Dispelling Magic Traps

[Olaf the Stout]

A situation came up in my game where the PC's attempted to dispel a Prismatic Spray trap. I ruled that it was an item and if the player beat the DC, the spell on the trap would be dispelled for 1d4 rounds. The Sorcerer succeeded (but only just!) in his caster level check and the spell was dispelled for 1d4 rounds. This allowed the Rogue a few riskless attempts to disable the trap (since the spell wouldn't function for 1d4 rounds). He made his first Disable Device roll and all was good.

What I am wondering is if I ruled this correctly? Neither myself or my players could find anything about dispelling magical traps in the DMG or PHB but everyone was happy enough with how we decided to handle it. I just thought that we might have overlooked the rules somewhere.

Thoughts?

Olaf the Stout

 

[Infiniti2000]

I would agree with your ruling because a prismatic spray trap is "automatic reset". It is very expensive.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/traps.htm#cr8PrismaticSprayTrap

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Is there some general rule regarding magical traps though? If there is, I couldn't find it.

On a slightly related note, I found The Prismatic Spray trap to be a little too strong for it's CR. It is a CR 8 but it very nearly killed the 8th level Rogue. He tripped the trap off twice and, luckily for him I rolled a 2 and a 3 for my d8 rolls. Both of these rolls resulted in effects that allowed a Reflex save. Not only is this the best save for the Rogue, but his Evasion allowed him to avoid all damage on a successful save.

If I had rolled one of the results that required a Will or Fortitude save he would have been toast. Considering the spell is 7th level it seems quite difficult for a CR 8 trap. It is pretty much a save or die trap for most 8th level characters, unless you roll a 1 or 2 for the effect.

Olaf the Stout

 

[lottrbacchus]

Is there some general rule regarding magical traps though? If there is, I couldn't find it.

On a slightly related note, I found The Prismatic Spray trap to be a little too strong for it's CR. It is a CR 8 but it very nearly killed the 8th level Rogue. He tripped the trap off twice and, luckily for him I rolled a 2 and a 3 for my d8 rolls. Both of these rolls resulted in effects that allowed a Reflex save. Not only is this the best save for the Rogue, but his Evasion allowed him to avoid all damage on a failed save.

If I had rolled one of the results that required a Will or Fortitude save he would have been toast. Considering the spell is 7th level it seems quite difficult for a CR 8 trap. It is pretty much a save or die trap for most 8th level characters, unless you roll a 1 or 2 for the effect.

Olaf the Stout

I actually enjoy handing out big bags of blue pellets (exp pts) from time to time. Remember- the CR of something should be how challenging it ought to be- flying orcs with good tactics should have a higher CR than orcs that just wander up to the slaughter.

So, if this is a trap that the Rogue MUST overcome (avoiding it isn't in the cards), and it is 'tougher' than the Rogue, I might go CR 9 or 10 for it.

 

[Infiniti2000]

On a slightly related note, I found The Prismatic Spray trap to be a little too strong for it's CR.

It's very expensive to make the trap automatically reset. Compare it to the other spell traps that have no reset and see the difference.

But, more to your point, I think the CR system with regards to traps is a little lacking. In this case, the CR will be spell level plus one, and IMO that doesn't equate. A 7th-level spell for level 8 PCs can be quite deadly, especially when using level adjusted PCs. I would suggest awarding ad hoc XP adjustment based on how tough a particularly spell trap can be for your party. That's the only way I can see to logically handle the wide variety of differences.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I actually enjoy handing out big bags of blue pellets (exp pts) from time to time. Remember- the CR of something should be how challenging it ought to be- flying orcs with good tactics should have a higher CR than orcs that just wander up to the slaughter.

So, if this is a trap that the Rogue MUST overcome (avoiding it isn't in the cards), and it is 'tougher' than the Rogue, I might go CR 9 or 10 for it.

In this particular case, the party didn't have to go down the hallway in question, but they were pretty sure that the trap(s) must have been protecting something pretty important.

Olaf the Stout