Good traps to use in tight quarters?

[NewJeffCT]

My players will soon be making their way through a kobold lair - I want these lowly creatures to be able to challenge the PCs, despite my players being level 9 or 10 when they get to the lair. Most of the kobolds will be standard kobolds from the monster builder, but a few leader types will be a challenge to the PCs.

1) Any specific traps that would work well in an underground kobold lair (abandoned mine) - i.e, taking advantage of low ceilings, narrow corridors, etc. Or, something where a PC disarms one trap only to trigger another.
2) Any pets the kobolds could have to take advantage of the confined space (i.e., snakes, etc)
3) any other suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Lindeloef]

A door, when the party open it, a fireball will be released. And if the fireball misses the first one, that opened the door, the PC behind him/her will be the next target and so on until one PC is hit or no targets are available.
Works best in a 1 square wide corridor.
And behind the door is a wall. So it's a fake door. Painted on the wall are some magic runes, so the trap is magical in nature and can only be detected by an arcana check, not a perception/thievery check.

 

[le grand fromage]

Smoke? Near the roof of the tunnel it will block vision and cause damage (or weaken?) but the smaller kobolds could attack from below the cloud? Could be boosted with tar or toxins to give it that extra kick...

 

[Shadus]

A pit traps. One on the floor, and on both walls.
The only ways across would be to jump, or use the monkey bars.
The monkey bars are layered in grease making them very slippery.
One of the monkey bars is really a lever, and will unleash a magical wave of force that knocks a creature prone.
But make to where all this is easier to overcome then a 10 foot gap.
(You may way to add a trip wire in case a wizard or other class with flying abilities chooses to fly over the pit like it no big deal.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My players will soon be making their way through a kobold lair - I want these lowly creatures to be able to challenge the PCs, despite my players being level 9 or 10 when they get to the lair. Most of the kobolds will be standard kobolds from the monster builder, but a few leader types will be a challenge to the PCs.

1) Any specific traps that would work well in an underground kobold lair (abandoned mine) - i.e, taking advantage of low ceilings, narrow corridors, etc. Or, something where a PC disarms one trap only to trigger another.
2) Any pets the kobolds could have to take advantage of the confined space (i.e., snakes, etc)
3) any other suggestions?

Thanks

What level traps are you talking about? 9th/10th level?

IMO, traps must not be entire encounters by themselves, and a trap by itself in a tight hallway is a no-no. The worst that'll happen? Someone spends a healing surge or two.

1) A pit trap in a tight hallway works well if there's kobolds around, though. Especially if the kobolds have oil and alchemist's fire ready! (The orc "grenadier" in Threats of the Nentir Vale throws oil which inflicts vulnerable 5 fire on whoever it hits. Whoever is in the pit trap will need to take time to escape.)

Something that's mechanically identical to a portcullis trap works quite well when there's two of them, set to go off from the same trigger square between them. A PC walks over that, and either the PCs are all stuck in the same place, or they're split. Either way, now kobolds can shoot from behind the cover provided by the portcullis(-equivalent), and are immune to melee attacks from whoever set off the trap.

I would be very careful with fixing one trap sets off another. That can seem punishing.

2) Swarms! Scorpion swarms, snake swarms, etc. A single snake probably won't challenge near-paragon-level PCs.

 

[NewJeffCT]

What level traps are you talking about? 9th/10th level?

IMO, traps must not be entire encounters by themselves, and a trap by itself in a tight hallway is a no-no. The worst that'll happen? Someone spends a healing surge or two.

1) A pit trap in a tight hallway works well if there's kobolds around, though. Especially if the kobolds have oil and alchemist's fire ready! (The orc "grenadier" in Threats of the Nentir Vale throws oil which inflicts vulnerable 5 fire on whoever it hits. Whoever is in the pit trap will need to take time to escape.)

Something that's mechanically identical to a portcullis trap works quite well when there's two of them, set to go off from the same trigger square between them. A PC walks over that, and either the PCs are all stuck in the same place, or they're split. Either way, now kobolds can shoot from behind the cover provided by the portcullis(-equivalent), and are immune to melee attacks from whoever set off the trap.

