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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3037535" data-attributes="member: 22424">No, it's just stupid.If you want to protect something by placing it behind a secret door, you don't tip intruders off to the existence of the secret door by putting a honking great lever in the same room as the door, with nothing else in the room to be controlled by the lever.If you must have the door opened by this lever, and absolutely must have the lever in the same room, then you have the lever take three positions, only two of which are obvious. The two 'known' positions control some other mechanism that is also present in the room (I'm sure the designer could think of something), and have the third position control the door. That way, the explorer may not associate the existence of the lever with the likely existence of the door. (And, if you really must, you can still put a trap on that third position.) The key is, to protect your secret door, your first aim should be to avoid people from looking for it in the first place.If you really want it to be safe, you put the secret door in the back of a storeroom that you fill with shelves. Basically, put the secret door somewhere that it is unlikely to be looked for. Hence 'secret'.Furthermore, if you have the ability to build undetectable traps, you don't invest the money in an undetectable trap on the lever - you spend the money on an undetectable door. That way, your McGuffin remains safe.Now, assuming for some bizarre reason you have the ability to construct undetectable traps, but not undetectable doors, and you absolutely must have the lever control the door, and you absolutely must have the lever in the same room as the door, and you absolutely cannot have any other mechanism in the same room, you still don't put your undetectable trap on the honking great lever.You put it on the door. And you have it disabled by a code word that only you know, which you select such that it cannot be guessed but which you can easily remember. And you don't write it down. If you absolutely require that others be able to access the door, you choose some sort of secret tattoo for your order and require your followers all get it. Better still, have them get six, or choose one they already have. And don't tell them about the trap, or the significance of the tattoo. That way, if the intruders do manage to pull the lever using some clever mechanism that you didn't think of (like using a rope? Really, you didn't think of that?), the McGuffin is still protected, because they still can't get through the door.Honestly, the only reason you would design the encounter described as it has been, and put that trap on the lever, is if the purpose of the secret door is for no other reason than to have the party pull the lever and be killed. Which is an entirely backwards way of designing a lair.</blockquote>

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