Running the Tomb of Horrors in 3.5

[VirgilCaine]

The above is perfectly okay. While it resembles a "take 20" in many ways, it's actually a player looking at the same spot for many different things. And a lot more fun...

Your fun is mind-reading practice?

 

[Creamsteak]

It seems to me that Search has a pretty direct consequence for failure: the user of the skill is convinced the thing being searched for isn't there. The consequence may not have a direct physical effect, but it certainly has a mental one.

The particular point that keeps glossing over is that the flow of causation does not lead from "searching" to a real "consequence for failure."

"...consequence for failure: the user of the skill is convinced the thing being searched for isn't there," is an odd statement. If I search my desk for a pen and don't find it, that doesn't arbitrarily convince me that there's no pens there. In game terms, if I search a room for a secret door, I shouldn't be convinced that there isn't one. And so on for traps. This artificial confidence is not implied by the skill, and usually people are not convinced their work is flawless. This is the very same reason that after a particularly experienced and crafty rogue searches for traps and thinks he has disabled them, that he opens the door with a 20 foot long chain while he's hiding around the corner. And he lets the barbarian pull the chain.

The consequence for success and failure for search both seem neutral to me. Think about it in terms of what a single search checks result is. After the end of the full round action to search: what happens? Is that, in itself, a real consequence for failure?

Regarding the Tomb of Horrors, I think that if the taking 20 is creating a problem, you should develop and examine the search DCs of each trap, and from there customize the DCs a bit. A trap that should be impossible to find can have a DC high enough that it won't be found without using extreme measures. Other traps that "should be able to be found with high skill" should have DCs that are in range for take 20. Traps that have time constraints or other pressure should probably remain within a typical range for your party (requiring some moderate DC).

 

[VirgilCaine]

Regarding the Tomb of Horrors, I think that if the taking 20 is creating a problem, you should develop and examine the search DCs of each trap, and from there customize the DCs a bit. A trap that should be impossible to find can have a DC high enough that it won't be found without using extreme measures. Other traps that "should be able to be found with high skill" should have DCs that are in range for take 20. Traps that have time constraints or other pressure should probably remain within a typical range for your party (requiring some moderate DC).

The traps don't work like that. The traps/items/stuff that should actually kill you (i.e. if you are simply unlucky and not totally stupid), are magical, not mechanical. The mechanical threats are background noise.