D&D 5E Why do (non-deadly) traps exist in your campaign?

[FormerlyHemlock]

I was reading AngryDM on traps and thinking about how fun traps and diseases can potentially be, and how hard it is to do traps in a sandbox campaign.

See, the thing is that a trap which is designed to be fun in D&D has at least two characteristics that make it unrealistic:

1.) It's not instantly fatal if you accidentally trigger it.
2.) It can be detected and disarmed.

A realistic trap would be "evil wizard's library, behind the locked door; anyone besides a tall male elven necromancer who mutters 'Galooshka' before opening the door will set off Glyph of Warding x5, one with Hypnotic Pattern and the other four with Conjure Elemental VI (Invisible Stalker)." That trap is designed to secure a resource, even in the face of intruders who are strong enough to defeat the wizard himself.

A fun trapequivalent would be designed to provide the appearance of securing a resource, without actually doing so effectively. For example, "evil wizard's library, inscribed on the door in the shape of a man's face and faintly visible to anyone who succeeds on a DC 17 Investigation check; anyone besides the wizard who opens the door will set off Glyph of Warding (Stinking Cloud) and another Glyph of Warding (Earth Elemental)" [note: due to absence of two-factor authentication, this glyph can potentially be spoofed by illusion magic; see Nystul's Magic Aura final paragraph on PHB 263 for precedent]. That trap is designed to be a speed bump, novel and inconvenient but not deadly to anyone who can defeat the wizard himself.

I feel the desire to use traps more often to give even more of an old-school variety feel to my campaign, and so I'm considering introducing a barely-sentient species of "trap monkeys" (ancient biotech, like many of my monsters) who infest out-of-the-way places and build bizarre, non-deadly, circumventable traps out of commonly-available materials in that location. Then the answer to "why does the evil wizard have all these lame traps" will be "because he hasn't bothered to deconstruct them recently" instead of "because he spent time and effort building these instead of better traps."

Why do fun traps exist in your campaign world?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Traps exist in my world for the reasons they exist in real life. To protect against unwanted intrusion, alert the occupiers of the intrusion, and to reduce the fighting capability of the intruder either via death or maiming.

 

[PnPgamer]

They are there to replace living things without resorting to necrophil...mancy. Protecting your tomb or hidden treasury for 1000 years is easier with mechanical and magical traps, and not as expensieve as golems. Minimum of 10 so that at least one of them finishes the intruders off.

 

[JackOfAllTirades]

I like to find unusual purposes for traps that aren't necessarily fatal. Case in point: the "Offering Chest."

Raiding a cultist temple, the PCs happen upon a large chest labeled "offerings." Opening the chest activates a permanent Mass Suggestion spell which compels everyone present to give all their material wealth (weapons, armor, magic items, equipment, etc.) to the temple, and then leave. (Wisdom Save, I forgot the DC.)

This could have been fatal if the whole party failed their saving throws, then met someone hostile on their way out, but that didn't happen. Half of them saved, half of them put all their stuff in their chest and left the room. Then the others retrieved their gear (after bypassing a rather simple mundane lock and trap on the chest) and returned it to them later.

It turned out to be a major nuisance, but the PCs found out where the cult's money was coming from....

 

[MostlyDm]

Sacrosanct is on the right track.

Hemlock, why do people use easily circumvented modern "trap" systems? E.g. Alarm systems, video cameras, dye-locks on clothing merchandise, etc?

In virtually every case a resourceful and dedicated intruder/thief/etc can overcome these nuisances. But they act as a cost-effective deterrent to basic thieves and burglars.

If a dedicated burglar easily overcomes your alarm system, motion sensor floodlights, and cameras... Well that's why you keep a gun by your bed. And why the wizard has an iron golem, or whatever.

Low level deterrents are an incredibly common phenomena in the real world, makes sense they'd exist in a fantasy world.

Nothing wrong with occasionally having the equivalent of a mansion with a panic room and hidden fiber optic surveillance in every room of course... But such people are the exception, not the rule, even amongst the population likely to be robbed.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Complex traps are much more expensive and/or difficult to create. A trap with five glyphs is 150% more expensive than a trap with two glyphs, and the evil wizard has a finite amount of wealth. Why bother spending an extra 3000gp to increase the chance of killing someone after they have already killed you? That money is better spent on furthering your research.

 

[ZzarkLinux]

Non-Lethal traps IMO exist to:
(1) Set the tone for an area
(2) Hinder the PCS progress in a non-lethal way.

For a tone setter:
"You hit a tripwire. Bolts fly across the room, and you take 5 damage. The last bolt digs into a wall, and seems to disturb a spider nest. Dozens of baby spiders fall onto the floor in that area. Better not get too close."

For hindering PCs, I have no problem with status effects:
You step on a pressure plate. Some bricks drop from the ceiling and you take 5 damage. A mumified head also drops in the rubble. Make a charisma save (fail). The head reminds you of a friend you recently saw. It's not your friend though, but you still don't want him to end up like that. You are shook up, and a little reckless. Until the end of the day, the next monster you see, you cannot retreat from it or move away from it until it is defeated.

Non-Lethal traps definitely have a purpose.

 

[Tony Vargas]

'Deadly' is relative. A spiked pit or poisoned needle is pretty deadly to most people, just like a dagger or quarrel or case of the Black Plague is.

 

[Phineas Q. Conundrum]

Traps should be interactive for the players, and there should be the possibility of a reward if a player finds a clever way to bypass the trap, and or repurpose it to use it against enemies. A trap which merely decreases some of the PC's hit points can be a useful mood-setting device, but without interaction it leaves players feeling like it was just that -- a hindrance thrown together by their DM to keep them on their toes. However, even the most mundane and simple trap can instantly become interesting if you add meaningful interaction with the trap and its effects.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

“Fun” traps exist to challenge the thinking of the players in my campaign. You want that diamond on a pedestal with the cage above and the sharp pendulum nearby…how do you grab it without setting off that trap?

It’s not just a matter of “I make a dex check,” but requires them to think through the solution. I like to reward smart thinking, not just rolling high numbers.