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[+] TRAPS! a positive thread
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8288298" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>My trap rules:</p><p></p><p>1.) <strong>Meaningful </strong>- The trap needs to have an intended impact other than "now I have to use a healing spell". This is not 100% true - for example, I may put bear traps around a hunter's cabin - but those are not really traps ... they're features that might happen to do a little damage. They're there primarily to describe who lives in the hut, not to threaten the PCs.</p><p></p><p>2.) <strong>Logical</strong> - The trap needs to be something that there were resources to build, and it must be something that serves a goal worth protecting with a trap. It needs to fit into the location where it is encountered and make sense.</p><p></p><p>3.) <strong>Intelligent</strong> - It should either be hidden, or effective even when not hidden. Someone capable of building a trap is generally smar tenough to make the trap effective. </p><p></p><p>These rules tend to point me away from "damage" traps and towards "change condition" traps. Rather than a poison needle that does 4d6 poison damage, I'd rather there be an alarm and a trapdoor with a slide so that tripping the trap splits up the party and xchanges the difficulty of the battle that happens because of the alarm. </p><p></p><p>Favorite traps:</p><p></p><p>1.) <strong>Illusory Floors</strong> - The party is going down a long 10' wide hallway. There is a 30' pit with jagged spikes at the bottom, but the pit is only 10 feet wide. There is a 15 foot long plank resting at the bottom of the pit. However, the far side of the pit isn't actually solid, it is a permanent illusion hiding an 80 foot pit.If the PCs attempt to leap across the pit, the leaping PC will go through the illusion and down into the longer pit, separating that PC from the others. At the base of that pit is a shrieker as an alarm.</p><p></p><p>2.) <strong>Wooden Pivot Hallway</strong> - The PCs walk along a wooden floor in a long hallway. There are elaborate sconces with teal torches in them along the walls. The passage in 60 feet long. Above the first half of that passage, and below the second half, is open space. And, that entire wooden passage is on a pivot. Once enough weight goes to the far side of the passage, the entire thing will pivot down, dumping the PCs into the open space beneath the passage. In that space are undead waiting to attack the PCs - a hard encounter that is complicated by the fall.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 8288298, member: 2629"] My trap rules: 1.) [B]Meaningful [/B]- The trap needs to have an intended impact other than "now I have to use a healing spell". This is not 100% true - for example, I may put bear traps around a hunter's cabin - but those are not really traps ... they're features that might happen to do a little damage. They're there primarily to describe who lives in the hut, not to threaten the PCs. 2.) [B]Logical[/B] - The trap needs to be something that there were resources to build, and it must be something that serves a goal worth protecting with a trap. It needs to fit into the location where it is encountered and make sense. 3.) [B]Intelligent[/B] - It should either be hidden, or effective even when not hidden. Someone capable of building a trap is generally smar tenough to make the trap effective. These rules tend to point me away from "damage" traps and towards "change condition" traps. Rather than a poison needle that does 4d6 poison damage, I'd rather there be an alarm and a trapdoor with a slide so that tripping the trap splits up the party and xchanges the difficulty of the battle that happens because of the alarm. Favorite traps: 1.) [B]Illusory Floors[/B] - The party is going down a long 10' wide hallway. There is a 30' pit with jagged spikes at the bottom, but the pit is only 10 feet wide. There is a 15 foot long plank resting at the bottom of the pit. However, the far side of the pit isn't actually solid, it is a permanent illusion hiding an 80 foot pit.If the PCs attempt to leap across the pit, the leaping PC will go through the illusion and down into the longer pit, separating that PC from the others. At the base of that pit is a shrieker as an alarm. 2.) [B]Wooden Pivot Hallway[/B] - The PCs walk along a wooden floor in a long hallway. There are elaborate sconces with teal torches in them along the walls. The passage in 60 feet long. Above the first half of that passage, and below the second half, is open space. And, that entire wooden passage is on a pivot. Once enough weight goes to the far side of the passage, the entire thing will pivot down, dumping the PCs into the open space beneath the passage. In that space are undead waiting to attack the PCs - a hard encounter that is complicated by the fall. [/QUOTE]
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