D&D General Is this a fair trap?

[Lakesidefantasy]

It's unfair, but still a lot of fun.

I got hit with this trap (sans gelatinous cube) at GenCon 2016. I went down in the pit, scooped up all the treasure, then grabbed the rope to climb out and got smashed.

With a smile my shocked response was, "I just got Grimtoothed!"

 

[Charlaquin]

The top of the block has an area of 10 ft square. The mold doesn't have to be necesarily touching the rope passing through the hole, right?

I suppose not, though the rope is touching two corners of every 5-foot square on top of the block.

 

[Charlaquin]

Come to think of it, wouldn’t the fire suffocate inside the hole in the block? That would still cause the block to drop and avoid the risk of the fire touching the mold.

EDIT: Wait, what’s the rope secured to on the bottom? Wouldn’t the gelatinous cube burn through it?

 

[iserith]

Why not just say the part of the rope in the gelatinous cube and below the stone block is coated in the flammable substance, but the rope in and above the stone block is not (or is covered in some flame retarding substance)?

 

[Crimson Longinus]

My group in the 80s and 90s would have seen this as an obvious trap. Um.. well they saw everything as a trap

Sure, it is obviously a trap. That in one reason for it being stupid.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The top of the block has an area of 10 ft square. The mold doesn't have to be necesarily touching the rope passing through the hole, right?

No it does not. the 10x10x10 thing is as made-up as the 1ft lip on the pit.

We don't know how big it is. It is extremely unlikely it is that big.

 

[Nefermandias]

No it does not. the 10x10x10 thing is as made-up as the 1ft lip on the pit.

We don't know how big it is. It is extremely unlikely it is that big.

I was under the impression that the intent is that the block would fill up the pit almost entirely, so the GC gets completely expelled from it. Yeah, the block would weight tons.

 

[tomBitonti]

So ... would the gelatinous cube splatter? It is gelatinous, not watery. I’m thinking either like regular desert jello, or perhaps more pudding-like. Since there are black pudding, I’ll assume the descriptions are qualitatively accurate and treat a GC as being similar to a huge 10 ft cube of desert jello (fruit optional).

A drop of 10‘ gives a speed of about 17 mph.

If the block were just smaller than the pit, the block should send a shock wave through the GC and then through the surrounding rock. Would this reflect and push the block back up? Or would it be mostly absorbed, leaving the block as a kind of leaky hydraulic press, slowly squeezing GC material up its sides as it slid into the pit?

Much smaller rocks, I don’t know. Maybe the GC would just be set a-quiver, with a small quantity of GC matter thrown out at the point of impact.

TomB

 

[Nefermandias]

So ... would the gelatinous cube splatter? It is gelatinous, not watery. I’m thinking either like regular desert jello, or perhaps more pudding-like. Since there are black pudding, I’llnassume the descriptions are qualitatively accurate and treat a GC as being similar to a huge 10th cube of desert jello.

A drop of 10 gives a speed of about 17 mph

If the block were just smaller than the pit, the block should send a shock wave through the GC and then through the surrounding rock. Would this reflect and push the block back up? Or would it be mostly absorbed, leaving the block as a kind of leaky hydraulic press, slowly squeezing GC material up its sides as it slid into the pit?

Much smaller rocks, I don’t know. Maybe the GC would just be set a-quiver, with a small quantity of GC matter thrown out at the point of impact.


TomB

With 10' x 10' 10' block of solid granite it would most certainly be completely spilled out of the pit.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I was under the impression that the intent is that the block would fill up the pit almost entirely, so the GC gets completely expelled from it. Yeah, the block would weight tons.

If it nearly filled the pit it would be extremely peculiar in effect and might not be able to sink at all if GCs turn out, like water, to be incompressible but vastly more viscous than water.

Also, if it did do that (i.e. nearly fill the pit), there is NO POSSIBLE WAY the Yellow Mold would impact-trigger, because the speed of impact would be low and the deceleration incredibly gentle, as the viscous semi-liquid was slowly sprayed out as a sort of sheet of goo as the block descended. Even then it is extremely unlikely the goo would make it outside 5-10' from the pit.

Also big problem if the block is 10x10x10. No-one can possibly get hit by the Yellow Mold if it triggers.

Yellow Mold in 1E hits 1" cube centered on it. I.e. 10x10x10 in later terms. So only people literally ON TOP of the block could possibly be hit by the Yellow Mold.

This design is completely broken. The Yellow Mold fails in at least FOUR different ways:

1) In many scenarios it catches fire.

2) In all non-added-to scenarios, the blocks deceleration is likely too gentle to trigger the Mold, and even it wasn't, it's a 50% trigger chance, not 100%.

3) In other scenarios, where the block isn't 10x10x10, if it even triggers at all, it triggers inside the goo of the GC.

4) In all scenarios, with absolutely no exceptions, the 1" cube area effect will not hit anyone outside the pit unless the Yellow Mold is not in the center, and if it's not in the center, it's at best going to hit two 5' squares, I guess maybe three if this isn't a corridor and it's on a corner. So it's likely to miss people.

Sorry for all the ALL CAPS but people are just completely ignoring how this is non-functional.