Traps using Swarms!

[Daniel D. Fox]

Read it and weap!


Stirge-trapped Chest Level 12 Lurker
Trap XP 700
An ironbound chest sits across the way, ripe for the plundering!
Trap: 1 square chest
Perception
✦ DC 23: The character notices a faint thumping and buzzing
coming from inside the chest.
Trigger
The trap attacks when a creature opens the chest. Attack Immediate Reaction Melee Target: The creature that triggered the trap. Attack: +15 vs. AC, burst 1
Hit: 2d6 + 4 damage, and ongoing 5 damage (save ends).
Miss: Target is pushed back 2 squares, away from the chest. Effect: The chest opens, revealing a swarm of stirges. They disappate into the air, flying away.
Countermeasures
✦ An adjacent character can bash the trap and slay the stirge swarm inside with a DC 23 Endurance check (standard action)
✦ An adjacent character can disable the trap with a DC 21 Thievery check (standard action). The chest is locked, and unable to be opened unless it's bashed open
Upgrade to Elite (700 XP)
Increase the Endurance and Thievery DCs by 2. The stirge swarm does not disappate and continues to attack as a normal monster encounter (PHB pg 248).



note - the miss 2 squares was used in order to prevent the free basic attack stirge swarms get in the case where the trap has been upgraded to Elite.

 

[kaomera]

Read it and weap!

I weep just trying to read this... Any reason you had to post it in flyspec?

Upon copying it out and increasing the font to a readable size I have to wonder how you would be using this? The Elite version seems like it might be more interesting (assuming that a lone Strige Swarm would be an appropriate encounter for the party), but a one-shot random damage trap doesn't seem like that much fun (at least the damage isn't that bad... actually it's kind of low for level 12, isn't it?)

 

[Skyscraper]

How long have the stirges been kept within the chest? Stirges are living beings that presumably need air and food to survive. Unless there is someone tending the swarm to keep it alive (without them flying away when the chest is opened), i don't see how that trap could be usable.

Also... this is presumably one heck of a chest. A stirge swarm is a medium creature composed of a number of small ones. We're not talking about a tabletop chest here.

Generally, i would see this mostly as an encounter, not a trap. Once the chest opens, the stirge swarm attacks, perhaps with surprise.

Sky

 

[DimitriX]

I like this basic idea, but I think I would use a bloodweb spider swarm in an outdoor setting. I'd have a few squares that have a swarm lying just under the leaves or piles of brush. When a character steps on one of the squares, the swarm is aggravated and attacks. If you want to use it as a trap, then you could just use the stats of the swarm and say they attack the character stepping on the square and them immediately disperse. If you want to make it an encounter, then they continue to attack as a swarm.

 

[deleteme123456]

As a one-shot trap, I'd price it XPwise as a minion trap (See Trapped in Drg366).

 

[underfoot007]

Read it and weap!


Stirge-trapped Chest Level 12 Lurker
Trap XP 700
An ironbound chest sits across the way, ripe for the plundering!
Trap: 1 square chest
Perception
✦ DC 23: The character notices a faint thumping and buzzing
coming from inside the chest.
Trigger
The trap attacks when a creature opens the chest. Attack Immediate Reaction Melee Target: The creature that triggered the trap. Attack: +15 vs. AC, burst 1
Hit: 2d6 + 4 damage, and ongoing 5 damage (save ends).
Miss: Target is pushed back 2 squares, away from the chest. Effect: The chest opens, revealing a swarm of stirges. They disappate into the air, flying away.
Countermeasures
✦ An adjacent character can bash the trap and slay the stirge swarm inside with a DC 23 Endurance check (standard action)
✦ An adjacent character can disable the trap with a DC 21 Thievery check (standard action). The chest is locked, and unable to be opened unless it's bashed open
Upgrade to Elite (700 XP)
Increase the Endurance and Thievery DCs by 2. The stirge swarm does not disappate and continues to attack as a normal monster encounter (PHB pg 248).



note - the miss 2 squares was used in order to prevent the free basic attack stirge swarms get in the case where the trap has been upgraded to Elite.

maybe this should be posted under "4e Fan Creations and House Rules " and why should I be weeping? Just wait until the swarm dies or canabalizes(sp) on each other.

 

[the Jester]

Read it and weap!

Not until you repost it at a legible font size I won't.

 

[Majushi]

My DM did a pit trap with two rat swarms at the bottom. Now THAT was scary.