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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 5711892" data-attributes="member: 1165">I tried this setup last weekend.The PCs were given the task of destroying an inter-dimensional portal that was allowing demons into Athas (City by the Silt Sea adventure, but much reduced to their level).I made the DCs to notice the turret traps and panels moderate (which meant they were auto-spotted by passive Perception) because I wanted them to see these things. Heck, the panel was practically being worked on when the PCs walked into the chamber. What they didn't notice were the trigger plates (hard DC, impossible with their passive Perceptions). Since finding the panel was easy, one PC spent three rounds (and six actions) actually taking control of the turrets to use against the enemies.There was an even nastier trap, the portal itself, which kept electrocuting PCs and throwing them down the stairs (it was a warder trap, based on the Blood Tree in the Dark Sun Creature Catalog, if anyone wants to know more detail).The PCs got scared because they noticed only one opponent, and quickly discovered he wasn't an elite. Also, turret traps are nasty because one trap gives two turrets, and it's not elite.Unlike previous editions, 4e specifically gave traps roles. "Lurker" traps have been used poorly in the past, especially a pit trap in the middle of nowhere (well, a place where the PCs would go). A trap should be part of an encounter, where everyone can do something. Even a pit trap has a purpose now, you just put it in the part of the room where the PCs are likely to get good cover from ranged (put the mouse trap where the mice will go) and then watch as the ranger, wizard or what you falls down in the midst of raging combat. All of a sudden, the "cost" of the trap isn't the loss of a little time, the loss of a few hit points, the loss of a few spells, or the use of a few healing surges. You have a PC stuck down there, not dishing out damage or effects, maybe they don't have the Athletics skill and need rescuing, maybe it's the fighter who fell down there and so there's no one anchoring the front line... it's even worse if the kobolds rush forward with lamp oil and torches and throw them down the pit, or there's a swarm of scorpions down there or something.I usually give non-lurker traps an easy to find panel (moderate DC), often easy to find traps (moderate DC, it's moot, the trap springs when you enter the kill zone anyway, and you can't search for traps in the midst of combat) and hard to spot trigger squares. WotC, even now, makes the control panel hard to find and trigger squares not-so-hard, which is missing the point. If you're reading an adventure with wonky DCs, switch 'em up DMs!I want to PCs to interact with the traps, even if that just means smashing the turrets or mechanisms - fighters need to have a role in trap-breaking too. PCs might walk into a room with obvious scratches caused by a clockwork slicing-from-the-ceiling trap, with the panel clearly visible on the other side... too bad there's kobolds armed with crossbows there, and of course none of them will enter the trapped area.</blockquote>

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