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[Dark Dragon]

Hi folks,

some days ago, I was planning some dungeon crawl stuff for the group I'm DMing. The dungeon is complete along with most of its undead inhabitants, the four BBEG are ready to do evil (one 21st level alhoon sorcerer (member of the Twisted Rune), a 29 level wizard lich (the senior of the Twisted Rune), and two level 18 wizards of House Aldhanek from Tethyr)...but I'm not sure about the two major traps I designed. Note that the party (level 19) has no rogue character and relies on their magic items. Due to a Weird Stone (a powerful item from Player's Guide to Faerûn), teleportation spells do not work in the dungeon. I do not intend on a TPK, the Twisted Rune wants to punish these arrogant adventurers alive.

Trap 1:

This an idea from Grimtooth's Book of Traps. Consider a huge ball of solid rock and 5 ft. wide and 30 ft. long pathway right through its center (like a tunnel). The ball rests on a set of smaller balls, so that it can easily turn in one direction. Above and under the huge ball is a cavern. The upper cavern is inhabited by a Death Tyrant (see FRCS). It is locked up in a cage, the central antimagic eye looking downwards. The lower cavern (20x20 ft.) is inhabited by a Black Pudding. If someone reaches the end of the tunnel (which is a locked door), the ball with the tunnel inside will turn by 90°, ending in a vertical position and connecting the two caverns.

As you can imagine, all magic in the tunnel and the caverns is negated when the trap is sprung. This means: no magic light, no spells, no magic weapons, no shape change,...The Black Pudding's abilities are all extraordinary, so they'll work fine in the presence of an undead beholder...

Problem: The party will lose some amount of equipment if not some members, unless they manage to get out of the pit with the pudding. I was thinking about a reset of the trap after some rounds. This would allow spellcasting again, because the caverns become disconnected again.

Trap 2:

Grimtooth was also helpful here. Take a pit, 15 ft. deep. It is locked by a stone plate that won't crack when someone steps on it. However, if a creature steps on a hidden trigger 10 ft. behind the plate, it will open the pit if somebody is standing on the plate, causing some damage by falling and impaling by some poisoned spears. The stone plate has a second trigger: If the pit is open, a huge stone block is released from the ceiling and falling right into the open pit, crushing the victim from above (each round crushing damage).

Problem: This is quite deadly because teleport won't help, and a feather falling creature wouldn't stop a huge rock... How much crushing damage would a 10x10x10 ft rock do per round, by the way?

 

[haiiro]

Note that the party (level 19) has no rogue character and relies on their magic items.

As in, just relies on them to survive -- or relies on them to fill the rogue's role, IE trapfinding? If the latter, what are the items? For that matter, what's the party makeup?

 

[Dark Dragon]

As in, just relies on them to survive -- or relies on them to fill the rogue's role, IE trapfinding?

The dungeon with its traps has two purposes: first, to hinder and harm the party before the group faces the rulers of the dungeon. Second, it shows the weaknesses of each party member and forces them to work together, or fail if they are not able to help each other. Normally, you would expect (as a DM) that a party works together for a maximum of strength and efficiency. But this party is different here, especially on sharing spells and combat tactics. The wizards defend themselves as much as possible, leaving tough melee opponents to the paladin and cleric and without buffing them with potent defensive spells as well (e.g. haste, stoneskin, mind blank, darkvision, protection from energy, fly). The druid can hold his ground alone for a while but lacks the firepower of a wizard. He shares some of his spells (like barkskin, deathward and protection from energy) if needed and is a secondary healer. Combat tactics barely exist, often resulting in a badly wounded cleric, paladin and druid. The group has received several warnings that they might fail in fighting the undead in the dungeon if they are not able to overcome the weaknesses of some characters (low "physical" skills like climb, jump, balance and others like search, spot and listen, plus the already mentioned missing "team factor".)

So, the dungeon with its traps relies partially on survival of the group. The cleric can cast find traps, but he has a low search skill, so the spell is not really good to replace a rogue character.
The group has a lot of friends, some of them are really powerful. Not all of them have the time to go on a undead hunting mission in a dungeon. One of the friends is a quite experienced rogue (level 13), but there was some trouble in the past with the rogue and the party cleric, so they have to convince him to come along and fight in the dungeon. At the moment, the party is not considering this as an option (perhaps they forgot it)...

If the latter, what are the items? For that matter, what's the party makeup?

The party:

Half-elf fighter 4, cleric 11, divine disciple 4 of Kelemvor
he owns an undead detecting bastard sword +3, an animated shield +1 and an adamantine called deathward armor +1 (self-made). Other items: various potions, ability enhacing items (except for charisma), scrolls, cloak of resistance +5, bead of karma, different weapons against DR (if enchanted with magic weapon and/or align weapon, they cover all DR types), boots of speed, ring of friends (see the paladin), ring of protection +3, vestment of natural armor, ioun stone of spell storing

Human paladin 15, cleric 4 of Helm
he wields a holy avenger (longsword), a plate mail +1 of moderate fortification, an animated fire resistance 10 shield +4, ring of friends (see the cleric), some potions of flying, a cloak of resistance, ability enhancing items (except for intelligence), boots of elvenkind, flaming mighty +4 bow +1, different weapons against DR (not covering all DR types), a cloak of the manta ray, ring of protection +3, two immovable rods, a rod of wonder

Elf wizard 15, mage of the arcane order 4
he owns lots of wands and potions, a staff of wizardry +2 (allows him to cast an additional spell of the highest accessable level), a cloak of deflection +3 and resistance +5 (self-made), gloves of the mage: constitution and dexterity +6 (self-made), other ability enhancing items (except charisma), a ring of elemental controlling (not yet activated), a lens of detection, ring of protection +3, hand of glory, some pearls of power, anarchic longsword +1, rapier +1, bracers +6 deathward (self-made), ioun stone of AC +1, dagger +2 true seeing 1x/month, chime of opening, ring of counterspells (greater dispel)

Irda (high ogre) wizard 14, archmage 5
he his a counterspell specialist and can substitute other energy forms to energy spells (like fireball) and knows nearly all PHB spells, his items are a portable hole, a belt of many pockets, a cubic gate (negative energy, fire elemental, material, acheron plane among others), some pearls of power, ability enhacing items (except charisma), bracers +6 deathward (self-made), cloak of deflection +3 (self-made), robe of resistance +5, ioun stone of AC +1, some potions and lots of scrolls, hand of glory, ring of counterspells (greater dispel), dagger +2 of spell storing, ring of wizardry (II?)

Centaur druid 18, divine disciple 1 of Mielikki
he uses an animated darkwood shield +1 deathward (self-made), a bandolier of AC +6 (like bracers), ability enhancing items (except charisma and intelligence), wilding clasp (on a periapt of wisdom +6), cloak of resistance +5, ring of counterspells (disintegrate), blast sceptre of Netheril (10 charges), adamantine spell storing dagger +2, ring of protection +3, ioun stone of AC +1, some potions, pearl of power II


That's what I recall at the moment.