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The Sunless Citadel 4.5 Edition Conversion
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7097898" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>I think traps are hard, because they serve a number of purposes and they are more situational than monsters. Aside from some sort of 'atmospheric effect' single low-damage traps don't really have a point (unless you count forcing players to pixel bitch your dungeon, but I don't think that's intended). I wouldn't even place such traps, or just simply explain them as some minor traps you find and trivially disarm, with the note that this may indicate there are worse further on. You could simply describe the trap as firing off and giving someone a scratch, or glancing off their armor without any effect, etc. Why even roll? If you want 'man vs environment' conflict, then it has to be a bit more serious, and if millions of tiny traps are a real threat (I can imagine that) then the standard trap mechanics aren't really the right way to handle that anyway, IMHO.</p><p></p><p>That all being said, I think 4e's traps are often on the wimpy side. I agree that they should definitely either present the chance for multiple attacks, do some sort of high limited damage, or simply be worth less XP, or otherwise do SOMETHING more. There are some cases where they're not so bad. Pits at least present some problem as terrain, and could possibly disable a character for the whole encounter, or at least a couple rounds. Some other types similarly, but a lot of the 'poison dart trap' kinds of things do seem fairly anemic.</p><p></p><p>Actually this is a good inspiration for me to go through and do a trap writeup for HoML, because its definitely going to take a bit different spin on these things...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7097898, member: 82106"] I think traps are hard, because they serve a number of purposes and they are more situational than monsters. Aside from some sort of 'atmospheric effect' single low-damage traps don't really have a point (unless you count forcing players to pixel bitch your dungeon, but I don't think that's intended). I wouldn't even place such traps, or just simply explain them as some minor traps you find and trivially disarm, with the note that this may indicate there are worse further on. You could simply describe the trap as firing off and giving someone a scratch, or glancing off their armor without any effect, etc. Why even roll? If you want 'man vs environment' conflict, then it has to be a bit more serious, and if millions of tiny traps are a real threat (I can imagine that) then the standard trap mechanics aren't really the right way to handle that anyway, IMHO. That all being said, I think 4e's traps are often on the wimpy side. I agree that they should definitely either present the chance for multiple attacks, do some sort of high limited damage, or simply be worth less XP, or otherwise do SOMETHING more. There are some cases where they're not so bad. Pits at least present some problem as terrain, and could possibly disable a character for the whole encounter, or at least a couple rounds. Some other types similarly, but a lot of the 'poison dart trap' kinds of things do seem fairly anemic. Actually this is a good inspiration for me to go through and do a trap writeup for HoML, because its definitely going to take a bit different spin on these things... [/QUOTE]
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