I would be very careful with fixing one trap sets off another. That can seem punishing.

2) Swarms! Scorpion swarms, snake swarms, etc. A single snake probably won't challenge near-paragon-level PCs.

My group has a couple of players that have really high perception and/or thievery. So, most of the time, they'll be able to spot the traps... however, I do want to wear them down a bit.

Also, I would probably have the traps as between level 7 and level 10 or 11 or so.

 

[Shadus]

Another idea would be to use traps that lure PC into abuses one by one.
Using pit traps as an example again: The trap it self is relatively harmless, But when the Clunky Fighter falls down the hole he will be surrounded by Kobolds whose teamwork match even his greater fighting ability. The other PCs will have to work to get him out of trouble, while maybe dealing with other simple traps (Maybe auto-turrets?)

This can also be done with smoke screens, fake walls, and etc.
Also remember that Kobolds are small creatures, and would probably make smaller path ways alongside the narrow path the PCs are going through. With a few holes here and there to poke out and stab someone with a spear.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My group has a couple of players that have really high perception and/or thievery. So, most of the time, they'll be able to spot the traps... however, I do want to wear them down a bit.

Also, I would probably have the traps as between level 7 and level 10 or 11 or so.

That's not a problem.

First of all, the only traps that shouldn't be spotted are lurker traps. Use "hard" Perception DCs for those. (I usually make the DCs to spot the trigger squares hard, but other DCs medium. This means the PCs might walk into a room and immediately spot the control panel at the other end of the room. Of course, they have to brave the turrets and kobolds and spend 3-6 rounds protecting the rogue as he disables the trap. Spotting the control panel is actually good, as it presents the rogue with a choice, rather than failing a Perception check and having no option but trying to slice up the turrets.)

It doesn't matter if the PCs spot the portcullis ahead of time, as that's still influencing their actions (eg "don't go there!") which is what the kobolds want. I don't believe the rogue can "silently" disable the trap, which means a whole mess of kobolds fall on the party while the rogue is not doing his striker thing as he's busy disarming the trap. Portcullises are minion traps, but regular traps require multiple Thievery (or other skill) checks to disable. In effect, the rogue (or whoever) has to spend actions disabling the trap, which means the trap is always doing its job even when spotted, and the rogue may be under fire the entire time.

Worse for the PCs, most traps attack. They're not static. Avoid traps that can only attack limited areas, as the PCs will just avoid these, and don't use traps which only attack "random" areas (lots of traps do this, unfortunately). Turret traps are a good one to use; even better, fighters can interact with them too (by smashing them).

The end result if the rogue is left with a painful choice - disable the trap (and not dish out damage) or stab the enemy (and let the traps attack his friends).

That works whether the PCs see the traps and/or can disable them or not.

Traps shouldn't "drain resources" by themselves. They should only do so as part of a mobile intelligent enemy encounter. If there's four trap sets on the way to the chief kobold's chambers, that would be four "full" encounters, each of which can be nasty, as whichever PC is either using up actions disabling the trap or has fallen down the pit trap isn't doing their job fighting the kobolds.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Good stuff Psi - keeping the rogue occupied disabling a trap instead of using his striker capability is a good way to make the group less effective temporarily. And, if he decides to not disable the trap, maybe something that separates the party or deals damage to them goes off instead.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I'm worried that the kobolds, unless you up their levels and/or give them bonuses simply won't be a challenge for the PCs.

For example, a level one kobold essentially has a -8 to hit and defences vis-a-vis a 9th level PC. Most PCs will be hitting them on a 2 (and on about a 5 even with superior cover) and they will need close to a natural 20 to hit the defender.

Additionally, they will have roughly 1/3 the hit points and do roughly half the damage. Sure, they will be worth 1/4 the XP, so you can cram far more kobolds in, but... given that they won't be able to hit the PCs, I doubt you'll create the dilemas you want, as it will be a no-brainer for the thief to disable the dangerous trap and let the controller mop up the hordes of relatively non-dangerous kobolds.

So, I would personally recommend that you level up all the kobolds to at least level 5.