Simple traps.

[ki11erDM]

Are there simple traps anymore? When the PCs kill off the boss I want the treasure to be in a trapped chest, just a simple poison needle or something like that. Mostly for flavor not for some elaborate skill challenge. I guess it should be Elite or Solo. How does this look:
Poisoned Needle Lock
level 3 Solo Lurker 300XP
As you fumble with the lock you hear a nearly silent ‘click’ immediately followed by a sharp pain in your finger. Your vanes are beginning to burn, no doubt there was poison on that needle.
Trap: a small needle attacks one time delivering its poison.
Perception
DC 19: The character notices a small hole next to the lock.
DC 24: The character notices the location of the hidden control panel
Trigger: The trap attacks anyone who tries to open the chest but does not by pass the trap.
Attack
Immediate Reaction Melee
Target: The creature that triggered the trap
Attack: +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: target takes 1 point of damage; secondary attack: target is effected by Hobgoblin Pirate poison (see below)
Countermeasure
An adjacent character can disable the trigger with a DC 24 thievery check

Hobgoblin Pirate Poison
Level 5
Poison
Attack: +8 vs Fortitude; ongoing target loses 1 healing surge (save ends).

The DCs are based on the Magic Crossbow Turrent with a -5 applied because I think the skill changes they made recently should apply to traps and a +4 because it is a ‘solo’. The poison does healing surge damage because it is an out of combat encounter.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

First, mechanic comment:

You state this is an out of combat trap, hence burning the healing surge instead of direct damage, yet have {save ends}, which means combat rounds... either you plan on having this maxing out at one chance to burn a healing surge ...or ?

Second, flavor question:

There is a thread in the general forum that I read yesterday about trap design. This design is basically a 'zap' trap that has the end result of being a tax on characters that fail their perception check. What flavor does this really add to the game? There is nothing a player can do. They just need to have a Rogue who rolls well. I don't think it adds enough value to the game. I much prefer the traps that are parts of encounters or use skill challenges to overcome.