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I'm trying to figure out the mechanics of the "trap within a trap" cleverness. Is one search check enough? If I take 20 do I find both? How do I avoid the second trap?

Even +22 is not good enough to take 10 in many cases. I'm looking at Fortress of the Yuan-Ti right now. For 7th level characters. Search DC 24, 30, 31. Even the 24 is tough to take 10 on at 7th level. As a player, I'm cautious. As a DM, I give my players reasons to be cautious. I don't...

There are two things here. First you've hidden something in the cookie jar. If someone isn't going to take the time to look in the cookie jar, you've won. If they do decided to look in the cookie jar and you don't want them to win you put a trap on the jar. Sure, if they spent the time to...

I am running 5 campaigns right now, some are as written some aren't. In one campaign I'm running the Mere of Dead Men series from Dungeon, and I decided to add another area between the 4th and 5th adventure. There are some unresolved plot lines, and I read on an old mailing list from Eric...

Why not? He would want to put treasure or secret doors in hidden, out of the way places. Wouldn't he want to put traps on them?

We have a standard delving procedure and it's in our campaign rules. Unless otherwise noted, you just assume the rogue (or whoever is the point man) is doing this. The DM makes rolls, like listen (which can be simplified by taking 10) when the monsters are actually there. It doesn't get...

I don't make them take 20, I encourage them to. They don't have to. How is it boring? It takes no more time to take 20 on a room than it does to take 10, or pick out specific areas. If anything, it's actually faster to take 20 and it makes the game flow smoother, in my experience. Telling...

Sorry about that. :cool:

I disagree that what I'm doing is a house rule. :D

Even if I showed it to you, how would it relate to this conversation? I'm talking about the role of exploration time in the dungeon, not sitting on your butt.

Well it's not just the number of encounters, it's the amount of time in between encounters that creates the "15 minute workday" myth. With only 6 seconds per round, if there is nothing motivating a party to slow down (treasure, secret doors, avoiding nasty traps) then you can fight a dozen...

You can't take 20 when using survival to track: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/feats.htm#track http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/survival.htm

I disagree. By the RAW, you can't walk for more than 8 hours without doing a forced march check. That causes fatigue. You do not interpret that to apply to dungeon exploration but I do.

You'd need the track feat, and even then it's no guarentee you're going to find the tracks. But if you do, that's cool and makes the feat worthwhile. And even then, he may still have put a bomb on the linen closet recently and started using another exit. As an adventurer, you never know.

It's set in stone if you interpret it as such. I think a forced march applies to time spent exploring in a dungeon. You don't. Things like this are why they have a huge list of FAQs, you can't cover everything. I hope they spotlight time management in 4th edition, especially if they're...

Ah, but the enemy could be in the secret room BEHIND the linen closet. :p You never know.

No, as an enemy you want them taking 20 in every square. It gives you time to find them and plan how to remove them.

If they work for more than 8 hours they could get fatigued, possibly taking a little "nonlethal damage" until they rest. It's left to DM interpretation. If you interpret that players can search for weeks at a time and never rest, then more power to you and your group.

Unless you live there, you don't know if the linen closet is used or not. Or if the toilet is. That's what makes for clever trapmaking, putting a mine under the loo is genius.

Yes, he can. And? You're welcome to do that too. It's just a different playstyle. You're more likely to fail though. :p