D&D General [+] TRAPS! a positive thread

[Voadam]

In playing a Wrath of the Righteous Pathfinder Adventure path game my mythic magical demon puncher monk/fighter/wizard was assaulting a demon held ruined castle and I could see some enemy archers/spellcasters embedded off to the left of the inner keep a ways away up some stairs and behind some cover. Initiative hits and I take off full monk speed to get in the middle of those squishies and disrupt their killing field activity.

Wham! Illusion over a pit on the left side near the base of those stairs, I fell right into their well laid trap!

Being a monk I took no damage from the fall, popped up the other side, and still managed to get in among them.

As my rune fist smashed into one of their faces I said "Well done on the trap! It won't save you but I appreciate the well executed tactics! Nice job!"

 

[Richards]

In my last campaign, the PCs had entered the castle keep of a nosferatu vampire and were searching for his coffin, hoping to destroy it before daybreak, leaving him with nowhere to return to when the sun rose. They made it up to the top floor of his keep and entered a darkened room. They could hear a blazing fire burning in a fireplace inside the room, but it was pitch black - obviously, the effects of a darkness spell or something similar. After feeling around blindly for awhile (and determining the nosferatu was not in there with them after all), they set about undoing the magical darkness effect. Being pretty high level this was easily accomplished, and as the darkness faded the blazing fireplace lit up the room - and the full-length mirror of opposition hanging on the wall directly across from the doorway into the room. The PCs ended up having to fight the mirror duplicates of the four of them closest to the mirror when it was triggered...at which point the nosferatu entered the room via the secret door in his closet which hid his coffin....

It was a logical (and safe) trap for a wealthy nosferatu who cast no reflections and it finally gave me a good opportunity to be able to use a mirror of opposition for the first time, something I'd wanted to do for years.

Johnathan

 

[Blue]

Two traps I've used recently. Both used traps to hide ... traps. Both were broadcast first so the players could interact with them.

One was a simple pressure plate (5'x5') that set off a poison arrow trap. They got told about it by a schmoozing kobold. However, just beyond it is a fairly nasty covered pit trap - which you'll land in if you jump the pressure plate.

Second was a catacombs they were sneaking through, and they have the original dwarven blueprints, including the hidden access tunnels. The catacombs are lit by 20' dim light magic sconces up and down the halls, and the party decided not to ignite other light even though they have two humans and a halfling, plus a wood elf and an eladrin. Anyway, there's a 40' covered pit, and half way down on the right hand side is a secret door leading to a ladder you can use to get down to the next level of the catacombs. So the players are dealing with this, and at the same time (unplanned and completely through their actions they are dealing with foes approaching from the rear. The wood elf and the eladrin - the two in the back of the party and also the only two with darkvision - return to the nearest bend behidn them to hold off the attackers.

Since the corridor was only 5' across, the pit was 5'x10'x40'. The high STR (but low DEX) paladin without darkvision states he wants to brace on either side and slide halfway down. One disasterous roll later he's hitting the bottom of the pit. Only to be attacked by the black pudding hidden in the lightless shadows down on the bottom. Next time, check out traps with light. (Oh, and it divided several times as he slashed at it.)

Both are pretty rudimentary, but used player expectations of traps to redirect their attention from the actual threats.

 

[Blue]

In my last campaign, the PCs had entered the castle keep of a nosferatu vampire and were searching for his coffin, hoping to destroy it before daybreak, leaving him with nowhere to return to when the sun rose. They made it up to the top floor of his keep and entered a darkened room. They could hear a blazing fire burning in a fireplace inside the room, but it was pitch black - obviously, the effects of a darkness spell or something similar. After feeling around blindly for awhile (and determining the nosferatu was not in there with them after all), they set about undoing the magical darkness effect. Being pretty high level this was easily accomplished, and as the darkness faded the blazing fireplace lit up the room - and the full-length mirror of opposition hanging on the wall directly across from the doorway into the room. The PCs ended up having to fight the mirror duplicates of the four of them closest to the mirror when it was triggered...at which point the nosferatu entered the room via the secret door in his closet which hid his coffin....

It was a logical (and safe) trap for a wealthy nosferatu who cast no reflections and it finally gave me a good opportunity to be able to use a mirror of opposition for the first time, something I'd wanted to do for years.

