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<blockquote data-quote="Fanaelialae" data-source="post: 7820307" data-attributes="member: 53980">Divide And ConquerAdmittedly an old one, but tried and true. The PCs are either traveling or being pursued down a corridor. There is a pressure plate in the floor that causes a wall or porticullis to drop some distance behind the triggering PC (I prefer approximately 10'). The plate also causes secret doors on both sides of the porticullis to open (I prefer 30' from the porticullis), which are filled with aggressive monsters (preferably ageless creatures without biological requirements, such as undead). The party must now fight on a divided front, adapting their tactics accordingly. There are levers in both secret rooms that will reset the trap, raising the porticullis. Barring that, a sufficiently strong character may be able to raise the porticullis, or magic (teleportation, passwall, etc) might be used to circumvent it, if available.The greatest risk is that the PCs discover the pressure plate and do not trigger the trap, which is why it should be well concealed, but not impossible to find for attentive players. Perhaps they notice by default that in the area where the porticullis is designed to fall, the floor is scuffed. If they look up, they notice a cleverly recessed area in the ceiling designed to look like a shadow to the casual observer, from where the porticullis will fall. Even if they do discover this, they must still locate the trigger and figure out how to circumvent it. But a lot of this latter portion will be handled in varying ways based on DMing approach; these are just a few ideas for one possible way of adjudication.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Fanaelialae, post: 7820307, member: 53980"] [B]Divide And Conquer[/B] Admittedly an old one, but tried and true. The PCs are either traveling or being pursued down a corridor. There is a pressure plate in the floor that causes a wall or porticullis to drop some distance behind the triggering PC (I prefer approximately 10'). The plate also causes secret doors on both sides of the porticullis to open (I prefer 30' from the porticullis), which are filled with aggressive monsters (preferably ageless creatures without biological requirements, such as undead). The party must now fight on a divided front, adapting their tactics accordingly. There are levers in both secret rooms that will reset the trap, raising the porticullis. Barring that, a sufficiently strong character may be able to raise the porticullis, or magic (teleportation, passwall, etc) might be used to circumvent it, if available. The greatest risk is that the PCs discover the pressure plate and do not trigger the trap, which is why it should be well concealed, but not impossible to find for attentive players. Perhaps they notice by default that in the area where the porticullis is designed to fall, the floor is scuffed. If they look up, they notice a cleverly recessed area in the ceiling designed to look like a shadow to the casual observer, from where the porticullis will fall. Even if they do discover this, they must still locate the trigger and figure out how to circumvent it. But a lot of this latter portion will be handled in varying ways based on DMing approach; these are just a few ideas for one possible way of adjudication. [/QUOTE]

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