"Standard Thief S***"

[w_earle_wheeler]

I don't allow my players to take 10 or 20 in my World's Largest Dungeon game.

When it comes to searches, I let them make one roll for each visible section of hallway or room, and that result governs the whole area. If they discover something new that might insinuate that something is hidden, I let them make another roll.

For passive abilities (such as the elven ability to notice secret doors and the dwarven ability to notice unusual stonework), I have each character's search skill noted next to their name on a sheet of paper.

Not perfect, but workable for now.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Man, I wish I'd thought of that "That Rogue S***" when I was playing a rogue. After a certain point, the DM realized my character was as paranoid as they came, so I stopped having to say "I'm searching..." so often.

Though, one time the meticulous Searching paid off. In the epic adventure from Dragon, we came across a room where every square had three separate traps in it (or there was a pattern of traps, I forget). Aware that the people we were after were likely in the next room, and that any fight might wind up in here, I proceeded to disarm every single trap with my trusty pair of Hedge Clippers*.

Later on, the DM mentioned that had netted us about half the XP for the evening, as well as causing our opponents' buff spells to wear down.

Brad

* - My pair of Longspoon thieve's tools of Disable Device+10!

 

[Lord Zardoz]

I like to use traps as a way to complicate an otherwise straight forward situation for the players. But I agree that you do need to do more than just throw a few in an otherwise empty corridor.

As a rule, I try to at least one of the following.

1) Combine traps with monsters. The monsters know where the traps are, and avoid them, which can in turn give the monsters a tactical advantage. Or have the trap set loose the monster that they could otherwise have avoided.

2) Use the trap as a worth while obstacle. Simply set it up as a choice between 'figure your way around this, or just eat the damage'. For this to work, it has to be more than a "Reflex save or take 1d6 damage". It also cannot be used too often. Only an idiot would put a trap on every door in the dungeon. You put say, 3 traps, but make them very lethal. "You spring the trap, you suffer 1d6 attacks from a Heavy crossbow at a +8 to hit. Reflex save to reduce number of attacks by half. Fort save or suffer 1d6 Str damage on each arrow". This trap will quite probably put someone out of action.

3) Low search DC, high Disarm DC. Make traps reasonably easy to find, but very difficult to avoid and equally difficult to disarm. Set the DC at 10 + player level to discover the trap. And set the Disable DC at DC 20 + 1.25 times player level to disarm. As a rule of thumb, let the Disable DC be high enough that they need a roll of 16 or higher chance to outright disarm it.

3a) On a related note, make locked doors require a roll of 10 or higher to succeed assuming maxed open locks skill and a reasonable Dex bonus.

3b) As an alternative to a single High DC roll, allow multiple high DC rolls that can progressivly reduce the end result of the trap rather then neutralizing it all at once.

A good trap is one that the players will remember. Unlike monsters, there is no upside to using lots of piddly traps to wear the players down.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[khyron1144]

Personally, I hate the idea of punishing the characters for something the player forgot to specify, but his character would have known/remembered with no problem.

A few lines like these reminded me of a tale from my early days of DMing that's probably five bad DM stories in one:
In a god-level campaign, the only PC, my friend Jerod's Character, Oblion, the newly ascended demigod of carefree-ness, encountered a rusted up Tin Woodsman of Oz. The Tin Man of course muttered his demand for an oil can.
In response to this Jerod says: he searches the room for treasure.
The trouble is: I did not define the oil can that is in the room as treasure. His surch, thus turns up nothing.
He gets a little frustrated and hacks the Tin Man apart. Then he announces that he searches the room again. This time, because he is making a general search of the room, rather than searching for treasure, he finds the oil can.

Looking back on it: looking too specifically for either the phrase: I search the room
or
I search the room for oil cans,
was a bad idea.

 

[Delta]

In the classic D&D game I'm currently running, this isn't a problem because everyone has a 1 in 6 chance of finding traps. With only three PCs (& no thief) that means there's an overall 42% chance of finding a trap if the whole party searches, which isn't too bad.

Can you cite what edition, page has that rule? I agree that 1E had a 1-in-6 chance to find secret doors. But I don't think edition had such a chance to find traps by any class.

 

[RFisher]

Can you cite what edition, page has that rule? I agree that 1E had a 1-in-6 chance to find secret doors. But I don't think edition had such a chance to find traps by any class.

From Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook.

Any character has a 1 in 6 chance of finding a trap when searching for one in the correct area. Any dwarf has a 2 in 6 chance. (This does not apply to magical traps, such as a sleep trap.)

 

[Black Omega]

Switching to one with a "roll low" mechanic doesn't help -- the dice know. Playing HERO, for instance, I usually can't roll below 15.

As curses go, it's a pretty lame curse. But it's still there!

-The Gneech

I would recommend altering your dice throwing patterns. I've found that sometimes disorients the dice and lets them roll better. There was one night in my game where no one, including myself, could roll even average damage. We use the dice rolling towers. I switched to rolling on the table and my results instantly improved. This can happen for you! Just call up 555-rollgood and I'll send you a copy of my book....