Traps with CR 10-15 anyone?

[Jolly Giant]

I wan't to hit my lvl 11 to 13 party with something they're absolutely not expecting: A classic dungeon crawl through kobold mines!

The kobold chieftan is Thaumaturge (demon worshipping 'cleric' from Armies of the Abyss). The demonlord in question have 'domains' like engineering and trapbuilding, so I want these kobolds to have some really exceptional traps guarding their lair.

The demonlord has great plans for these kobold, he want's to build an army of powerful half-fiend servants, so he looks after them ok. The mines used to belong to a tribe of minotaurs, before the demon-supported kobolds moved in and took over.

Dangers of the dungeon so far include:

A sealed of section (that I'm sure they'll wanna break into and check out!) full of the minotaurs that used to live here, now turned into large-size weights.

2 half-fiend trolls with a handful of fighterlevels (not to mention acid and fire resistance 20!)

Halfiend kobold sorcerers, rogues and assassins, with some illusionary walls allowing the assassins to observe intruders for the neccassary 3 rounds.

Oil-filled corridors leading up to a room with a magic trap that summons a fire elemental.

A corridor with a foot of stagnant, filthy water on the floor, carefully brought in from the river Styx.

Any ideas for fitting traps would be very welcome! Some creative half-fiends would also be nice...


Edit: There's also an iron golem with a small fire elemental trapped inside it...

 

[Moe Ronalds]

Step in a magic circle, and a swarm of low-CR fiends are summoned?

Good ol' covered pit trap...... filled with lava... and a noble salamander.

If you have oriental adventures, there's this chemical in there that works as alchemist's fire but not until you touch it. If you could trick the PCs into somehow DRINKING some of this...

 

[Psionicist]

A minigun sort of thing perhaps? Or a sphere of annihilation.

 

[Kilmore]

Domains in Engineering and Trapbuilding? I'm interested in seeing those. Are they in a book somewhere, or did you cook them up yerself?

And mebbie from there, we can think up of some more deviousness.

 

[Lela]

A curving hall of large (aparently stone) statues, at the end of which is a 90 degree turn, 10 ft, and another 90 degree turn into 5 ft of dead end (put treasure there if you want it). By walking down the 10 ft corridor, they activated a preasure plate that activated the line of 30 or so golems (you pick the type, likely stone). The golems won't pass the right angle turns unless the party attacks from them.

Let them figure out how to get out. You'll be amazed at what they come up with.

 

[Jolly Giant]

Domains in Engineering and Trapbuilding? I'm interested in seeing those. Are they in a book somewhere, or did you cook them up yerself?

Book of Fiends II: Armies of the Abyss...

Let them figure out how to get out. You'll be amazed at what they come up with.

Either Dimension Door or Teleport, Lela...

 

[Lela]

Book of Fiends II: Armies of the Abyss...

Let them figure out how to get out. You'll be amazed at what they come up with.

Either Dimension Door or Teleport, Lela...

If you really want to block that, do. That is, if you feel like they use the vanishing act too much blanket the far half of the hallway in Demensional Anchor. Once they get past the halfway mark, they get out. Don't let Dispel Magic work (does it normally work on DA?).

Hmmmm, a room filled with Walls of Force in a maze pattern. Inside portions of the maze are verious monsters who can't get to you unless you get to them. Think Knights of the Silver Quill. Half-Fiend Minitors could hang out here to relax.

 

[s/LaSH]

Minotaurs are strong. STR 19, on average. Their architecture would emphasise that strength. I can imagine big doors that slide up into the ceiling, but are incredibly heavy (made of granite) and have no mechanism. If every door weighs 300lb (max amount to lift over head with STR 18), you can set up some interesting passages...

The kobolds, of course, have their own tunnel system, being small. And, while Escape Artist checks can get larger creatures through, a small tunnel will definitely remove a DEX bonus.

Two immediate ideas occur. First, kobold assassins in the tunnels, leveled to satisfaction.

Second, a standard party is likely to have only one character capable of lifting minotaur doors. Imagine the following: A series of rooms linked by doors. The first room contains a ventilation shaft, a chimney that keeps the air fresh. The rest of the rooms are separated by enormous heavy doors that slide into the ceiling, and are filled with smoke (see DMG, pg89, for how smoke can gradually destroy your PCs). If there's a passage to the ventilation shaft, the smoke will flow out of the room. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done, because The Fighter can only hold one open at once, and half-fiend kobolds that can breathe smoke are standing ready to use their passages to pull out any metal spikes keeping doors open.

The smoke itself is just normal smoke, and flows out though the kobold tunnels, which means there's about a foot of clear air at the bottom of each room... unless the rooms are rising after the first, so the smoke can't flow downhill.

I don't know if there's a way to defeat this 'trap' quickly. But it does seem logical for fiendish creatures to dwell in fiendish environs.

By contrast, another section of mine could contain a waterlock, a set of minotaur doors between one area and a section of flooded passages. The intervening chambers are filled with water, but not enough to flood an area, just enough to knock over the person opening the door. The flooded area won't drain unless the whole set of minotaur doors are opened. This could be key to putting out the fires of the kobolds and removing the smoke hazard... of course, it unfloods the flooded section and floods the unflooded section, completely changing the configuration of the dungeon.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Some evil thoughts

"Step in a magic circle, and a swarm of low-CR fiends are summoned?"

I think a better plan is as follows:

Step in a magic Circle, and get summoned by some lunatic mage to help battle a dragon. (Ala summon monster conjuring up the players).

I also agree with the bit about fiendish creatures living in fiendish environs. Make the environment as hostile as you can logically make it. Every spell the players have to burn on staying alive in the dungeon is a spell that is not used to kill enemies.

Now, about these traps....

You may want to set up a few "Fight" rooms where there are mechanical aids for the defenders. I remember causing alot of problems for my players simply by putting a pit trap in front of a large spiked log being used for cover by humanoids. A fighter charged in, fell in the pit, and had the spiked log rolled into the pit on top of him (pit was just a bit wider then the log).

Now, with the kobolds, you may want to have something just a bit meaner. Like a pit trap with a steel grate on the bottom, and a similar lid that slides in place. Those who get stuck inside the pit can experience the joy of being stuck by spears. Or having a fire started under them (Mmm, barbeque).

Another fun thing to do to your players is to have them fight their way up hill when the floor is under a non-magical Grease spell type effect, and at the bottom of the chute is a waist deep pool of acid.

You can also have fun with the good old zombie pool. Simply have a bunch of zombies under directions to grapple the PC's and hold them under water. Use Minotaur Zombies for that added Str and size bonus to the grapple checks.

You can make this even more fun by doing it in a cavern filled with non-magical mist, using slippery stone steps that are about one inch below the surface of the watter. Mist and fog is great. You suffer the blindness penalties because it is so thick, and non magical so a dispel cannot fix it.

All that you need now are some other monsters that do not use site that dwell in the cavern and knock the players off the stone platforms.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Sir Whiskers]

One of my favorite ideas is a room with one or more iron golems. Each wall also includes a tube which can launch fireballs every 1d4 rounds. When anything living enters the room, the golems attack and the fireballs begin to fly (healing the golems, of course). A smart party can find a way past this (minor globe of invulnerability is an obvious counter), but a dumb party will likely be wiped out.