Illusionary traps

[hailstop]

Hmmm...

I have a bit of a problem. Coming up in the current adventure for our group, a 4e conversion of the Mud Sorceror's Tomb, one of the rooms involves an illusionary wall trap in which when the PC grabs a necklace off of a skeleton in a coffin, the skeleton grabs him, and one wall begins to advance on the party as if to crush them.

The trap intention is to get the PCs to move to the opposite end of the room and get hit by the very real pit trap.

Has anyone tried DMing this type of trap in 4e? I would like to keep it, but if worse comes to worse I can just cut it out of the adventure...

 

[SkidAce]

Play it like you just described it. Unless they get shoved into the fake wall or have a reason to think its an illusion, they may crowd to the opposite side of the room.

Of course the real trap will need to go off before the wall gets close enough for a player to try wedging something in between to stop it. But if they do that, that could be their clue that it's illusory.

P.S. Love the Mud Sorcerers tomb...how are you statting them up?

 

[malraux]

If you want mechanics, you could give the wall an attack action triggered by a character entering it's space. Something like Level + 5 vs ref or will, whichever is lower; level appropriate damage and the character is pushed 1 square as the wall advances. I might even fudge or hide the first roll just so it's apparent that the wall is actually moving. This does have the possibility of failure, but that's reasonable as in the old edition you could save vs illusion.

 

[LostSoul]

Yeah, some stats:

Skeleton's grab: lvl +4 vs. Fort, escape is level +12. The target is restrained until escape! The skeleton has defenses of level +12, and only a few HP (1/4 the normal amount of a monster of its level).

The wall: close burst 5, lvl +6 vs. Will, push 3 and impassable. Countermeasures: Insight DC level +14, you see through the illusion and are immune to the push.

Or, instead of the attack, you could say that they must make an Insight check to determine that it's an illusion; DC is level +14. Only people who ask for the check/touch the wall get to make it; other characters who succeed can Aid. Let them act normally. (This is the option I would go with.)

The pit trap is a normal pit trap.

("level" means the trap's level, not the PC's.)

 

[malraux]

Or, instead of the attack, you could say that they must make an Insight check to determine that it's an illusion; DC is level +14. Only people who ask for the check/touch the wall get to make it; other characters who succeed can Aid. Let them act normally. (This is the option I would go with.)

Yeah, that's probably better from a reducing meta-gaming perspective. They don't notice something is up until they actively try to avoid it.