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

[ExploderWizard]

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!

Good points!

Not everything that is a "trap" in game terms was deliberately constructed just to put the screws to whomever discovers it. I just got finished designing a small "dungeon" for use in my game. It isn't really a dungeon, it's the abandoned mill from the old Expert set. The PCs have been hired to scout it out and take care of any harmful pests by the new owner who wants to fix it up.

This isn't some lair or tomb and there aren't any intelligent creatures using it as a base, so standard traps wouldn't make sense here. It is an old building in poor repair though so there may be areas that are "trapped" by completely normal disrepair. Some sections of the floor upstairs are unstable. Enough weight on these spots can cause the floor to collapse dropping explorers 20' to the floor below. Rot happens.

There is a large framework & elevator contraption once used to move product from the storage area upstairs to the main work floor below. The contraption is largely intact but years of neglect means that fiddling with it could prove very painful- again a trap not engineered by anyone.

IMHO traps work best when they fit in with the rest of the surroundings.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Welcome adventurers all! Meet Mr. Baggins our very own specialized tool!

Tool, feat, class feature - whatever. It's a thing, and it's supposed to do a thing, and it can't even do the one thing that it's supposed to do.

Rogues are supposed to remove traps, and that is the reason why anyone would want to bring a rogue into a dungeon. The 5E rogue can't even do that, though, because suddenly magic traps are entirely different entities that are way beyond anything a rogue is good at.

It would be like if every magical weapon required you to use Intelligence to hit, instead of Strength or Dexterity. It doesn't leave the Fighter looking terribly competent.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Tool, feat, class feature - whatever. It's a thing, and it's supposed to do a thing, and it can't even do the one thing that it's supposed to do.

Rogues are supposed to remove traps, and that is the reason why anyone would want to bring a rogue into a dungeon. The 5E rogue can't even do that, though, because suddenly magic traps are entirely different entities that are way beyond anything a rogue is good at.

It would be like if every magical weapon required you to use Intelligence to hit, instead of Strength or Dexterity. It doesn't leave the Fighter looking terribly competent.

If we were talking 1E or B/X I would agree with you. The thief was a one trick pony that existed only because rules were made and interpreted incorrectly and it was widely believed that no other class could even try this stuff. Thus, the thief "earned" his keep.

5E is a different animal. The thief is a nasty fighter with a d8 hit die to boot! He is no longer the wimpy mission specialist who needs to be protected in combat unless he's backstabbing.

Naturally that means some of his prowess at things magical can be shifted to other classes. I'm not a huge fan of the combat heavy thief but whats done is done.

 

[Reynard]

If we were talking 1E or B/X I would agree with you. The thief was a one trick pony that existed only because rules were made and interpreted incorrectly and it was widely believed that no other class could even try this stuff. Thus, the thief "earned" his keep.

5E is a different animal. The thief is a nasty fighter with a d8 hit die to boot! He is no longer the wimpy mission specialist who needs to be protected in combat unless he's backstabbing.

Naturally that means some of his prowess at things magical can be shifted to other classes. I'm not a huge fan of the combat heavy thief but whats done is done.

Besides, offloading some of that stuff means that the trapsy rogue becomes less essential so if no one wants to play that character, they don't get saddled with it. It is a lot like moving healing out of the sole purview of clerics in that way: by diversifying the characters and systems that allow for healing, no one gets stuck being the healbot. Same thing for the trapbot.