Need some appropriate traps for my kobold lair

[NewJeffCT]

Most of the kobolds won't be ready to stand toe-to-toe with the PCs in my group - the group just hit 9th level. However, I want the kobolds to be able to challenge my players with nasty traps and obstacles that are appropriate for the players' level. (some of the kobold leaders will be somewhat of a challenge, though...)

The kobold lair is located in a long abandoned mine in a hillside. So, while the ceilings may have originally been tall enough for humans, the kobolds have had plenty of time to lower the ceilings and tighten the walls.

Any suggestions for traps and/or other defenses? The game is D&D 4E.

Thanks

 

[Mark CMG]

These threads might be helpful -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301897-your-favourite-tricks-traps-puzzles.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...nd-their-lair-part-3-game-session-posted.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301392-tricks-empty-rooms.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...001-things-put-dungeon-besides-creatures.html

 

[fba827]

rockfalls (i.e. rocks packed on the ceiling, triggered to collapse on those passing below)
rolling rock trap (think indiana jones)
spears/poisoned spears through the floor / walls
walls that collapse
pit traps (with/without spears at the bottom)
gas traps
smoke (no damage, just obscuring vision, making it a terrain effect during a given combat of choice).

 

[NewJeffCT]

These threads might be helpful -

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301897-your-favourite-tricks-traps-puzzles.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...nd-their-lair-part-3-game-session-posted.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/301392-tricks-empty-rooms.html

http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...001-things-put-dungeon-besides-creatures.html

Thanks! I'd give you XP, but I need to spread it around more first.

 

[Umbran]

If you specifically want rules-crunchy advice for traps in a 4th edition game, then I'll slide this over to the 4th edition forum for you.

Most trap ideas are pretty rules agnostic, though and useful to folks playing many different sorts of games, so I figure the thing has legs here in the General forum.

 

[chaochou]

The kobold lair is located in a long abandoned mine in a hillside. So, while the ceilings may have originally been tall enough for humans, the kobolds have had plenty of time to lower the ceilings and tighten the walls.

Any suggestions for traps and/or other defenses? The game is D&D 4E.

Thanks

When I think of kobolds, I tend to think of sneaky little ambushing critters who will adapt things already in the mine to their own ends. I think of ambushes and choke points rather than magical or mechanical wonders.

Abandoned mine sounds atmospheric. Those little carts on rails could be ideal for delivering some sort of payload, rattling and squeaking through the darkness.

Sluice and flood gates once built to hold back water may have been adapted to create a nasty trapped location or to provide natural defences to critical areas.

Block and pulley systems - there's got to be a use for those to allow ambushing kobolds to retreat swiftly and efficiently up mineshafts and out of harms way.

Deadfall traps which swing pickaxes. A high ceilinged cavern with a spiked wrecking ball on a chain.

My approach would be to build a mine. Fill it with all the dangerous potential I can think of. Then work out how the kobolds have exploited that potential, especially in combinations.

Just thinking out loud.

 

[Nylanfs]

If you can find it Traps and Treachery I & II from FFG's Legends & Lairs series is a must have for all DM's.

 

[NewJeffCT]

If you specifically want rules-crunchy advice for traps in a 4th edition game, then I'll slide this over to the 4th edition forum for you.

Most trap ideas are pretty rules agnostic, though and useful to folks playing many different sorts of games, so I figure the thing has legs here in the General forum.

Thanks - I'm looking mostly for general ideas, though if somebody had some specific "crunch" type 4E traps, they're welcome to suggest them.

 

[Aeolius]

I recommend visiting your local McDonald's PlayPlace for inspiration, as kids and kobolds are similarly-sized. Ever watched kids running through those tunnels, ambushing one another at the foot of the slide, or screaming loudly to fill the play set with echoes?

Bonus XP if you survive the ball-pit.

 

[am181d]

Cover the floor with oil-soaked mats, which makes it easy to light the players on fire.

Cast continual darkness on every ceiling, allowing for judiciously spaced murder holes to send down boiling oil (or a torch to light all those mats on fire).

Arrow slits along the wall, with kobold-sized tunnels running parallel.

Rooms with 4 foot ceilings. Rooms divided into two levels, with a grating 4 feet high, allowing shorter characters to quickly move form level to level.

A single rope extending across a spiked pit, with kobold-guided pendulum axes, cannons, etc.

130 ft. corridor with a treasure chest at the end. Weight trap at the 120 ft. mark (not the chest) triggers at 100 lbs. When activated, the ceiling over the first 30 ft. lowers to form a 30 ft. thick wall trapping them in. Treasure chest is full of poison gas.

Until a party gets teleport or pass wall, it is REALLY easy to kill PCs.