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Message: <blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3041305" data-attributes="member: 22424">Okay, that makes sense. I would still expect some traps, at the very least at the entrances to the 'public' parts of the dungeon. In general, one would expect there to be three categories of people in the dungeon: the inner circle, the servants, and intruders. One would therefore expect some sort of defences against the third group even in the main part of the dungeon. These traps, however, would need to be designed to be easily bypassed by the servants, and so would be relatively easy for a skilled Rogue to deal with.Alternatively, since we're postulating that he would set up traps in the secret areas keyed to himself alone, there's no reason he wouldn't have traps in the public areas keyed to his servants alone. However, since the identities of those servants is not fixed, he would have to do it using some sort of key (as I've mentioned before). Probably the best way is to have all his servants tattooed with a particular symbol. And a particularly devious wannabe demilich might think to have the traps keyed not to a particular tattoo, but rather to a particular tattoo made with ink containing certain uncommon ingredients.It still makes far more sense to put the trap on the secret door (or, since it's a magical trap, on the boundary between the two areas). That way, anyone who bashes down the secret door, or uses passwall or similar spells is still affected by the trap, rather than requiring the lever to do its job.Furthermore, under that arrangement there is absolutely no point in using a secret door - the existence of the lever clearly marks the existence of something in the room, rendering the door non-secret. Just have a door.Oh, and under that scheme there would probably be some means for his servants to alert Acerak in case of emergency. If the lair is invaded by marauding paladins, he would probably want to know about it, to take defensive measures (or perhaps flee). A giant gong, perhaps? (Of course, that could have been removed by those same paladins after Acerak moved on.)Okay, I can accept that. It's still a really bad trap design.A society that divisive wouldn't last for long. Either they'd pull apart fairly quickly or, more likely, they'd lose many of their number to the traps, and then be wiped out by a more agressive and cohesive group. Natural selection applies.Honestly, Raven Crowking's argument that they might choose to leave the traps unmarked so they could lure intruders into them was far more compelling.I did make note of the "unless some special immunity applies" clause. I omitted to include dungeon inhabitants such as oozes and vermin that have no use for levers.</blockquote>

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