea. Raised platform that bad guys use to swing stuff down toward the party, only the "stuff" in this case are ceramic pots on the end of chains that burst when the hit somebody, and contain things like: boiling hot oil, nasty immobilizing goo, or some other nastiness.

So... anyone wanna speculate about traps? Or tried making some of your own?

 

[Surgoshan]

In a thread that has utterly vanished, someone sort of made up a scenario demonstrating how a trap could be handled by the successes/failures mechanic. It was a moving wall trap (strength check to stop for a round-ish), and the lever to stop it was behind a grating coated in contact poison (dexterity check to not touch it? Or just constitution?). The grating could be lifted by means of a chain (hard strength check) which went to a system of pulleys hanging from the ceiling (athletics check to get to that end).

A designer states that a trap or "environmental hazard" would be equivalent to a mob and could replace one in a fight, and you could increase the number of hazards, decreasing the number of mobs. To that end, you could make a death trap of a room with a number of traps, completely eliminating monsters.

So four PCs wander into a room, the door slams shut, the ceiling starts to fall, a poisonous gas starts filling it from the bottom up, darts start randomly firing from the walls, and a bunch of large snakes come in through grating at the bottom. I'm guessing a defender will have to occupy the snakes while a leader starts helping the defender while buffing all, and the other two start pulling non-combat actions to try and, say, break the grating or stop the ceiling, plug the poison-spewers, and dodge the darts... or you could just try and break down the door you just came in.

Or you could have a fight take place on a burning bridge. As the bridge burns, the combat area shrinks, and there's the added hazard of falling as a spot turns from bridge to not bridge. Once the players figure out they've got a limited amount of time, their options expand. Now they can attack the bridge itself, to cut off/kill bad guys. The fighter's Tide of Iron could really come in handy there. I wonder how an Eladrin fey-step would work; is the bridge also burning in the feywild? Does it even exist there? The players could continue it as a combat mechanic, switch over to the success/failure system, or try both at once.

Imagine fighting lizardmen in a room filling with water, knowing that they're aquatic and you're wearing 30 pounds of metal.

I see a lot of options here.

 

[VBMEW-01]

All's quiet in here, guess traps don't stack up to hit points or the current hot gripe.

Now I dig this thread because I love the thought of what they are doing with traps. That said, let me get on topic.

I've only ever made one trap in my career as a DM (15 or so years), and I liked it so much that I've not made one since I like the thought of floor conveyors that have a chance of moving the characters on a set initiative (the trap's own)..could make for a good battle if you combined it with certain types of creatures or impediments.

Hmmm...thinking...

Maybe some sort of falling cage system that will randomly lock up one creature per round...now wouldn't that be fun. And just think, you could give the switch to the hidden goblin in the back.

Damage.....come on brain....think...

I've always thought that zombie uppers (torso up) suspended upside-down on chains would be cool fun...never done it though. Might work it in at some point.

 

[VBMEW-01]

Dang Surgoshan, you posted all that good stuff while I was slowly typing mine....

Woulda been nice to've caught it before, and had time to toss in some kindness. I love the deathroom and will likely use it.

Damn AND drat!

 

[Surgoshan]

Thanks!

I like that cage idea. You could expand it by making it a sort of shifting maze; every few turns bars retract or extend to make paths. Before you had four minions threatening you, now you can't reach them because of walls! But the BBEG has a straight path to charge you!

Hey, that and the conveyor one give me an idea... lemme see if I can flesh it out. A room full of a system of hooked chains (wall to wall, ceiling to floor). Every round, the room rolls initiative and on its turn it rearranges the chains, attacking the players (against their reflex) to get dragged to a new square. If they fail their save, then they remain tangled in the chain and keep getting dragged. The room doesn't need to attack their reflex the next turn, and they're prone until/unless they save. Where they get moved is random on a d8. If they get moved into the center of the room, though, then they're tangled until a teammate gets them out (strength check? untangling your kitten's yarn check?) and they take some small amount of damage every turn. For the players to move, they have to make a check and a bad failure means they're tangled, no save. Oh, and you can throw in some monsters, too.

That room's more passive, so I don't think you'd need to provide a mechanism for turning it off... I can imagine a fighter striving to push all the minions into the center of the room.

Man, I am loving this! I really, really wish I didn't live in such a small town; I've been jonesing for D&D for months!

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

I swear someone posted some Trap stats during DDXP, but I haven't been able to find them since and didn't think to copypasta them.

 

[VBMEW-01]

Surgoshan

Vast improvement on what I had...</GLOMP> I'm all over it

Fiendish Dire Weasel


This is straight out of that compilation that's been floating around the last few days, love it!

Crushing Rock Level 2 Blaster Trap XP 125
A giant boulder that follows the route indicated on the map.
Perception
No check is necessary to notice the crushing rock.
Trigger Initiative +5
The trap rolls initiative when the encounter begins. It has a
speed 6.
Attack
Standard Action • Melee
Target: All creatures in the same space as the rock.
Attack +7 vs. Reflex
Hit: 2d6 damage, knock prone, and move that creature to the
nearest open space of its choice.
Countermeasures• A character who makes a successful Athletics check DC 10, or
DC 20 without a running start, can jump over the rock’s square.
• An adjacent character to the rock can make a successful Strength
check DC 19 to reduce the rock’s speed by 2. If the rock is
reduced to 0 speed, it is disabled.

 

[LostInTheMists]

A room full of a system of hooked chains (wall to wall, ceiling to floor). Every round, the room rolls initiative and on its turn it rearranges the chains, attacking the players (against their reflex) to get dragged to a new square.

*snip*

Oh, and you can throw in some monsters, too.

And this here is exactly why I can't wait to see stats for kytons in the 4e MM (hopefully, they're in there!). This sort of room, with a chain devil or three just walking unimpeded through the chains while the PC's get pureed? Ohboyohboyohboy.

Poor PC's.

 

[Syrsuro]

I was thinking about some classic physical traps and how they could be used as a battlefield obstacle, rather than a one shot attack...

For example - a bladed penduluum.

Once triggered, it swings back and forth repeatedly across the room, and anyone who ends their turn in its path suffers an attack versus AC as it goes by. Now a part of the tactics becomes staying out of its path and sliding/pushing/pulling others into its path.

And many other physical traps can be handled similarily.

Another trap-like effect I am definately going to be using is webs. Wherever there are spiders, there are going to be webs. And while it is easy to avoid existant webs in 3.x, in 4E pushing opponents into the webs is going to be every bit as popular as pushing them into pits. Even more so for the spiders, who will use whatever means they can to drag the PCs into the nets with them (and the spiders, of course, have no movement penalties in the nets).


Carl

 

[Surgoshan]

The Prince of Persia games would make an excellent 4th edition game.