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<blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5740217" data-attributes="member: 1165">That's not a problem.First of all, the only traps that shouldn't be spotted are lurker traps. Use &quot;hard&quot; 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 &quot;don't go there!&quot;) which is what the kobolds want. I don't believe the rogue can &quot;silently&quot; 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 &quot;random&quot; 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 &quot;drain resources&quot; 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 &quot;full&quot; 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.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="(Psi)SeveredHead, post: 5740217, member: 1165"] 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 [i]not[/i] 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 [i]attack[/i]. 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. [/QUOTE]

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