Rogues and traps and their reason for existing...
- Thread starter Wanderlust
- Start date
Pbartender
First Post
Umbran said:Yes, and when the arch-necromancer has to worry about liability insurance and wrongful death lawsuits, then I'll see real-life as a good determiner of what happens in the fantasy world
Sure, but it's also just good plain common sense to reduce wasted resources...
Why risk uneccessary deaths amongst your lackeys? It'll reduce morale and loyalty. Not to mention that it takes an awful long time to train a worthwhile henchman. Remember, each one of those zombie or skeleton warriors is worth a 25 gp gem... That adds up after a while.
Pbartender said:
The Arch necromancer typically rules by fear, not by engendering loving loyalty in his troops. And those skeletons and zombies, you'll note, follow instructions to the letter, and don't forget. They aren't the ones who will be getting munched in the alligator pits
And, one of the signs that the henchman is so good that he'll take a lot of effort to replace is that he's smart enough to send someone else to do the dangerous stuff
More seriously - obvously, really high traffic areas won't have traps - you don't trap the kitchen or the dining hall, sure. But anywhere that is supposed tob e "restricted access" might well have traps. Part of the point of such things would be to keep your lower goons frompoking their noses into the wrong places! We're not talking aobut 20th century ideas of the value of human (or sentient) life.
Norfleet
First Post
Personally, I'd go ahead and put those deadly traps in trafficked areas. Sure, there would be a few deaths among the minions who didn't pay attention at the orientation meeting, but the ones that survive are, Darwinistically, the fittest and most suited for being minions in my Legions of Terror. While morale may suffer slightly as a result of the casualties, this can be compensated for by using the paychecks the now deceased incompetents are no longer collecting to increase the wages of the survivors, giving them the satisfaction of knowing they belong to an elite unit. Not to mention, traps have a CR, and avoiding them gives the minions XP. Since it's well documented that hordes of mooks are terribly ineffective against heroes, you're better off with a small squad of elite, high-level troops anyway.
Jack Haggerty
First Post
Umbran said:
That I cannot disagree with... Personally, I'd put an alarm on the front backed up by guards and a good lock. The oft-used back doors would have the same. Then, you set up a few 'false' entrances with death-traps (ventilation ducts, sewer sytems, water pipes and the like should also use death traps). Around the 'sentitive' areas (the treasure vault, my personal quarters), I'd put either selective magical traps, 'containment' traps (cages, nets, pits, etc...) or death traps, depending on my abilities, available cash and temperment.
heimdall
Dwarven Guardian
I try to use traps rationally. For instance, in an underground area the kobolds didn't want the trogs going past a certain point so they began trapping the area between the two groups. This is akin to the landmine examples previously mentioned. Now, if the party, who is unaware of the current situation between the kobolds and troglodytes, wanders into the traps, so be it. But I also tend to use traps that serve a specific purpose (tripwire leading to a crossbow firing or a hidden pit trap) rather than the "crushing stone block doing 40d6" as well.
Norfleet
First Post
Yes, but you see, things like that are too predictable. If you want your traps to serve as more than intimidation and deterrence, you have to put them in the most bizarre, whacked out places, seemingly with no logical reason or purpose, then used in conjunction with other tricks: Put deadly traps in the head, then lace all of the healing potions that intruders might find with laxatives. Nobody ever expects the booby-trapped latrine. At least until you do it to them.heimdall said:
LostSoul
Adventurer
Numion said:
Landmines are usually laid out in areas and marked, unless you're a terrorist or guerilla. Landmines are in essence walls, made to direct the flow of troops.
Now, when you don't care who the landmine kills, then it's a trap. And that means it doesn't make any sense to put it in your lair.
Trickstergod
First Post
Trainz said:
Because people throw out what little common sense they usually have in the real world when immersed into the world of Dungeons and Dragons?
Thus far, most of those advocating lethal traps as a good thing have only further supported the idea of the use of lethal traps as usually being fairly ridiculous (though admittedly, some of those posts also seem to be meant mainly for humor).
Lord Zardoz
Explorer
Traps make sense in any of the following situations.
1) To secure an area where man power is either unavailable or not 'cost effective'.
2) To make a surrendered area unsafe for those who have seized it.
3) To create a strategic or tactical advantage in combat.
4) To secure an area when guards cannot be trusted for some reason.
The first one covers situations where say, a goblin tribe of 300 has settled in a former dwarven fort that housed 10 000. The tribe cannot afford to secure all of it, so they lay traps in the areas that they do not wish to guard manually.
The second situation works in the reverse. The dwarves who abandoned their fortress might not want the Goblins to live there in comfort. So they rig many traps for the goblins to find and disarm manually, by the expedient of triggering them.
The third situation covers ambush situations. Say some Hobgoblins want to lay an ambush with archers. The goblins could put traps between their chosen positions and the most likely approaches. When their victims charge, they discover the pit.
The fourth situation covers trapped treasure, for example. The owner of the treasure probably does not want to trust his guards, so he traps the chest with a poison needle trap. If someone tries to steal some of the contents of that chest, he would likely be killed or injured by the trap. It might not deter stealing the whole chest, but it will keep the guards honest.
END COMMUNICATION
1) To secure an area where man power is either unavailable or not 'cost effective'.
2) To make a surrendered area unsafe for those who have seized it.
3) To create a strategic or tactical advantage in combat.
4) To secure an area when guards cannot be trusted for some reason.
The first one covers situations where say, a goblin tribe of 300 has settled in a former dwarven fort that housed 10 000. The tribe cannot afford to secure all of it, so they lay traps in the areas that they do not wish to guard manually.
The second situation works in the reverse. The dwarves who abandoned their fortress might not want the Goblins to live there in comfort. So they rig many traps for the goblins to find and disarm manually, by the expedient of triggering them.
The third situation covers ambush situations. Say some Hobgoblins want to lay an ambush with archers. The goblins could put traps between their chosen positions and the most likely approaches. When their victims charge, they discover the pit.
The fourth situation covers trapped treasure, for example. The owner of the treasure probably does not want to trust his guards, so he traps the chest with a poison needle trap. If someone tries to steal some of the contents of that chest, he would likely be killed or injured by the trap. It might not deter stealing the whole chest, but it will keep the guards honest.
END COMMUNICATION
