Traps preview

[MindWanderer]

You missed (Level 5 / 2 round down = 2) + (Trained = 5) + (Stat = 4) + (Skill Focus = 5) = +16 giving you a 75% chance of success on each roll. I'm too lazy to do the math for the 6 rolls, but I'm sure it makes a huge difference.

And this "Skill Focus" you speak of comes from where? At DDXP, I was told that, unlike SWSE, "Focused" in a skill does not exist.

 

[Bishmon]

You don't need a rogue, anyone can be trained in thievery.

Sure, if they spend the feat. We know the warlord and ranger don't have access to it, otherwise and it's a pretty good bet the cleric, wizard, fighter, and paladin don't. Maybe the warlock does, but for the other six classes, including one of the other strikers, they have to use a feat.

 

[Rechan]

I have a general question:

What does the whirling blade trap look like? Because the blades are spinning around the room. There's a control panel.

So how does the control panel control the thing?

Is it attached to a cable on the ceiling that moves it? Is it a robot that's controlled by the panel? What's throwing me is that it's moving freely and there's a control panel in the wall. That seems to imply, well, robotics. Right?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Could be a clockwork mechanism of sorts. The control panel on the wall would have various gears, cranks, etc. to cause the clockwork mechanisms behind the panel to move which connect to more mechanisms in the wall that spin the rotating blades the reside within the walls.

So the person activating the panel would crank up the clockworks, which starts the blades spinning and building momentum they exit the slots in the walls where they reside and spin along down the hallways' walls.

 

[Rechan]

Could be a clockwork mechanism of sorts. The control panel on the wall would have various gears, cranks, etc. to cause the clockwork mechanisms behind the panel to move which connect to more mechanisms in the wall that spin the rotating blades the reside within the walls.

So the person activating the panel would crank up the clockworks, which starts the blades spinning and building momentum they exit the slots in the walls where they reside and spin along down the hallways' walls.

So a way to stop it would be jamming something in the slot in the wall then? I guess it doesn't move erratically.

I was picturing something that was sort've like a free-moving top with blades whirling around, and there was something that made it move. Since I believe it's a Close Burst 1, then that's 3 x 3 squares, so a 3 square wide hallway could have those wall-swept blades easily.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Or along the floor, ceiling, etc. You could have them crisscrossing eachother, going straight, one spinning circles vertically by going along the wall, onto the ceiling, onto next wall, onto floor and repeat.

You could build some really harrowing hallways by doing this. Narratively dodging them be something out of a movie as they blades whirl past you and eachother and others pop up just as you pass, etc.

Now to have that many you would need to add more Whirling Blades, but that is certainly doable with the level of XP it is.

 

[jelmore]

Why not allow Arcana to let someone disable a magic trap on the basis of understanding the magic workings of the trap? Or using History to recall a story of a famous adventurer who disabled a similar mechanical trap?

As a DM, I'd either allow successful uses of those skills count as a one-time success for the skill challenge, or (for more 3.5-ish flavor) allow that a successful use grants a circumstance bonus to further Thievery checks to disable the trap.

I do like the idea that traps aren't just all-or-nothing anymore; I liked the of "encounter traps" that Secrets of Xen'Drik introduced, but never got the chance to play against one.

 

[Sojorn]

I just figure a wizard did it.

As in the bladed top can be magically slowed through the control panel.

Certainly having a entire room of cutting blades might be fun too.

 

[Rechan]

Or along the floor, ceiling, etc. You could have them crisscrossing eachother, going straight, one spinning circles vertically by going along the wall, onto the ceiling, onto next wall, onto floor and repeat.

You could build some really harrowing hallways by doing this. Narratively dodging them be something out of a movie as they blades whirl past you and eachother and others pop up just as you pass, etc.

Now to have that many you would need to add more Whirling Blades, but that is certainly doable with the level of XP it is.

The thought of a room with five of these things makes me shudder. Merely out of the hassle it would be for the players. 5 skill challenges, or a long time hacking those things apart.

I also get the idea of a spellcaster animating the whirly thing sort've like a voodoo doll - making a small replica, casting a spell, and thus allowing him to move it around. He'd need to see the room in question, which might be the "control panel" the PCs need to undo, or the conduit that he's using to move the thingie around.

 

[jelmore]

I just had a mental picture of what a 4E Grimtooth's Trap collection would look like...

*shudder*