D&D 5E The "General Nature" of a Trap

[Reynard]

I think thats fine. Make it have a duration of one hour and have it turn off after the first ping. No different then spamming light.

If you are going to let people spam a find traps cantrip,you might as well not have them in the game at all.

 

[el-remmen]

The version I created

Find Traps
2nd-level divination
Casting Time: Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Classes: cleric (jurto, myraxus)

You sense the presence of any trap within range that is within line of sight. A trap, for the purpose of this spell, includes anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or undesirable,
which was specifically intended as such by its creator. Thus, the spell would sense an area affected by the alarm spell, a glyph of warding, or a mechanical pit trap, but it would not reveal a natural weakness in the floor, an unstable ceiling, or a hidden sinkhole.

The spell reveals the general location of a trap in your line of sight. It does not specifically reveal the nature of the trap or how it is set off. However, revealing the location can help determine more about the trap. For example, you gain Advantage to notice a glyph of warding or symbol. So, for example, you might know a door you see in range is trapped but not in what way or what if any specific part of the door is the trigger.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you are going to let people spam a find traps cantrip,you might as well not have them in the game at all.

Still my vote.

 

[Reynard]

The version I created

Find Traps
2nd-level divination
Casting Time: Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Classes: cleric (jurto, myraxus)

You sense the presence of any trap within range that is within line of sight. A trap, for the purpose of this spell, includes anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or undesirable,
which was specifically intended as such by its creator. Thus, the spell would sense an area affected by the alarm spell, a glyph of warding, or a mechanical pit trap, but it would not reveal a natural weakness in the floor, an unstable ceiling, or a hidden sinkhole.

The spell reveals the general location of a trap in your line of sight. It does not specifically reveal the nature of the trap or how it is set off. However, revealing the location can help determine more about the trap. For example, you gain Advantage to notice a glyph of warding or symbol. So, for example, you might know a door you see in range is trapped but not in what way or what if any specific part of the door is the trigger.

I like it. However, thinking about it, I might be inclined to change it to "Sense Danger" and let it detect the "natural" hazards, too. I can't think of a good reason why it shouldn't be able to detect both an intentional pit trap and a natural sink hole.

 

[TiQuinn]

The version I created

Find Traps
2nd-level divination
Casting Time: Action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Classes: cleric (jurto, myraxus)

You sense the presence of any trap within range that is within line of sight. A trap, for the purpose of this spell, includes anything that would inflict a sudden or unexpected effect you consider harmful or undesirable,
which was specifically intended as such by its creator. Thus, the spell would sense an area affected by the alarm spell, a glyph of warding, or a mechanical pit trap, but it would not reveal a natural weakness in the floor, an unstable ceiling, or a hidden sinkhole.

The spell reveals the general location of a trap in your line of sight. It does not specifically reveal the nature of the trap or how it is set off. However, revealing the location can help determine more about the trap. For example, you gain Advantage to notice a glyph of warding or symbol. So, for example, you might know a door you see in range is trapped but not in what way or what if any specific part of the door is the trigger.

I would like it better if it was Find Magical Traps, and was limited only to spells like Alarm, Glyphs and the like, as these traps are typically invisible and feel like cheats themselves. To me, a trap is a type of puzzle. There should be a way to detect it, and deal with it versus be a gotcha that a PC falls into for any interaction with the object warded.

 

[Shardstone]

If you are going to let people spam a find traps cantrip,you might as well not have them in the game at all.

A cantrip is just a tool. Would you tell someone who uses their ten-foot pole on every hallway not to use it? Or someone who uses rope to climb a cliff?

 

[aco175]

I don’t like to prompt the players like that. It makes them suspicious- even if there isn’t a trap. I just describe the room and, if they ask to search for traps, I ask them:
1. Where they are searching
2. What are they looking for?
3. What are they doing?

Not that I belabour it. But if they’re in a room and they say, “I want to search the desk”

“what are you looking for? And what part of the desk are you searching?”

“Traps and looking for false bottoms. I’ll check the locks for needles and see if there are any runes using arcana. ”

If there’s a pressure plate on the floor beside the desk that triggers when they move the desk chair, they might not find it unless they roll way better than the dc. And trigger it if they roll badly enough (because they accidentally interacted with it. ) If they mention looking for pressure plates under the chair, they don’t even roll.

The spell would give them an idea there is a trap around there and they would approach more carefully and probably check the floor around before even checking the desk. Maybe.

Although now that I write all that. Sometimes they say, “I check the desk for traps” and I just check their passive investigation and give them an answer. So what am I even talking about?

There was a lot of 'gotchas' in the older editions where the DM would make you paranoid, or you would make him upset when you you countered that you did not say you touched the whatever. This led to slow play and door check procedures 1-4 and chest opening procedures 1-3 depending of you have a 10ft ladder.

I think that the newer editions get away from this and lead into skills on the paper. Similar to puzzles and riddles where my 18 INT mage would be able to solve it problem.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A cantrip is just a tool. Would you tell someone who uses their ten-foot pole on every hallway not to use it? Or someone who uses rope to climb a cliff?

Not the same thing to some people. Making it a spell gives another thing to the "push-button" casters, increases the ambient magic level in the campaign, and makes non-magical options more superfluous, since using a cantrip requires basically nothing.

 

[Shardstone]

Not the same thing to some people. Making it a spell gives another thing to the "push-button" casters, increases the ambient magic level in the campaign, and makes non-magical options more superfluous, since using a cantrip requires basically nothing.

If you disagree with the stance of the game, you are free to change that. WotC's logic is this: they are going to cater to the biggest customer base. The biggest customer base has no problem with "push-buttons" in their TTRPGs. If you dont' like it as a push-button, remove the spell or turn it into a mechanic, class ability, or item.

It's not that I don't care about your opinion Micah, but if your opinion is just "Well some people don't like that," I have no way to actually respond to you beyond what I said. It doesn't move the conversation forward. What would move the conversation forward is you telling us what you do with Find Traps.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If you disagree with the stance of the game, you are free to change that. WotC's logic is this: they are going to cater to the biggest customer base. The biggest customer base has no problem with "push-buttons" in their TTRPGs. If you dont' like it as a push-button, remove the spell or turn it into a mechanic, class ability, or item.

It's not that I don't care about your opinion Micah, but if your opinion is just "Well some people don't like that," I have no way to actually respond to you beyond what I said. It doesn't move the conversation forward. What would move the conversation forward is you telling us what you do with Find Traps.

I don't use it. I don't think it's a good spell, for the reasons I described. And I don't accept an assumed belief in this thread is "Find Traps is great! What do you do with it?", and anyone who disagrees need not post.

And the reason I say "some people don't like that" is because I don't believe popularity is a compelling argument by any metric other than sales, and I don't find how much money WotC makes and how it relates to its design choices to be at all interesting. And because, like everyone else here, I have no way to know how many people actually prefer one style over another.