Ok, game just wrapped up. It was a pretty good game, but the trap did not go off as effectively as I had hoped it would.
I deviated from my original request a bit, and placed the trap in what I call a Creepy Town. The town was sized for 2000 people, and while everything was fully maintained and in good condition, there were no people at all. And then there was an open air temple (think Greek Parthinon) that had a great deal of steam coming out of it.
The trap idea was that the temple would have columns every 4th square, so Collum, 3 open squares, and another column. The treasure was on a pedestal at the back of the temple. There was a long narrow path over a deep pit filled with Boiling water. At the center of each 5 by 5 column cornered square, there was a silver sarcophagus. The path was slick and there were jets of scalding hot water arcing over the path / bridge. The narrow path was difficult terrain and would force a DC 15 Balance check or you would fall into the water and eat 10d6 damage for full immersion in boiling water. on top of that, the random arc jets of water would force a reflex save, and if you took damage, it would be 1d6 damage, then a new balance check at DC 15 plus the damage. The players were of course suspicious of this free treasure.
The mechanism for the trap was as follows. When the treasure is disturbed a bunch of Chain Net / Curtains with 8 by 8 inch squares would drop down. The chains were bladed and spiked, and the bottoms of the chain curtains would have 300 pound weights pulling them taut. The weights would inflict 2d10 if they made a +7 attack roll to hit. If you touched the chains, you would take 1d4 damage from the blades / spikes on the curtains. If you were bull rushed into a curtain, you would take 3d4 damage. This would split the temple up into a bunch of 15 by 15 cells, separating the party. The weights could be lifted, but they were damn heavy, and would cause damage to someone trying to lift them.
A Half Fiend Undead Troll vulnerable to Radiant and Holy damage then popped out of a random sarcophagus. It was strong enough to easily lift the weights on a curtain and move from one barricaded section to another. It had the Awesome Blow feat, and would knock people into the curtains.
On paper, this is a pretty damn good trap. It separates the party, and the Troll can use the environment to its advantage. In a 1 on 1 situation, the troll would be very dangerous. But here is where things went wrong.
First, the narrow foot bridge approach did not work out so well for me. Because of how I laid out the room, the party realized they could skip the path and just make a 5 foot jump over the boiling water to get to the treasure. I forced a DC 15 balance check to not fall into the water upon landing (lots of steam, slippery surface). The player fell in, but a Protection from Energy spell negated the heat damage from falling in, and the player made a climb check to get out of the water.
Next, my weights were too light. It turns out that one of the characters was able to hold up the weight himself, and let others through.
Lastly, I had decided to have the troll use a weapon, because I had concerns that the Claw / Claw / Rend / Bite routine of the troll would be a bit over kill on an isolated opponent. So instead he used a Great Club. But, the guy who made the grab for the treasure did ok for himself until his allies arrived. And, when using the Awesome Blow attacks, my to hit bonus was not high enough to hit very often.
The end result was that the Troll basically got its arse kicked handily. Perhaps I should have stuck with the Claw / Claw / Bite routine on the troll, or at least kicked up its attack bonus. I absolutely should have double checked the lifting rules and used much heavier weights. And I should have made the pedastal with the treasure on hit harder to reach by at least making the floor area with the pedestal enclosed by a wall, which would have forced someone trying to jump across a narrow approach to land on a 6 inch wide walk way.
Still, considering the near TPK on what was an epic fight earlier in the game, it all balances out.
END COMMUNICATION
