Traps Wanted : Originals clever traps

[kigmatzomat]

The water curtain, a multi-purpose trap trigger.
A fluid (water, nominally) falls in a smooth waterfall that spans the complete width of the corridor. There is only a small slit (1/4" deep) where water pours out and it goes directly into another thin slit (1/2" deep). The water provides continuous pressure on a trigger plate; any interruption of the flow will cause the trap to activate.
For traps I like a combo trap: polymorph any object (water to acid) plus a lightning bolt. If you are incredibly evil, the water curtain is holding back a poison gas.
As a bonus, anyone/thing passing through the fluid will leave water tracks on the floor; make it a paper surface and you can track invisible creatures for quite some distance. Add a few properly shaped metal or wood blocks on the floor on the other side and water droplets will make them ring, sounding the alarm.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Here's something that's potentially very lethal, and by its very nature, may need a spellcaster to detect/disarm than a rogue. It's also a one-shot trap, at best. Don't know how effective this may be, though.

The core idea is that the PCs are following a path that leads to a dead end--pretty much a corridor with rooms spaced out along it's length. At the end of this long passage are 2 rooms, one next to the other. All throughout this series of rooms & passages is clues (& then direct information) that a massive room of great importance lies beyond--a main hall, an arcane library, the lair of a BBEG, etc.--in essence, a place where the PCs want to go.

The first room is a guardroom/lair, where the PCs encounter a somewhat challenging foe (but not a TPK threat). At the other side of this room is a massive door, made of stone, iron, adamantine, or other such sturdy (i.e., non-bashable) materials. The door is locked, & the quality of the lock is extremely good (basically having a DC number higher than what the PCs can achieve w/ an Open Lock roll; they could do it with some bonus due to bard's song, a spell , or some combination thereof).

In the room is a chest. In the chest is a some interesting items: some coins/gems, a couple of minor magic items, an ornate key (for the door), and a portable hole.

Ideally, the PCs will take the treasure (& pack it up), then use the key on the door. Using the key activates the trap.

The room is a bare, modest-sized room. However, using the key activates a massive spell, transforming the room into a large extradimensional space (exactly like the extradimensional space in a bag of holding, as well as an illusion of the sort of room the PCs were looking for).

Once the PC w/ the portable hole enters the room, the dimension collapses on itself, taking the PCs in the room with it (i.e., IIRC, just like what happens when placing a portable hole inside of a bag of holding). No save allowed. Those in the room are pretty much gone.

However, a spellcaster could discern the danger the room poses if they study it for a while (using Spellcraft or Knowledge [arcana], in conjuction with a divination/detection spell or two). The DC should be high, but not impossible for the character to make--allowing the character to realize what the room is should enable the characters to avoid the trap (that is if the character w/ the portable hole doesn't enter the room while the spellcaster is studying it).

If the PCs don't use the key & pick the lock instead, then they see the room for what it is--an unadorned dead-end. They will have to go back (or rest up first & then go back) to achieve their goal.

You could make the corridor tougher by having some resetting traps along its length (so that the PCs may have to deactivate them again). To be a bit kind, you could have the portable hole play an important role later on (like needing it to achieve a task vital to the adventure's success). Of course, if a PC or two are lost to the trap, & the item was needed to successfully perform the mission, then the surviving PCs are really out of luck.

How's that sound?

 

[Arrellion]

Start with a long (400 ft) passage with a few turns. At about 100' have a pressure plate that causes a ten foot section of the ceiling to colapse. Most
PC's will run forward. Let them go about another 150' to 200' and have the same thing happen. Then let them go around the turn to discover they are in a dead end and must go back digging there way out. If you want to be nasty you can keep track of the oxygen level and check to see if they start another cave in while digging.

Have a large Idol or Statue to a God in a room with small rock shards littering the floor. In the forehead of the statue is a large ruby. When the thief climbs up to get the ruby his body heat sets off the trap. The ruby pulsates once and a beam shoots from the eyes-Flesh to Stone. The thief then topples to the ground adding to the "rock shards" littering the floor. If you want to be kind you could just have it paralyze him/her and let the party try to catch them.

The party enters a wizards laboratory. When someone touches the spell book left out on the table and voice booms through the room telling them to get out now leaving all where they found it or die. In the far corner there is a statue of a Satyr playing the pipes. Any one who is looking notices a small glow begin at the end of the pipes. As they watch, the glow gets bigger and bigger, becoming a large falming sphere. Then the delayed-blast fireball shoots across the room enveloping all who were foolish to stay.

