Two Dozen Nasty DM Tricks

[Orius]

The door is locked. There is a miniature Sphere of Annihilation suspended in the keyhole.

A little tricky when the door itself is a mimic. I'm not even sure if a mimic can take the form of a lock.

But sphere of annihilation in the keyhole is very fun. Especially if the door doesn't even go anywhere at all and is a red herring.

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

Raynard, my brother, if I ever start to irritate you... just, please, let me know and I will crawl away quietly... you are much too devious to mess with.

This is a great list that will have my characters cursing the day you ever learned to write.

 

[haakon1]

The ones below make sense to me. Make sense = something I can see the bad guys thinking up and doing, so something I might someday use. The last one, I already have used.

1. Vials clearly marked as potions of healing filled instead with one of the following: poison, acid or "cause wounds" (this last one is particularly nasty, as a detect magic spell will not reveal the trick).

5. Two words: bridge mimic.

7. A chromatic dragon uses "alter self" to appear as a metallic dragon with the same breath type.

15. A trap wounds the target, causing bleeding, and then dumps to character into a shark infested pool, tank or pit.

16. In a room where spiked walls start to close in on the PCs there is a trapdoor in the ceiling. The trapdoor is fitted with a scythe blade trap, beheading those who pass through.

18. Kobolds, goblins or other small nasty humanoids build the access tunnel to their lair/hoard so bigger folk have to crawl through, then add a second tunnel directly above with spear holes.

21. Illusions create images of menacing, huge webs on the ceiling and obscure a pit trap in the floor.

22. Things to pit in pit traps: spikes, rust monsters, cockatrices, black pudding, water, diseased rats.