Storyteller01
First Post
Sejs said:
Zelda's Endless Forest!!!
Need a stairway trap
- Thread starter Voadam
- Start date
Zelda's Endless Forest!!!
CanadienneBacon
Explorer
The following trap worked well for my group at low levels but could very easily be refined to suit a 16th-level party.
The party finds a secret or hidden door. Opening the door leads to a set of stairs going down, with an illusion at the bottom distant but visible that looks like it accesses somewhere else important, special, or otherwise tempting to the party. Once the party is on the stairs, the stairway steps fold into a ramp (magically greased when I ran this trap). At the end of the greased ramp is a pit with a dire weasel. The drop into the pit wasn't too bad...it was the con damage from the weasel that made for quite a lot of fun all around.
Even given all appropriate skill checks to notice or disable the greased stairs that drop into a pit with some sort of creature lurking in wait, you could still easily modify the above idea using higher level illusion magic, a different sort of pit with other environmental hazards, or change the pit creature to something more dramatic and befitting a higher-level party.
The party finds a secret or hidden door. Opening the door leads to a set of stairs going down, with an illusion at the bottom distant but visible that looks like it accesses somewhere else important, special, or otherwise tempting to the party. Once the party is on the stairs, the stairway steps fold into a ramp (magically greased when I ran this trap). At the end of the greased ramp is a pit with a dire weasel. The drop into the pit wasn't too bad...it was the con damage from the weasel that made for quite a lot of fun all around.
Even given all appropriate skill checks to notice or disable the greased stairs that drop into a pit with some sort of creature lurking in wait, you could still easily modify the above idea using higher level illusion magic, a different sort of pit with other environmental hazards, or change the pit creature to something more dramatic and befitting a higher-level party.
Moonstone Spider
First Post
Steps made of Gelatinous Cubes + Flesh to Stone + traps that dispell the flesh to stone.
If arguably, flesh to stone doesn't affect jellies make it a custom spell, ooze to stone.
If arguably, flesh to stone doesn't affect jellies make it a custom spell, ooze to stone.
Storyteller01
First Post
Moonstone Spider said:
Consider this yoinked...
taliesin15
First Post
One idea for the "stairs collapse into a pit" variant--have the pit below actually be a large circular cast iron surface, with the edges bevelling upwards, and the iron is hot...when the stairs are stepped on halfway up (or down), they trigger a massive lot of oil (extra virgin olive oil is my personal favorite) making the entire stairs area slippery. Meanwhile, the oil hits the huge iron skilley below, now crackling and hissing. The adventurers fall down on it, shortly followed by liberal sprinkles of kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper. A nice touched might be some nice julienned onions, fresh asparagus, and a barrel of Elvish red wine to deglaze. Share and enjoy.
-Hastur
-Hastur
Nasty Variation
Inspired by the above ....
Use a longer than normal stairway, say the equivalent of two floors. Who says that the dungeon has to be the next floor down / basement.
The illusory steps ( 2-3 steps, 16-24 inches wide ) are half-way down, enough to get most of an adventuring party fully on the stairs. The pit & such are the same ( nice & sneaky ), but the first real step past is the trigger for the trap.
Instead of being very slippery it is a pivot with a 40 lb. trigger weight, which will foil most probing with a pole, but will trip when even a small character jumps onto it. The step is hinged at the front, dumping the character back towards the pit. At the same time the 5 ft. of stairway above the pit pivots down into the pit & all of the steps above the pit, including the hinged section of stairway, hinge flat into a ramp.
There is a DC 20 Reflex save for the triggering character to avoid falling into the pit, but winds up falling forwards instead. Beating this DC by 5 or more results in damage only to the character's pride, otherwise it's regular falling damage. Characters above the pit must also make a DC 20 Reflex save to avoid falling into the pit. The DC is increased by 2 for each character above the one making the save, and is also increased by 2 if the character is small.
The safety for the trap is hidden on the wall behind the secret door, Search DC 15 to find, and is cleared when anyone steps on the bottom step, 5 lb. trigger. There is an unmarked lever on the wall at the foot of the stairs which is the safety for going up, this is cleared by stepping on the top step.
Regards,
Balnagown
Cedric said:
Inspired by the above ....
Use a longer than normal stairway, say the equivalent of two floors. Who says that the dungeon has to be the next floor down / basement.
The illusory steps ( 2-3 steps, 16-24 inches wide ) are half-way down, enough to get most of an adventuring party fully on the stairs. The pit & such are the same ( nice & sneaky ), but the first real step past is the trigger for the trap.
Instead of being very slippery it is a pivot with a 40 lb. trigger weight, which will foil most probing with a pole, but will trip when even a small character jumps onto it. The step is hinged at the front, dumping the character back towards the pit. At the same time the 5 ft. of stairway above the pit pivots down into the pit & all of the steps above the pit, including the hinged section of stairway, hinge flat into a ramp.
There is a DC 20 Reflex save for the triggering character to avoid falling into the pit, but winds up falling forwards instead. Beating this DC by 5 or more results in damage only to the character's pride, otherwise it's regular falling damage. Characters above the pit must also make a DC 20 Reflex save to avoid falling into the pit. The DC is increased by 2 for each character above the one making the save, and is also increased by 2 if the character is small.
The safety for the trap is hidden on the wall behind the secret door, Search DC 15 to find, and is cleared when anyone steps on the bottom step, 5 lb. trigger. There is an unmarked lever on the wall at the foot of the stairs which is the safety for going up, this is cleared by stepping on the top step.
Regards,
Balnagown
Musrum
First Post
The stone steps are an illusion.
When the trap is sprung they are revealed to be adamantine blades which are rotated 90 degrees (edge up of course).
6d6 Slashing damage is applied immediatly, the characters are now prone.
Next round they take another 2d6 damage (+2d6 if they struggle) with some nice flavour text describing limbs and torso sliding deeper onto the blade.
The round after another 1d6 (still +2d6 if they struggle).
The third round should have them stuck with no damage if they don't move. A high level party should be able to get out of this situation from here.
Two rounds later the trap resets...
Anyone who gets to -10 passes through the blades.
When the trap is sprung they are revealed to be adamantine blades which are rotated 90 degrees (edge up of course).
6d6 Slashing damage is applied immediatly, the characters are now prone.
Next round they take another 2d6 damage (+2d6 if they struggle) with some nice flavour text describing limbs and torso sliding deeper onto the blade.
The round after another 1d6 (still +2d6 if they struggle).
The third round should have them stuck with no damage if they don't move. A high level party should be able to get out of this situation from here.
Two rounds later the trap resets...
Anyone who gets to -10 passes through the blades.
Last edited:
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
Voadam said:
I just quoted this bit because several of the ideas would be great for low level parties but probably wouldn't fly very far against these guys.
My favourite?
A combination of unhallow with dimensional lock (to prevent teleporting out), a pit trap that activates a targetted dispel as the pit opens (potentially taking out flight etc) that falls 20ft into 30ft of water. Then a gelationous cube falls from a trapdoor above the pit trap, filling the pit and keeping the victims trapped underwater (and possibly paralysing them). Might want to make it an advanced gelatious cube). Swimming in armour without magic is pretty tricky, more so if teleportation spells are blocked. The gelationous cube makes a rather nice seal over the trap and seems to fit the sadistic sense of the raksaha.
Cheers
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