Good Luck,

Arrellion

 

[Arrellion]

Start with a long (400 ft) passage with a few turns. At about 100' have a pressure plate that causes a ten foot section of the ceiling to colapse. Most
PC's will run forward. Let them go about another 150' to 200' and have the same thing happen. Then let them go around the turn to discover they are in a dead end and must go back digging there way out. If you want to be nasty you can keep track of the oxygen level and check to see if they start another cave in while digging.

Have a large Idol or Statue to a God in a room with small rock shards littering the floor. In the forehead of the statue is a large ruby. When the thief climbs up to get the ruby his body heat sets off the trap. The ruby pulsates once and a beam shoots from the eyes-Flesh to Stone. The thief then topples to the ground adding to the "rock shards" littering the floor. If you want to be kind you could just have it paralyze him/her and let the party try to catch them.

The party enters a wizards laboratory. When someone touches the spell book left out on the table a voice booms through the room telling them to get out now leaving all where they found it or die. In the far corner there is a statue of a Satyr playing the pipes. Anyone who is looking notices a small glow begin at the end of the pipes. As they watch, the glow gets bigger and bigger, becoming a large flaming sphere. Then the delayed-blast fireball shoots across the room enveloping all who were foolish to stay.

Good Luck,

Arrellion

 

[Fergus]

Not my trap, though by far my favorite... *smile*

It's a large trap filled with whipped cream. You can't really swim in it because it isn't dense enough. You can't really make verbal or somatic components of spells work. You can't really climb walls that have been slicked with whipped cream. You can't really do much of anything other than drown.

The most embarrassing thing I've ever heard of is my friends' high level character drowning in whipped cream.

 

[geezerjoe]

Check out Traps and Treachery, it's like a monster manual for traps.



One of my favorite traps involves a typical pressure plate that when stepped on sprays the area with blood. It also opens a pen located further along filled with very hungry animals that can smell the blood. Not exactly horribly deadly unless you place "special" critters in the pen but good for several seconds of "Oh my god we're covered in blood and something’s about to round the corner" looks on the player's eyes.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I always seem to want to trap dragon lairs,
1. a narrow hallway leading to a very sturdy door, extra supports extend out from the top of the frame. The door is not locked, just very stuck, as it is supporting the ceiling. When opened the hallway on both sides caves in.

2. a short cliff obvious handholds/ ladder - halfway up one of the rungs is bladed, and poisoned.

3. a cone shaped hallway, with a very narrow exit, perfect for bottlling up pesky adventurers.

4. Dispel magic as a trap - right before BBEG's lair, ps give lots of time for PC's to buff first.

5. Use a heavy door/magic wall/portculis to split the party, have the main enemy force attacking the rear.

6. My favoriate - big levers, ripe for pulling

7. Misleading clues carved on wall -

 

[arscott]

I'm just reading through my collection of old modules, and B4 (the lost city), has an interesting trap: when someone steps on a pressure plate, Massive granite slabs slam together several feet in front. The trap is completely harmless, unless they forget about it on the way back!

 

[DMSage]

I have been putting too much emphasis on monsters in the games I am running. I wish to change the pace with a serious of devastating, original traps. I need help in thinking up some originals. Traps along the lines of a glass jammed door filled with acid. Illusion spell cast on the door so that it looks like an ordinary door. Bt since its is jammed the warrior/ barbarian usually attempts to kick down the door. Splash acid burn.
Plz help me think of some more evil traps.

Be super careful. Adding more difficult traps will likely just make your players feel like they are getting massacred by them and have no way of solving them. Many traps in D&D sound fun, but end up being one perception check and you either hit it or miss it. That doesnt at much to the game besides some damage.
If you really want to make an amazing trap make sure each trap is giving your party a puzzle to solve and they have some small clue that the trap exists.
Here's an article that shows you how and why to make traps this way. http://dmsage.com/2015/07/problems-with-traps/

And here is an article with two original traps using this method to show how even a pressure plate or trip wire can add a ton to your game. http://dmsage.com/2015/08/quality-traps/

Hope that gives you some new ideas.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Some times it is the location of the trap that is important.

Bed Pit Trap (this is a real world trap, invented and used in India), this is a standard "drop in pit" but is set in a tavern/inn bed room, the bed is a trap door that is manually triggered in the middle of the night and drops the character onto spikes or into a pit. To all, it looks like the character just disappeared from a locked room. It is great for Shanghai games, where a player leaves a game but can be used by hostels along the roads to provide slaves, robbery or ransom victims.