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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6866806" data-attributes="member: 6787650">I invented (or deduced?) their existence a while ago because otherwise nonlethal traps in D&D just don't make any sense at all. But you need nonlethal traps in order for gameplay to be fun.It also helps rationalize the fact that you get XP for defeating (most) traps. It's the kill XP (life force) from the gremlin. You wouldn't get this XP from bypassing a wizard's magical Sepia Snake Sigil spell, because there's no gremlin involved. You would, however, stand a good chance at retrieving whatever it was that he was protecting with the Sepia Snake Sigil.Wizard traps are not supposed to be fun, fair, or entertaining. A good wizard trap is "anyone who touches or moves this here spellbook gets hit simultaneously by Hypnotic Pattern, Web, and four summoned elementals, one of each type." It costs 1200 gold and a few spell slots to set it up but it's pretty decent protection. (It can still be bypassed via the normal Glyph of Warding countermeasures including Dispel Magic or making a zombie or your familiar move the book for you, or possibly even with Mage Hand.) Too many wizard traps will make your players hate and avoid dungeons; but gremlin traps hopefully will not.Evil wizards have ways of arranging for gremlin infestations of their towers, resulting in a mix of gremlin traps and wizard traps.</blockquote>