Johnathan

I had a puzzle going the opposite way. In a campaign I ran back in 3.0 days one of the arcs was this cabal of vampires looking for this artifact orrey that can create an eclipse. The last puzzle before getting to the magical lair it was held in was a magical mirror. Based on other clues you could watch yourself in the mirror and walk backwards through the door you entered - to get elsewhere. The vampires were never able to work out that last step because they didn't cast reflections.

 

[Blue]

One of the games I'm running is a training game for my kids, niece and nephew. In order to engage them, I had the traps all run true to theme and purpose.

They are in a fey area designed to keep in and keep safe three baby brass dragons, left their as their mother made a fey deal (linking into two characters backstories).

Anyway, all of the traps were (a) minor amounts of damage with more damage as fire which brass are immune to and (b) designed to push the dragons back in they go that far. endless stairs that flattened into a slide, a long hallway with animated swords and animated shields that would use shove attacks against dragons or attack others, Fire Snakes in a lava trough, etc.

Once the party realized what the traps were trying to do, they could out-think them to either avoid or minimize the problems they would cause.

It also helped that they had a dragonborn whom some (!) traps couldn't differentiate from a dragon, and had fire resistance.

So it got them thinking and interacting instead of just taking damage.

 

[payn]

I picked up a real good trap online (maybe even here at EN). It starts with the PCs entering a room from the south. The room appears to be empty, with stone walls and floor, with a door to the north end. As the PCs enter the room they hear a soft voice coming from the east wall. As the PCs move over to investigate, they make out the voice chanting, "three...three...three..." Finally, the PCs notice a small hole in the east wall where the voice seems to be emitting from.

When/if one of the PCs looks into the hole, they get poked in the eye (no save, but no damage or lasting effects just momentary irritation). The voice in the wall changes its chant to, "four...four...four".

 

[Xetheral]

In one of my 3.5 campaigns, in a tomb that the designers built to keep out tomb raiders, the funerary gifts were sealed in a partially evacuated stone chamber. The difference in air pressure made the stone door basically impossible to open by normal means. When the PCs finally just disintegrated the door, the in-rushing air stirred up a fine white powder, and disturbed a small clockwork mechanism that began to tick. The mechanism clearly involved a small spring-loaded hammer aimed at a glass vial with liquid, but it wasn't immediately obvious how much time remained before the hammer was triggered.

Alas, rather than try to sabotage the device, the PC rogue opted to study it further. The timer was only set for 1 round (giving time for the white powder to mix with the air), so the hammer broke the vial of alchemists fire. The white powder was... ordinary cooking flour.

The resulting thermobaric explosion did some fire and bludgeoning damage, but more importantly used up all the oxygen in that part of the tomb. Characters who failed the (relatively low DC) Fortitude save to hold their breath got introduced to 3.5's nasty suffocation rules. No one died, but it was quite the shock, and healing the Paladin from below zero HP to full used up a bunch of the party's healing resources.

 

[Imaculata]

A cool trap that I used at the start of my aquatic campaign:

The party enters a tall round cavernous room, about 60 ft. in diameter. There are waterfalls along its walls, dropping down into a body of water at the bottom of the cave. The ceiling is made of stone, but full of tunnels. There is but one entrance in the west, in the form of a large stone doorway. The stone door is raised, but looks like it could drop. A feeble stone bridge barely 5 ft wide, extends from the entrance towards a round stone platform, about 15 ft. in diameter. Upon it a stone coffin rests, warded by a red magical forcefield. The stone platform is surrounded by a large gap. Down below the room is filled with water, but low-light conditions apply, limiting what the party can see.

As soon as the party has entered, the stone doorway shuts. It is commanded to do so by an evil deity who watches this room. Hidden behind each waterfall is a cave, about halfway up this tall room. The caves are out of reach, as are the waterfalls. But hidden in the caves behind the waterfalls, are aquatic spiders, waiting in ambush.

As soon as the party is inside and steps foot on the bridge, the spiders start throwing webs through the waterfall. If they get a hold, they will try and pull their victim over the edge and into the water below.

Hidden below the surface of the water are numerous webs and nests made by these aquatic spiders. These nests are filled with the remains and gear of previous victims. The victim gets entangled in the webs when they hit the water and a spider jumps after them. They must now fight off the spiders underwater, while entangled, and with the risk of drowning if they are unable to escape.

