Our group is currently playing through the "City of Cauldron" series of adventures from Dungeon, and one aspect of the design is really starting to get on my nerves...
It seems like a huge majority of the traps we encountered so far use attack rolls instead of reflex saves to see it they hit or not, usually on top something like a Search DC in the 27 range. (or higher)
What this results in is that our 5th level rogue with a perfectly respectable Search of +9 a) Fails to find any of them, unless he decides to take 20 in a specific area and b) Is then usually hit by the trap.
And I'm not talking about spear-shooters, swinging blades, etc. here - we ran into a trap that was a freakin' collapsing wall that had an attack roll of around +10 or +12 and ended up doing 20 points of damage.
Doesn't that seem a rather idiotic thing to do, and a complete nerf of the Rogue's abilities? What's the point of having a good Reflex save, Evasion and bonuses to saves vs. traps when 75% of them don't allow Reflex saves, and are just based on AC?
It seems like a huge majority of the traps we encountered so far use attack rolls instead of reflex saves to see it they hit or not, usually on top something like a Search DC in the 27 range. (or higher)
What this results in is that our 5th level rogue with a perfectly respectable Search of +9 a) Fails to find any of them, unless he decides to take 20 in a specific area and b) Is then usually hit by the trap.
And I'm not talking about spear-shooters, swinging blades, etc. here - we ran into a trap that was a freakin' collapsing wall that had an attack roll of around +10 or +12 and ended up doing 20 points of damage.
Doesn't that seem a rather idiotic thing to do, and a complete nerf of the Rogue's abilities? What's the point of having a good Reflex save, Evasion and bonuses to saves vs. traps when 75% of them don't allow Reflex saves, and are just based on AC?