D&D 5E New DMG Excerpt: It's A Trap!

[ExploderWizard]

I just hate specialized tools that don't work for exactly what they're designed to do. Pathfinder is full of this stuff, where you'd get a special tool or item that's a one-shot that gives you +1 to a specific task, so it has a 95% chance of doing nothing. I hate that.

The Rogue is a specialized tool. You bring one with you because you don't want to worry about traps, at the cost of not bringing another Fighter or Wizard or whatever.

I just ain't got the words.

Welcome adventurers all! Meet Mr. Baggins our very own specialized tool! Be sure to put him away properly after use, and to only use him in the manner for which he was designed.

Now, our expedition today involved the caverns of....... Mr. Baggins? ......Mr. Baggins?.... Oh dear, another tool gone missing.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Well, that's the problem with traps in general. The players never know where they are, obviously, so, they have to treat everything like it's a trap. Which is cool for about five and a half minutes and nothing but a boring dice fapping waste of time the rest.

I don't know what the solution is, but, it is a problem.

I think that assigning a stealth check to traps and rolling solves this really well. Assume that the party is constantly looking for traps. They aren't idiots. If they are in a dangerous location that might contain traps, they'd be looking.

Then simply roll once whenever they actually near a trap. Sometimes they'll see it, sometimes they won't. The people with high PP will have the best chance of seeing them.

It prevents the dice fapping since you only roll when you need to. It prevents the constant repetition of "I look for traps!" It keeps the randomness of the skill rolls. Though it DOES decrease the chance of finding traps pretty dramatically. Since when PCs search for traps, they normally get 4-6 chances to make a good roll so it's likely at least one of them rolls high. If the trap rolls high, everyone fails no matter how good they are. The chance that it rolls high enough so that ONLY the Rogue spots it is extremely low.

Not sure of a good solution to that problem, though.

 

[Psikerlord#]

After mucking about with PP a bit, I've decided to use it only to set the DC for NPCs to spot sneaking characters and the like. If there's a trap in a hallway, and the PCs aren't looking for it, I just say, "You've discovered a trap! Roll on Perception to see if you discovered it by spotting it, or by setting it off."

Similarly, the party was ambushed by an owlbear that rolled so high on its Stealth that they didn't have a chance to see it until it one-punched the cleric to 0 hp, which felt cheesy. (Yeah, I know old-school rat-bastard yadda yadda, but I know when I'm a player that kind of thing does not make for a fun night.) So again, in the future, "You've been stalked by an owlbear for an hour, which has now decided to make a lunch out of the cleric. Make a Perception check to see if it gets a surprise round or not." In that particular case it probably wouldn't have changed anything– as I say, the owlbear rolled huge– but it would have felt like the players had more control over their fate.

-The Gneech

Oh yeah this is my usual procedure - it makes no difference to "tip off" the players to the impending ambush/trap, which is about to happen, whatever the players roll. In those cases I always get them to just make a roll. I only use passive if I have to.

 

[Hussar]

Which is really why traps should be used like how traps are used in the real world.

1.) Guard entrances to important places.
2.) Guard important objects
3.) Have some method of bypass to allow residents to move freely there.

Ignoring Deathtrap Dungeons, traps should really only be used where it makes sense. DMs who spring traps in random places to play gotcha deserve their 20-minutes-per-5-feet-of-movement playstyle.

But even then, it's pretty hard for the pc's to know what an entrance to an important place is. So every entrance has to be treated as important.

 

[Leatherhead]

I don't know what the solution is, but, it is a problem.

The solution is to get rid of the perception/disarm trap binary check combo.

Unlike lockpicking, you could easily have a trap feature multiple stages of readiness. Even a simple pit trap leaves a massive hole in the ground which is now a hazard. "Disarming" a trap could simply be jamming up the gears for a bit giving a small window of time to get around it. Cutting a tripwire causes the trap to shoot a dart at a random person.

The reason for all this is to reinforce the idea that traps much be dealt with instead of just rolled away.

 

[Hussar]

The solution is to get rid of the perception/disarm trap binary check combo.

Unlike lockpicking, you could easily have a trap feature multiple stages of readiness. Even a simple pit trap leaves a massive hole in the ground which is now a hazard. "Disarming" a trap could simply be jamming up the gears for a bit giving a small window of time to get around it. Cutting a tripwire causes the trap to shoot a dart at a random person.

The reason for all this is to reinforce the idea that traps much be dealt with instead of just rolled away.

But that isn't really the problem. If there IS a trap, all well and good. It's the bajillion times that you have to stop and check when there is nothing to find that is the problem.

 

[Leatherhead]

But that isn't really the problem. If there IS a trap, all well and good. It's the bajillion times that you have to stop and check when there is nothing to find that is the problem.

If you diminish the rewards for finding traps, then there will be less incentive to look for them. It will also make it much less painful if they don't find, or fail to find the trap, allowing "sloppy" play.

It will take a while to reprogram your group. I recommend using one check per room/hall/medow/etc. against all (if any) traps in the area if the group persists with a " move 5 feet and check" mentality.

 

[Bupp]

I see no problem with rolling perception checks as needed. I roll a d20 all the time: perception check, wandering monsters, and my favorite is "just because", which are actually the majority of my rolls and have no reason other than to not let the players know something is up if I start rolling dice.

 

[Jhaelen]

Hmm, does it go into costs/time/skills required for constructing traps?

 

[Reynard]

Well, that's the problem with traps in general. The players never know where they are, obviously, so, they have to treat everything like it's a trap. Which is cool for about five and a half minutes and nothing but a boring dice fapping waste of time the rest.

I don't know what the solution is, but, it is a problem.

Never underestimate the value of a fidgety player. I have found, especially running at cons, that there is always one player (at least) who would rather take 2d10 to the face than wait for the rogue to check for traps *again*. The best is when that fidgety player actually prefers if the gullible player's character takes 2d10 to the face instead, but that's a different story.

The hardest part of trap design is balancing practicality (would the evil overlord really put a rolling boulder trap here) and fun (who cares!) in a way that enhances play without sacrificing verisimilitude. It's one of the reasons i like adding tricks and hazards into the mix so that it is not always about a intentionally designed trap. Sometimes magic just leaks into the world and that refreshing pool of water makes you grow and extra arm -- that tries to strangle you!