A secret underwater tunnel exits out of the room into an adjacent tunnel, to safety. However, while the party is fighting for their lives, a big momma spider descends from the ceiling towards the central platform to deal with any pc's that weren't pulled off the bridge. It protects the stone coffin fiercely.

The stone coffin has a magical forcefield that can be dispelled, or disappears automatically if the momma spider is defeated. The coffin contains the body of the new body (vessel) of the evil deity. She awakens from a decade long stasis, unaware of how much time has passed, and uncorrupted by the deity. Setting her free will anger the evil deity greatly.

 

[Nefermandias]

A cool trap that I used at the start of my aquatic campaign:

The party enters a tall round cavernous room, about 60 ft. in diameter. There are waterfalls along its walls, dropping down into a body of water at the bottom of the cave. The ceiling is made of stone, but full of tunnels. There is but one entrance in the west, in the form of a large stone doorway. The stone door is raised, but looks like it could drop. A feeble stone bridge barely 5 ft wide, extends from the entrance towards a round stone platform, about 15 ft. in diameter. Upon it a stone coffin rests, warded by a red magical forcefield. The stone platform is surrounded by a large gap. Down below the room is filled with water, but low-light conditions apply, limiting what the party can see.

As soon as the party has entered, the stone doorway shuts. It is commanded to do so by an evil deity who watches this room. Hidden behind each waterfall is a cave, about halfway up this tall room. The caves are out of reach, as are the waterfalls. But hidden in the caves behind the waterfalls, are aquatic spiders, waiting in ambush.

As soon as the party is inside and steps foot on the bridge, the spiders start throwing webs through the waterfall. If they get a hold, they will try and pull their victim over the edge and into the water below.

Hidden below the surface of the water are numerous webs and nests made by these aquatic spiders. These nests are filled with the remains and gear of previous victims. The victim gets entangled in the webs when they hit the water and a spider jumps after them. They must now fight off the spiders underwater, while entangled, and with the risk of drowning if they are unable to escape.

A secret underwater tunnel exits out of the room into an adjacent tunnel, to safety. However, while the party is fighting for their lives, a big momma spider descends from the ceiling towards the central platform to deal with any pc's that weren't pulled off the bridge. It protects the stone coffin fiercely.

The stone coffin has a magical forcefield that can be dispelled, or disappears automatically if the momma spider is defeated. The coffin contains the body of the new body (vessel) of the evil deity. She awakens from a decade long stasis, unaware of how much time has passed, and uncorrupted by the deity. Setting her free will anger the evil deity greatly.

Not a trap. It's just a regular 4e combat encounter.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My favourite trap that I've run, which I've run multiple times (because I liked it so much) is one that I came up with when I was playing around with traps being something for the whole party to deal with (and not just the rogue) so it's a whole encounter:

The GRINDER.

The party comes to a staircase down to another dungeon level, with a door at the top. About halfway down is a pressure-step that causes the door to close and lock, the stairs to fall to flat, oil to start pumping out from the top, and a drum/barrel to appear at the bottom that spins around, striking the stonework there with wrapped chains, that give off sparks.

As the oil travels down the now-flat ramp, it becomes slippery. Failed checks/saves will cause a character to fall prone and/or slide down toward the drum, which will attack you with the chains if you reach it. If/when the oil reaches the chains, the sparks will cause the whole ramp to go up in flames.

Characters can do several things: Help each other to stand; try to break the drum (or the door from either side - it is possible that a character will be left outside at the top, if they waited for others to descend, or for some other reason were on the other side of the door); they can try to stop the oil, or put out the fire; they can try to leap over the barrel into the hallway beyond. In addition, there is a secret panel at the top of the stairs with a lever that shuts the whole thing off. This is pretty difficult to get to as anyone there will be the first to slip on the oil, but it's possible for a spry character to stay up at the top, find, open the panel, and pull the lever (but each of those later things take at least a round to do).

Everyone has very much enjoyed it every time I've run it.

I suppose that it should be possible to spot the false-stair trigger or the off-switch panel and "ruin" the fun of the trap, but it's not something I've seen happen. Mostly because my players aren't generally paranoid enough to check every staircase, and I wouldn't allow those things to be discovered with "passive" perception. (Though I'd probably describe parts of the trap in detail to a player with a high passive perception that might give hints on ways to combat the trap after it has been triggered.)